I have a confession to make: I am a chronic over-projector. This fact has even been reported several times by The New York Times. In May 2008 I was quoted predicting that our revenue would be “an estimated $8.5 million this year.” We actually finished the year at $6.6 million. Even as recently as June 2010, I thought we’d hit sales of “$16 million in 2010.” We finished the year at $13.5 million. A writer for The New York Times Magazine, Rob Walker, had this to say about TerraCycle in May 2007: “The privately held start-up can get a little carried away with its own hype at times. In 2005, the company projected sales of $3 million; it ended up selling a little less than $500,000. In 2006, the company said it expected annual sales of $2.5 million; the actual figure turned out to be a bit under $1.6 million.” The writer went on to quote our head of public relations, Albe Zakes, as calling me “very optimistic” — but he also reported that “even the actual figures represent a solid growth record.”