2010 was a pretty good year for me.

Pretty good is a relative statement of course. It was much better than the past 2 years, but not as good some years in the 90′s.  How ever you measure how “good” a year is, it’s all in your head. Most years are really pretty much the same. We work, we play, we eat, sleep, bathe, brush our teeth, make friends, grocery shop, etc. (Heh, this is the perspective of a single 52 year old man, your results may very!)  What really changes is our perspective and how we see the events of the past year.

I know that I can’t much remember what was happening last January 1st or how I felt. I’m sure I had hope for a better year and prayed all my troubles would disappear. Life went on and the world turned despite what I wanted or hoped for. And actually, 2010 was better than I could have imagined at the time.

So what was the difference between last year and the year before?

The changes in me and the people I met and already knew. (I’m sure some guru said something like that, but I can’t remember who, or I’d give them credit.)

So enough rambling and on to the point. I want to acknowledge and thank all the people who made my life better last year. I’m sure I will leave someone out who belongs here, or run out of steam before I finish adding everyone who deserves to be here, so my apologies right now, I’m sure I’ll remember later, or you can give me a nudge to add you.

First I want to thank and acknowledge Lorrie Morgan-Ferrero (http://redhotcopy.com) who inspired this post with her article *50 Coolest Marketers of 2010* and from whom I learned to write copy, despite the fact that I got C’s in English. Thank you Lorrie, it was so awesome to meet you in person this year!

So, here’s my list of family, friends and mentors who changed my life for the better, in no particular order.

1. Mom and Dad for having faith in me despite some bad choices in life, and who celebrated 58 years of marriage last year. Whoa!
2. My sister Kathy and her husband Maurice who invite me over for every holiday, feed me, entertain me and don’t make me do the dishes.
3. My daughter Katie who amazes me with her accomplishments and talent. (You need to call me more often tho!)
4. Ali Brown who has changed my life with her living example of what any entrepreneur can accomplish. Thanks Ali for all opportunities you provided me last year and your fabulous live events. It was awesome to finally meet you in person at CBI! http://www.alibrown.com/
5. Fabienne Fredrickson for teaching me some important standards to live life and business by. It was awesome meeting you in person this year too! Thanks for the hug, woo hoo! http://www.clientattraction.com
6. Kelly O’Neil who invited me to her Marketing to Millionaires Retreat where I met the most amazing people (and learned soooo much!). Kelly, you are awesome!!   http://www.kellyoneil.com/
7. Frank Kern who is the most fun Internet Marketer I know. Thanks for the Golden Egg, Frank! http://frankkern.com
8. Ed Dale who is from Australia (Id Dial), say no more. Ed, you are an inspiration and have a great sense of humor. Oh, you’re brilliant too. http://www.eddale.co/
9. Kim Doyal, the only other internet marketer that I know in my hometown of Brentwood. Thank you for befriending me and for producing your amazing, inspirational movie “Women in Business 2.0″ http://womeninbusinessthemovie.com/
10. My best friend Miguel who has been my buddy since the 3rd grade (that’s 44 years). Mic, thanks for always being there for me, you saved my ass more times than I can count.
11. Maggie Anthony who keeps me accountable every week. Maggie, you are just so much fun! http://www.zenmaggie.com/
12. Melissa Kirk who keeps me in check, on my toes and doesn’t take any crap from me. 2011 is gonna rock for you! http://www.brentwoodmassage.com
13. Dani Burling who taught me so much about myself. Dani, you are a wonderful mentor and spiritual being. http://www.yoursacreddestiny.com/
14. Everyone in Dani’s Mentoring Group 3, thanks for sharing the journey with me!
15. Suzanne Lowe for giving me a place to park until I got my shizola together. http://www.essentialfamilychiro.com/
16. My new friends Kathleen Aston and Pam Desmarais who are great peeps and very fun to work with. http://kathleenastonintl.com/
17. Everyone at Coldwell Banker Amaral: Aaron, Hall, Cheryl, Cecily, Matt, Renee, Cathy, Michelle, and all the rest of y’all.
18. All the fabulous ladies (and a few good men) at WCR Delta Chapter. You all ROCK! http://wcrdelta.org/
19. All my wonderful clients who made the year so successful for me: Rubia Salon and Spa (Lisa and Danny Senn), Hamilton Wellness (Alice Dimaggio), Coldwell Banker Amaral, A. Meadows Property Management, Cecily Tippery, Your Sacred Destiny (Dani Burling), The Guthrie Group (Ken and Libby Guthrie), Malcuit and Associates (Monica Malcuit), Nancy Benvenuto, Robin Chatham and the Women’s Council of Realtors, Delta Chapter.
20. All 709 Facebook Friends! http://www.facebook.com/steve.osullivan
21. All the other new friends I’ve met this year, both on and off line: Rebecca Geiger, Rav Chaudhary, Bruce Jones, Steven Sonsino, Tommi Wolfe, Lisa Manyon, Tim Taylor, Mary Allen, Erin Ferree, Dawn Durso, Jacqueline Hadden, Nikki Lundberg, Matthew Blom, Eva Gregory, Jennifer Bourn, Adam Haroun, Terri Romine, Shawn Chou, Cory Fossum, Annette Naif, Simon Johnson and the list goes on…
22. All the other IMers that I’ve learned from: Blue Melnick, Bari Baumgardner, Beth Schneider, Pam Brossman,  Andy Jenkins, Leslie Rohde, Dan Thies, Guru Bob, Dan Raine, and the list goes on…

Thank you all, you touched me, taught me, and enriched my life.

The most important lessons I learned in 2010 were;

Remember to breathe, take time for yourself, help others, have faith and don’t quit.

Get out of the house or office and go meet people in person.

Appreciation and gratitude will get you farther than fear and anger.

Be happy now, it’s all you really have. Life can be awesome if you let it.

I feel very lucky. I have a great best friend. His name is Miguel, but he prefers being called Mic or Mickey. Mic and I have been friends since the third grade. That’s along time when you consider we are 50+ years old.

We’ve been through a lot together. School, rock concerts, weekends at the beach, girls, wives, kids, the loss of close friends, life! It’s funny because when we hang out, I remember stuff from High School like it was yesterday. In this new life of adulthood and responsibility, it’s easy to forget to have fun and remember what good there is.

It feels really good to be able to laugh and re-live the ‘glory days’ even though there wasn’t a lot of glory, we just didn’t know any better. We lived for fun, adventure, love, friends and good times. I understand we can’t do that all the time, but I see so many adults who have given up all that for the sake of being grown up and ‘mature’.

I’m one of those people. I forgot to have fun, even how to have fun. Luckily, that fire has been rekindled and I’m back living in the world of people and possibilities. It feels a lot better.

Anyway, back to Mic and what a great friend he is. (I’m not using his full name out of respect, he’s not too comfortable with being seen on the net.) I’ve experienced some difficulties recently. The aftermath of a bad relationship and the financial fall out from it. I was really desperate, I needed help moving, and called him to see if he could give me a hand. Mickey came through in a big way. Took a few days off from work to help me pack and move. I also needed some help on a project I was working on, he took some more time off work to help. And he continues to help out. I’ve seen him almost every weekend for the past two months. It’s like being kids again.

Mic is one lof those guys who does what ever it takes. He seems to have unlimited energy, works two jobs to send his kids to private school, volunteers at the school, and still makes time to help his friends and others that are having some of lifes challenges.

So I have to add Mic to my list of hero’s. A true friend. Boy, am I lucky!

I have to say I find it incredible and amazing that people are able to think in such abstract ways. While setting up this blog, I put in a lot of work, effort, research, time, frustration and some fun too. But what I mostly did was realize that there is so much more than meets the eye when it comes to blogs, code, and the geeks (I say that with total admiration) who create all this wonderful technology for us ‘regular people’.

Not to say that I am a complete maroon (lol) about technology, I seem to know more than most of the people I know, but the more I know the more I know I don’t know jack!

So thank you to everyone who thinks this stuff up, writes the code, creates the widget and plugins and generally make cool stuff to play with.