Feeling Bad About Myself

I've had a humbling experience lately, and it has left me feeling bad about myself. It has left me wondering, "what have I done with my life". Most of you know me simply as a high flying marketing executive who spends his time jetting around the world solving serious strategic problems for Fortune 500 companies. But I am more than that. I am also a huge failure, a disappointment, and a poster boy for what could have been. This was made painfully clear to me the other night when I saw an AT&T commercial.

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You might know the commercial. It highlights a company called TOMS shoes, a company that gives away a pair of shoes for every pair it sells. They also happen to use ATT. The president of TOMS shoes, who calls himself the Chief Shoegiver, does the voice over, explaining what a critical role ATT plays in helping him be such a generous big shot shoentrepreneur (my word - trademarked). This dudes name is Blake.

I've probably seen this commercial a dozen times since it begain airing during the Masters - but I guess I'd never watched too closely. Otherwise I would have realized I know Mr. Shoentrepreneur. The other night I saw it again. This time the voice caught my attention. So I looked up, and his face caught my attention. And then I realized I'll never amount to anything in life.

Mr. Shoentrepreneur, you will see - is an aquaintance of mine. We actually went to the same college, though were only acquaintences in passing there. Eventually we both ended up in Nashville, however, and shared some friends in the same circles. At the time, Mr. Shoentrpreneur had received a little bit of venture capital money for what I thought was a ludicrous business idea (he had a patent to put calculators on grocery carts). I was also filing a patent application of my own, so I think we had a brief conversation or two about finding VC funding, conducting prior art searches etc. More of a courtesy than anything. I don't know that I've seen a calculator on a grocery cart since then, so I had forgotten our encounter. Until that damn AT&T commercial.

So, here I am a few years later - feeling kinda small because this dude happened to score an AT&T commercial for his cute little shoe company. Wrong.

Turns out Mr. Shoentrepreneur has a blog. Read these snippits and barf.

1) Being a guest on Donny Deutsch's CNBC show "The Entrepreneurs," was an incredible honor

2) At an all day meeting with senior leadership from the Obama administration, along with a group of the top young business leaders in America, to present tangible solutions and ideas re: economic policies. What an unreal opportunity!

3) Its always exciting to spend time with President Clinton, but this past weekend at the second annual CGI U was extra special.

4) I just returned from one month in South America where I completed my 9th shoe drop and took some time off for much needed R and R.

5) I just posted an article on The Huffington Post about how to give more and spend less for the Holidays.

Man - what have I done this year? I went to a Superbowl party. I visited a friend in Charlotte. I made Fanesca for the first time. Uggg. Not cutting it.

So - bitterness and shallow professional pride aside - I'm glad to see Blake has founded something really pretty cool. Good for him - and for all the kids running around the world in his shoes.