Today we’d like to introduce you to Michael Price.
Michael, let’s start with your story. We’d love to hear how you got started and how the journey has been so far.
My business, Edit24-7, almost counts as my third career.
I originally planned to be a philosophy professor. I was very privileged in regard to my education. Both of my parents had PhDs, and one of my grandmothers had only a high school degree but prided herself on her perfect grammar and diction. While I was still in high school, I attended Stanford University and the University of New Mexico. I earned a bachelor’s degree (with special honors) and a master’s degree at the University of Chicago. After college, I spent a year at UCLA and a year at UC Berkeley before returning to the University of Chicago to pursue a PhD. My area was philosophy of mathematics. As both an undergrad and grad student, I studied with some of the world’s most eminent philosophers and mathematicians. Although I never finished my PhD thesis, a friend and I rewrote the first chapter as a journal article, and it became well known in my field.
People joke about the career value of a PhD in philosophy. It’s even worse if you don’t get the degree. After working in a coffee cafe and delivering pizza in Chicago (think SNOW) for a few years, I transitioned to a career in information technology (IT), which I loved, especially in the early years. I started as a computer operator and ended 15 years later as a manager and consultant leading multimillion-dollar projects in large corporations. My liberal education prepared me to be successful in almost any career — but it didn’t make the transitions easy.
In 2004, I began to think about starting my own business. I had a great opportunity to start an IT consulting firm with the backing of an established company. But this plan was interrupted when I became paralyzed from the waist down (a condition that I overcame). In 2010, I was laid off, and I decided to start over completely, outside of corporate IT. I soon realized that I wanted to start an online document editing service. I’ve always been everyone’s go-to editor, and I love to edit. As a student, I edited papers and dissertations; as a professional, I edited B-to-B proposals, whitepapers, and all sorts of other documentation.
And here I am! I now run the best online editing service in the country, Edit24-7. We have a wonderful team of editors who inspire me every day. Thanks to our editors, our clients love us, which means that we have the world’s best clients as well.
We’re always bombarded by how great it is to pursue your passion, etc. — but we’ve spoken with enough people to know that it’s not always easy. Overall, would you say things have been easy for you?
Let’s see: you know that I know that you know it’s never easy.
My biggest problems have been with my health. I’ve overcome (knock on wood) two major health problems: in 2004, I was paralyzed from the waist down, and in 2014, I was diagnosed with high grade, metastatic prostate cancer. High grade means that my cancer is in the fastest growing, most lethal 15% of cancers. I was diagnosed with cancer a month after launching Edit24-7.
In 2004, I had a 66% chance of never walking again and a 20% chance of being able to walk only with the aid of a walker. A year later, I was able to run 7 miles at a stretch. I assume it helped that I was a runner and gym rat for many years. At the end of my physical therapy, a therapist told me that I “took the place by storm.” I was absolutely determined to run again.
In 2014, my cancer diagnosis implied that I had an 85% chance of being dead in three years. That was three-and-a-half years ago. “Standard of care” dictated hormone therapy, which is not a cure and which caused me to gain 40 pounds. Partly thanks to my mom, and through an amazing sequence of events — the kind that makes people think that human events are guided from above — I ended up having surgery and may have been cured. Now, my cancer is undetectable, I’m off hormone therapy, I’m back to running 20 miles a week, and I’ve lost 27 pounds since August (this is November). If you notice that I look overweight in my pictures, please touch base with me in a few months — I WILL lose the rest of the weight that I gained and more!
So, as you know, we’re impressed with Edit24-7 — tell our readers more, for example what you’re most proud of as a company and what sets you apart from others.
I’m most proud of the fact that we have a small team of the finest editors in the world. We are unbelievably selective. It can take over nine months to find an editor that we’re willing to hire, though we get hundreds of applicants within hours of posting an ad. I pat myself on the back for having devised tests that weed out all but the most talented editors. Best of all, the editors who pass our tests are outstanding in ways that can’t be tested: they’re perceptive and thoughtful and have great character and integrity. Their exceptional character translates into exceptional quality.
As you know, Edit24-7 is an online document editing service. We have particular strengths in fiction, academic writing, memoirs, journalism, healthcare, and business. Our clients range from students and business people whose second language is English to famous authors and scholars. We’ve edited many published books and articles and had documents presented in such places as the United Nations.
Our theme is that we specialize in “light editing.” However, light editing does not mean little editing. We edit quite extensively if necessary. The point of light editing is that we don’t edit for content, and we strive to preserve our client’s voice. In other words, we don’t change our client’s message; we make it professional and engaging. We provide each client with a draft that shows all our changes in red and a clean final draft that incorporates the changes. Sometimes we create a sea of red, but the client at first thinks we didn’t change anything — this is not a bad outcome. More often, of course, the client is thrilled to see his or her thoughts presented in a way that is powerful and elegant, yet authentic. We pride ourselves on realizing our client’s vision for their work.
So, what’s next? Any big plans?
We don’t have any big plans. We focus on the pursuit of excellence. We help our clients in a personal and meaningful way, and their gratitude and appreciation means the world to us. We love to experience the thoughts and feelings of clients in every walk of life from around the country and the world. We love empowering our clients to reach for their dreams.
Pricing:
Because we feature light editing, our prices are as low as possible for high quality, professional editing. We also offer volume discounts: you can pre-order to take advantage and use the service as needed.
- Try the calculator on the “Prices & Turnaround” page of edit247.com. (It’s fun!)
- Check out our pre-order/volume discount options at the bottom of the page.
- Compare our prices to the competition!
- Our turnaround times are quick, too (but we may ask for extra time for book-length projects).
Contact Info:
- Address: Website: edit247.com
- Phone: 323-366-0247
- Email: [email protected]
Image Credit:
Lon Mehlman and Arlene Price
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