People talk about the “risk” of having your own business. I suggest to you that the real danger may lie in having a “day job”. The reason is that for most “real jobs” you have to drive.
Driving is dangerous.
This morning before daylight I left my comfy home in thee suburbs to drive into work. Depending on traffic, I have a 20 minute to 45 minute drive. Early in the morning, I was counting on a 20 minute drive. I was in good shape because my first meeting was in 3 hours at 9AM.
I always use my time in the car to work or learn. Most times I listen to books on tape or podcasts. Other times I use a great Sony voice recorder to record draft content for this blog and other projects.
As an aside — there are two lessons here for your internet business. You should outsource things like transcription and you should work during your idle times. There is no reason for me to fill my head with the junk on the morning radio DJ show or the negative junk on the news channel. I don’t need to know how many muggings there were last night. I can always do much better that that by working on my business.
Today was really productive — I recorded 3 blog posts on the way to work this morning. I was really pumped, and wondering what the transcriptionist would think when I hit her with 3 new files in her dropbox.
Then, I set my voice recorder on the center console (I drive a Tahoe). It’s a great vehicle, and the accelerator never sticks.
Suddenly, I had to brake hard. I love Texas, but drivers here are idiots. I am convinced this has something to do with the number of people that have moved to Texas from up north.
Naturally, the recorder slid of the center console right into the drink holder.
It landed in the middle of my big cup of coffee.
Then, trying frantically to rescue my $80 voice recorder and precious blog content, I spilled the entire cup of coffee on my khaki slacks. Sure they are that fancy (and really expensive) stain-resistant microfiber stuff. But when you dump 14 ounces of coffee on them, there is no escape.
The coffee was hot, and I was soaked down to my underpants.
No better way to start the day than with your manhood scorched, a giant coffee stain on your crotch, a ruined voice recorder, and lost data.
I started to get mad, but then I just said to myself:
“Self, this is an opportunity to have breakfast with the wife and kids,”
I turned the car around, drove through Chick Fil A, and surprised the family with breakfast. I even got in one game of Super Mario Brothers with the big guy before leaving so I could get to my 9AM meeting across town.
What a day!
