2004 was a rough old year for me. Nowhere near as much success with the business or with women than in 2003 (which was my golden year of years) - my attitude stank for the year. I had long dreamed of having my own place and a driving license - I got them both, but just found more reasons why I wasn't as good or advanced as I should be.
In 2003, I viewed the world with a reasonably-charming naivety, chancing my arm at anything I could get because I could. Then the demon of self-analysis kicked in, I made excuses for why I was happier and successful then, and let the conclusions stop me from doing the stuff I wanted to do.
The lesson 2004 taught me was to not make excuses for failing to do things because I wasn't 'where I wanted to be with my life'. Some genuinely bad things happened last year, like my brother and Jan moving away, but that's no excuse for not keeping on pushing forwards.
I am going to approach 2005 with the same naive optimism I had in 2003, and turn into the man I can be again. Unfortunately, the business is now £26,000 in debt because of last year, and I want to get that down to £5,000 by 2005-end and show a healthy profit for the year. Plus, the women of the region had better watch out.

If you can learn any lessons from last year, what would they be?