Building a Purple Cow · Embrace Your Inner Weirdo

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Building a Purple Cow

Picture this — I am standing tall with an axe in my hand building a purple cow.

I know that probably sounds like a strange image, but I think that by the time you’re done reading this very long essay, it will make sense.

First,

@Rasheed Hooda

, I want to say thank you for the comment that inspired this post. Please know that I truly appreciate your words of wisdom and your humble and gentle nudge. I know you care, and I believe you are trying to help. And based on what you know about me so far, you are giving me the kind of positive nudge that a good coach or friend would give.

And I really do appreciate that!

I also continue to agree with the concept that “done is better than perfect,” and I do not dismiss that at all. In fact, I think people who are building anything meaningful need to hear that from time to time because it is easy to get stuck polishing something that never gets released.

But I also think there is another side to this that may not be visible from the outside.

What may look like perfectionism is, in my case, what I call preparation with purpose.

For those who are reading this who don't know anything about my history, back in late 2020, while recovering from COVID, I had an idea for starting what I call a For-Profit Ministry. After months of research and planning what this could become, my wife Jodell and I incorporated in May of 2021. That plan had many moving parts that each needed to be researched.

Between May of 2021 and January of 2024, we struggled with life events but kept pushing forward, one day at a time. In January of 2024, I jumped into creating videos and thought I could do both: continue to build the systems I needed and create content at the same time.

However, by December of 2024, I realized I had taken on too much and had to stop dividing my focus. I knew that if I kept trying to move forward with a divided focus, I was never going to reach the ultimate goal of the ministry. I also knew that my wife and I had agreed that we were not going to build another business that depended on employees the way some of our past companies did.

We also knew that we were in this for the long term. Our intent was that this would be the last business I would ever want to build and that we were building it to become something sustainable enough to carry us into retirement, while also allowing us to serve people in a meaningful way.

That is why so much of my focus has been on systems. Some will eventually be given away for free on GitHub, and others will remain built for our own in-house use.

One thing to know about me is that I hate programming! But I am also proficient enough to get the job done when I stay focused and push forward. With limited time and a set of bare minimum standards, what a team of programmers could do in a few weeks has taken me over a year with the aid of Claude Code and Codex.

From the outside, I can see how what I am doing and talking about can seem like it is taking me forever to finish. But I see it as creating the tools that I need and then learning the standards necessary to use them wisely.

That reminds me of an old story about two men chopping wood. One man works nonstop, while the other takes breaks. Yet at the end of the day, the man who took breaks has chopped more wood. When asked how that is possible, he explains that during those breaks, he was sharpening his axe. But the key point of this story is that he had to learn how to do the sharpening. And for me, I am having to learn how to carve the handle, forge the steel, shape the steel, etc.

What I am doing is not just trying to perfect my swing. Instead, I am trying to make sure the tools are sharp enough, the systems are strong enough, and the structure is built well enough to do the job for the long term.

I know myself well enough to know that I do not focus well on more than one major thing at a time. I also know that because I am doing this without employees and without spending a fortune, I have to learn the parts well enough to build what needs to be built.

That takes time.

But it is not wasted time.

I think about it like building an airplane. Some people are building paper airplanes, others are building and flying model airplanes. Others are building a small Cessna with dreams of one day having something that can carry people like a 747.

For me, I am not trying to build a paper airplane. At the same time, I also know I do not have the finances, staff, or infrastructure to build a 747. So the goal is to build something that can start smaller, but has the right systems in place so it can scale when the time comes.

Recently, our mutual friend

@Mike Bayer

did a post that talked about Seth Godin’s book "Purple Cow." One of the ideas behind that book, as I understand it, is that a purple cow stands out because it is not like all the other cows.

That matters to me because the concept of a for-profit ministry is different.

It is intentionally different.

There are not many examples of it that I know of that are publicly talked about much. So I feel a responsibility to do this in a way that leaves a positive taste in people’s mouths. I want people to see that not all corporations are bad. I want them to see that a business can be built in a way that intentionally puts people over profits.

Now please don't misunderstand me here. I am not saying that profits do not matter. I am saying that for Jodell and me, profits are not the highest priority. Our family is. We choose to put people over profits. To focus on faith, family, and then finances...in that order.

And because of that, I am okay with people questioning why it is taking me so long to do what I am doing, or thinking I am being too careful or too much of a perfectionist. I get it, and if it were me, I would have the same questions as well. But I also know there is a much bigger picture, behind the scenes, that is not always easy to see from the outside.

There is a phrase that comes to mind: “To thine own self be true.”

I have mixed feelings about that phrase, but I do think there is some truth in it.

I believe we should be willing to listen to constructive feedback. I believe we should let people speak into our lives. I believe we should be humble enough to hear things that may challenge us.

But at the end of the day, after listening to feedback, we still have to live with ourselves. We still have to know our own limitations, our own values, our own responsibilities, and our own standards.

For me, one of those standards is that my family comes first.

My family knows that when they need me, I will do what I can to help. They also know I am not a pushover. I am blunt. I work my tail off. And yes, I often bite off more than I can chew. LOL.

But I also have a long history of proving that I can get the job done.

One example is our home.

I built our home because I knew I could, even though I had never done it before. It was a long process, with a lot of blood, sweat, and tears. Did I do 100% of it myself? No. I knew my own limitations and hired help when I needed to. Roofing, for example, was not exactly my cup of tea. Being 40 feet in the air at the peak of a building is something I would rather do only if I know I am strapped in, tied off, and can trust my tools and the people around me.

But the point is that I did the work. I learned what needed to be learned. I brought in help where it made sense. And in the end, the house got built.

Another example is the scholarship system I built for our daughters.

After I got sick with COVID and eventually had to declare bankruptcy, I was heartbroken. I knew my daughters wanted to go to college, and I thought I had no way to help them. But then I remembered that before COVID, in the fall of 2019, I had an idea about a scholarship system to help parents apply for scholarships. So, after I got sick and was still recovering, I decided to research that idea and build a version that we used with our daughters.

They each applied for over 50 scholarships. Together, they received a combined total of over $350,000 in scholarships. I say that to show that I know how to build systems that work. And eventually, I want to share that scholarship system freely with others as well.

You see, this ministry is not just theory to me. It comes from years of lived experience, struggles, our faith, and a desire to help other parents and families avoid some of the pain we walked through.

I know I will not be able to help everyone. But I think about a story I heard about a girl walking on the beach, throwing starfish back into the water one at a time. Someone tells her she cannot possibly make a difference because there are too many. But she picks up another starfish, throws it back, and says that it made a difference to that one.

That is the heart of what I am building. And I know myself and what my wife and I can handle, so I push to build the systems and the structure to be sustainable for the years to come.

Is the pace slow? UGGHH...yes...but intentionally so. I know where I am going, and I know the path to get there. Eventually, it will scale to reach more people while staying true to myself and keeping the focus on one person, one parent, one family, one life at a time.

So I close where I began. Standing tall with an axe in my hand that I take the time to sharpen as I build something intentionally different.

And when the time comes for it to be seen more publicly, my hope is that what has been built will not just be visible.

I hope it will be remarkable...like a purple cow!

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Building a Purple Cow