You need to be smart with the resources you have.

The Corporate Years

Fast-forward through university to Deloitte Consulting, where I made good money but discovered something important – I was still an entrepreneur at heart. Even in the corporate world, I was creating things:

• Northwest Practice Resource Portal (because information was impossible to find)
• Managerhood program (helping new managers transition)
• ERP reporting repositories (adding value for executives)

Translation: I couldn’t stop being entrepreneurial, even when someone else was paying me.

The Teaching Calling

In 2005, a university hired me specifically to develop an entrepreneurial program. After 15 years of trying to change a system that moves at glacial speed, I realized something:

Traditional education is failing entrepreneurs.

Universities are too slow. Textbooks cost too much. Most business courses are written by people who’ve never actually started a business.

I have. Multiple times. Including the failures.

The Wake-Up Call

A few years ago, I was diagnosed with blood cancer. Still have it. Probably going to kill me eventually.

When you’re facing your mortality, you get crystal clear about what matters. I could have retired, but here’s what happened: students kept thanking me for lectures, asking great questions, succeeding with real ventures.

Damn it, students – I was thinking of retiring, but you kept me here.

I realized I was providing something students actually valued. That gives my life meaning.

The Reality Check

I make about a quarter of what I used to earn in consulting. But I get far more satisfaction because I have purpose. I’m helping people avoid the expensive mistakes I already made.

That’s what drives entrepreneurs – not wealth, but creating something meaningful.

Why Prometheus Café Exists

Traditional education can’t keep up. I lost content three times due to university platform changes. After 20 years of watching good ideas die in committee meetings, I decided to build something that actually serves students.

Prometheus Café is what happens when someone who’s actually started businesses teaches entrepreneurship.

My Approach

I don’t sell dreams. I give reality checks.

I’ve started many businesses including:

• Software companies
• Web hosting and marketing
• Flight school and charter service
• Retail store
• Even a winery

About half failed. Those failures taught me more than the successes.

I teach what actually works, not what sounds good in textbooks.