"Dad, I hate to tell you this - and don't get mad at me - but I think Sunny made a real bad mess upstairs," Connie says with a worried-but-diligent look. Sunny's our border collie/Australian shepherd puppy. She eats everything that's not hers. Connie backs away as I get up from my computer. She follows just behind as I head up the stairs. She wants to see and hear every detail when DAD FINDS THE BIG MESS. As I near the top of the stairs, the phone rings. Yes, it's probably work-related. But, heck, I want to see the big mess - I ignore the phone.
When you launch a business you get to face your fears. If it's your first company, if it's your 14th business, you will have to cope with fear. Even if you don't face your fears, they'll sneak in while you're sleeping, while you're driving down the street. Sometimes they come in simple and familiar forms - that little thought that screams in the back of the mind: "What on earth made me believe I could DO THIS!" Other times the fear slowly seeps in while you're not paying attention, a peculiar feeling of dread that begins about an hour before you wake. It's not quite a nightmare, just a dull-gray sense of dread.
The phone rings mid-day and it's an old friend - a stay-at-home mom who needs some extra income. I get the big question: What kind of work can I do from home? "Oh, I don't know," I stupidly quip, "How about the dishes?"
How do you spend your business day? Do you plow through a dreary to-do list? Do you struggle through regular tasks that you've been doing day in and day out? What do you listen to while you're working? Silence? Soft rock? The Rolling Stones? Audioslave? May I suggest Tom Waits and Miles Davis during the quiet hours of 3:00 a.m.?
My 10-year-old daughter dragged me onto our state's largest roller coaster, the Rattler at Cliff's Amusement Park this summer. She insisted on riding it, and dad wanted to support his daughter's courage. When they strapped us in, Mari turned and said, "Dad, I'm scared."
Don't believe all the guidelines and hype about running a business from home. Some of the rules, set out in books and columns such as this one, are sound. Others are hype, horse-hockey or oft-repeated nonsense. Here's a short list of what's true and what's false among the work-at-home myths.
When I launched my first business I had a wildly mistaken view of what business actually is. First off, I thought an enterprise was about money. I thought business was about the accumulation, budgeting and the careful spending of dollars. Certainly that's part of business. But it's not the important part. I also mistakenly thought business was about creating a high-quality product or service that was compelling and clearly needed. Nope, not even close.
iEntry 10th Anniversary
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