My name is Shane and I am an entrepreneur of a different kind. This is a short version of me.

A Short Background

I raised myself on the streets of a small town, slept in a tent in the front yard to avoid violence in the home, and managed to look at it all with complete optimism; I had a gift that no one to this day can explain.

I also worked for over ten years in an architecture and design firm as a network engineer and during the period of time, three significant things happened:

  1. I grew to love design and the authentic self
  2. I grew to hate the typical workplace (and I really mean that)
  3. I got several undergraduate degrees, a graduate degree and coaching certs

I would spend countless hours with the designers learning and soaking in information about form, emotion, and our connection to well crafted works.

One day, I woke up to the fact that every single time I wasted another day going to a building without being able to be myself, say the word ‘shit’ when I wanted, give someone a huge bear hug, and come to work when I damn well felt like it  – well, I was being fake and it was sucking my one chance at life right out of me.

The straw that finally broke that camel’s back was this wrenching gut feeling I needed to be the real me and get out of this toxic crap people call a “career”.

And thus began my journey. While working, I spent all my time starting little side businesses. I was obsessed with it. I started them but would quickly move on to the next thing. I discovered that in a sense I was multi-passionate.

Leaping Off The Edge

About a year and a half ago, I started an online blog all about the iPad that made me enough money to supplement my income. So, I put in my notice and said fu** it.  And that’s not an exaggeration.

I have posted the more lengthy version of this story right here on Steve’s blog.  But on my very last day of my job, my site took a huge Google hit and I pretty much lost it all.  But I’m a risk taker – and there was no way I was going back to the workplace. Not a chance in hell. Not even if it meant I lost everything in this world.

I sold my site (what was left of it) and embarked on a new journey.  It’s been very difficult because of all the influences you can suck yourself into online.  I started a blog, did some work on it and had that feeling I was not really headed down the right path.

And I was right (fyi, always follow your gut).

So for the past two months I have been being me. I went back to my love of design and the authentic self. I started doing my special form of meditation again. I researched and studied day and night.  I explored some of the hardest questions I could ask myself. I stayed the fu** off Twitter, Google+, and Facebook. I unsubscribed from blogs. I wrote a lot. And I mean a lot.

The Right Path

What I did was exactly the thing I needed most. I needed to figure out my own path and stop listening to the online noise. I needed to put myself into an extremely uncomfortable spot to find some answers.

And what was born out of that, is something I think the world will really love. I decided a few things:

  1. I will only produce what I feel people need, not what others are doing or saying
  2. I will use my real voice in my writing (which is crass, funny, witty, and provocative)
  3. I will bend and break rules at will

I’m interested in emotional design, raw reality, and igniting human potential.  I believe that entrepreneurs who learn how to be authentic and implement smart design principles in their businesses are what will create the lives they have always wanted.

And it will create businesses that turn people into raving fans for life.

In my mind, there is only one way to have true success as an entrepreneur. It’s human to human connection; and that comes from being your authentic self + a business that operates under a completely different paradigm. I help people implement both.

I’m excited to be a part of what Steve is doing here with the year long challenge. I think that it will allow some real growth potential not just for those involved but for the readers as well.

 

Shane Ketterman writes from experience, creates leading edge solutions for entrepreneurs based on design and authenticity, drinks way too much damn coffee, and lives in beautiful Bend, Oregon.

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