One of the things that made this application a winner for my wife and I was the fact that if it was a dismal failure, I would have at least built something that *I* wanted.  Maybe we won’t get a single customer.  Hey it’s possible.  Our little bit of research shows otherwise, but you never know.  To us, as long as we didn’t spend a fortune building the system, it would still be a success because *I* would still use it.

So lately I find myself almost salivating like a dog, eager to use my own application.  The other day a coin-collecting friend asked me if I had a particular quarter that he was looking for (to complete a portion of his collection).   I thought I might but wasn’t sure.  If I had this application completed, I could have told him quickly “yes, I have it, it’s current book value is about $7.50, and I am looking for the following coins for my collection…do you have any of these that you would like to trade with me?”  But alas, the application is still in development, so I couldn’t do that.  I want to use my app, damnit!

This topic reminds me of when I was young.  Lately while reading the different micro-ISV and related forums, I heard “Eat your own dog food” thrown around regularly.  This was a phrase my dad used when I was a young whipper-snapper.  He would use it to explain why us kids had some very strange toys (that he had invented and created himself).  He used our responses and experiences with his inventions to determine if the general public would like his ideas.  He would say “we have to eat our own dog food to work out the kinks”.  Funny thing was, I don’t ever remember him eating the dog food at all.  It always seemed to be my brother and I falling off 8 foot tall home-made stilts or being dragged behind a snowmobile at 40 MPH on something that almost resembled a sled.  That was some bad tasting dog food!

Now that I think of it…hey Dad, it may have been a painful lesson at times, but thanks for turning me into an entrepreneur!