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48 Days to the Work You Love: Chapter 10 Questions

Chapter 10: Do You Have What It Takes?
1. What do you think of the word entrepreneur? "If you are a typical candidate for self-employment, you may never have been clear on what you wanted to do when you grew up." (p. 150) I don't know what I want to be when I grow up. And the word entrepreneur strikes a chord of fear deep in my heart. What if I failed? (The only time I visited San Francisco I had a sudden vision of myself as a bicycle courier there. I'd live in a tiny gabled upstairs apartment and I'd ride like a maniac over those hilly streets day in and day out, delivering documents, tissue samples, money orders. At night I would collapse on a mattress on the floor and spend the evening reading by candlelight until I drifted into oblivion. I think I interpret entrepreneur through the lens of solitude.)

2. Do you have what it takes to be on your own? Yes. But I'm mortally afraid of trusting myself with conjuring my own paycheck.

3. Are you an “accidental” entrepreneur? Am I? I may have been. The summer I didn't have employment at the preschool I cared for children in my own home and earned more money than I would have had I worked at the preschool, plus I got to do household chores while the children played, leaving my off hours completely free for myself. When craft show season rolls around I make a tidy little profit selling my bottle cap creations. I could earn extra income that way but couldn't support myself and Jack.

4. What service or product could you promote? Childcare. Upcycled bottle caps.

5. What invention could you develop? Ha. That's a good one. Not an inventive bone in my body. Ask Brock.

6. What are 3 or 4 ideas you have had over the years that you have on the back burner or have since seen someone else develop? None. I don't have ideas like that. I subscribe to the adage uttered by my jaded old boss at Omegatype: "There is nothing new under the sun."

7. Describe 3 or 4 times in your own work experience when you have been paid on results or on completion of the job rather than just for putting in your time. None. Not a one. Unless you count the bottle cap stuff.

8. What would prevent you from doing something on your own? My own misgivings. Big hurdle there.

9. Is it exciting or frightening to think about being your own boss? Frightening! (but maybe a teensy bit exciting too)

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