Why are we here?

Hello all...I started this blog to express ideas about business and creativity that I felt I couldn't do in the context of my current business.

My Egore. The name came from an important childhood event--the creation of Egore--a cardboard robot I built in 1965 out of old supermarket boxes, random toy parts, and my imagination. Egore himself wasn't much to look at. He basically just sat there. But I was able to create a living character out of him, and wrote about his adventures in our elementary school paper (including illustrations). It was great! It was 1965 and I was 11 years old.

Egore went back in time in one episode; he was an "007" spy in another...he always "got the girl," if you will. Kids liked to read about Egore, and I enjoyed giving them what they wanted. As Egore became more popular, his franchise grew and we needed to construct new venues to accomodate his popularity (Disneyesque, you say?) Egore actually got to participate in a school Halloween pageant! We dressed him like the Great Pumpkin. He was a media sensation.

Then we (my friend, David, and I) got the idea to hold "Egore Fairs" where kids could come and spend money to see Egore, take a picture with him, yadayada.... We set up an Egore gift shoppe, sold treats (Egore cookies) from mobile carts (red wagons, as this all took place in David's backyard). We employed our siblings to run the various concessions. It was grand! I think we made anywhere from $5-$6 per fair, and paid our sibilings about fifty cents each.

As with Huck Finn, Egore came to an inauspicious end. David's mother threw him out one miserable February afternoon when she'd simply had enough of this sagging, cardboard toy lying around the house.

Years later, I was talking about Egore to a college friend (under the right circumstances, conversations could go that way back in the 70s). She said, "Do you think the name Egore really represented EGO?" Believe or not, I hadn't.

Everything I've done since--with the exception of following the dictates of sundry employers--has sprung from the place that made Egore.

I now run a business-to-business communications company that I started in 2000, and I enjoy it enormously. I've started this blog to explore these two variables--creativity and small business--and would appreciate sharing ideas with others who can identify with what I'm saying here.

Gimme a call and tell me about Your Egore....Frank G.