I was exhausted. Flat-out, dead-tired gassed. I felt like I had just single-handedly defeated both Julius Ceasar and Alexander the Great.

It was that kind of exhausted.

I'm referring to Tuesday, June 15, a day that may well turn out to be the most significant day in the history of Pittsburgh Business Radio.

Sounds mighty pretentious, does it not? But who knows? Maybe a decade from now, I'll look back on this date as the day that our start-up enterprise finally took flight.

About three months ago, we asked Darryl Grandy to resign his job as show producer of The American Entrepreneur radio show and instead devote 100% of his time and effort to seeking out and securing on-air interviews with the top entrepreneurs, CEOs, founders, and executives who reside on this planet. We gave Darryl zero instructions other than, "go get' em."

This move was not without risk. Darryl had expertly produced my radio show for the past half-dozen years. He was very good at doing this, and we in turn were replacing him with an untested and unproven rookie, one Rory Webb.

I fretted. Was I making my organization weak at two positions? I also thought to myself, "What if Darryl can't pull this off? I have already replaced him in his old job."

But all indications were that he could do the job and that he could do it well. Happily, this has turned out to be the case.

Here are some of Darryl's recent guests: Nolan Bushnell (Founder of Atari and Chuck-E-Cheese Pizza-time Theater); Steve Wozniak (Co-Founder, Apple); Dean Biersch (Gordon Biersch); Robert Kiyosaki (author of Rich Dad, Poor Dad); and Tony Hsieh (Founder of Zappos and author of one of the greatest books I have ever read).

His upcoming guests are just as exciting. I'll soon be interviewing: Craig Newmark (Founder of Craig's List); Willie Davis (NFL Hall of Famer turned business executive); Anya Kamanetz (Fast Company); Robert Rosenberg (Founder of Dunkin' Donuts); and Wally Amos (Famous Amos Cookies).

Concurrent with our up-market guests have come our new sponsorships. I really wish I was at liberty to disclose these names, but we now have "soft" as well as "hard" commitments from some of the top corporations in the region, and these names will be trickling out to you over the summer. Add to this our new-found entrepreneurial sponsors and (could it be!?) profitability might be just over the next hill.

And so as I contemplated leaving the studio on Tuesday afternoon (actually, as my last guest went to his car, I put my feet up for just a second and promptly fell into a dead sleep), I had two thoughts. My first thought was, "How do guys do this every day?" (and by "this," I refer to having 100% of your every fiber alerted and on edge, hoping and praying not to misspeak, misthink, and/or in some other way, make an absolute ass of yourself); and, thought number two, "It's just another day."

Because we cannot and will not succeed until each and every one of us in this organization gets to the point where we can handle each day calmly, coolly, and professionally.

As I was riding to my office at Duquesne the same morning that I interviewed Wozniak and Bushnell, I took a phone call from a friend I've not heard from in years. He was calling to give me the bad news that he had just lost his job.

I sympathized with him and wished him the best. Then he asked me how I dealt with life's ups and downs. "Larry", I said, "each morning when I get out of bed, I say to myself, 'Ron, this day three very good things and three very bad things are going to happen. Accept this, for this is just the way things are.'"

It wasn't five seconds after I said those words to him when I hit a pothole and blew out what I thought was my back-right tire. I completely ruined a beautiful white shirt while changing that same back-right tire, only to learn that the tire that was actually blown out was on the "front-right" of my car. (Don't even ask.)

(So I wonder ... does that count as one, or two bad things?)

Every day we are faced with struggles and opportunities. Life is how we handle those struggles and opportunities. My son is right now in a day-camp that he seems to really dislike. I had a long talk with him about "taking full advantage" of the opportunities before him. Maybe he will, and maybe he won't. It is all, truly, in his hands.

During that same interview on Tuesday, Nolan Bushnell said to me, "Ron, every person listening to this radio show right now is living within one mile of a business that can be bought for absolutely nothing. But, it's up to that individual to find that business, acquire it, and then make it succeed."

You know, I never before really thought of that. But the more I think about it, the more I realize that Nolan is right. The sad reality is that 99.9% of us won't go looking for that company, and wouldn't "buy" it, even if offered. But someone will. And that someone will not only do very well financially as a result, but also probably have the time of his or her life while turning it around.

One of my favorite songs is by the Traveling Wilburys. You know, Bob Dylan, Tom Petty, Roy Orbison, and George Harrison (I think I left one guy out, but it's still one hell of a band). The simplistic line in the song that I'm thinking about goes, "Every day is just one day."

Pretty simple line - eh? But again, it's life. Life comes at you one day at a time, every day. You have your opportunities, and, you have your setbacks.

Maybe the best thing you can do is try to play your setbacks to a draw, while taking advantage of at least just one of those golden opportunities?

Sounds to me like a philosophy worth living.

Every day is just one day. But don't waste it.