Skip to main content

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)

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

wedding gift

On Saturday Dave's cousin Traci is getting married. At the last minute we decided to fly to Ames for the wedding and to see everyone who will be in attendance there. At the last minute, I decided to crochet a throw as a wedding gift. I just finished. The colors in this first picture are true; the other two pictures were taken with flash so the colors look brighter than they really are. I started last Monday night with 7 skeins of Lion Brand Chenille Thick and Quick in Periwinkle. It's 72 single crochet in the back loop only for as many rows as you want. Then single crochet around in a contrasting color. I chose Wine. I bought the yarn at Big Lots for half the retail price. It's long and skinny but very texturally appealing. Though all skeins were of the same dye lot, you can see that the top and bottom skein are definitely different, not so much in color as in texture. It's pure dumb luck that they ended up at the top and bottom. It's not perfect, but neither is mar...

in which I get knocked down

Sickness saps my energy, both physical and mental. It's surprising, really, how seldom I get sick, since I work in a petri dish. When I do get sick it lays me low and happenings that I might normally take in stride just completely knock me down. Last week I was diagnosed with an embarrassing viral infection, the symptoms of which on their own couldn't possibly have dragged me this deep down: sores in my mouth and throat that blistered and peeled and made every mouthful feel and taste like shredded pennies; an itchy rash around my mouth and nose and on my chest. Compounding that: knees that felt packed in hot wax, the backs of my eyeballs aflame. No fever, so no H1N1. Negative strep. Malaise. But I soldiered (martyred?) through most of the week at work, because I could, and some of the other teachers had to stay at home with their diverticulitis and kidney stones. On Thursday night my laptop died. On Friday night I felt I could deal with my weekend obligations. DH went out of t...

memory