This morning I ran like Forrest Gump. Not because I wanted to but because I had my running partner, and resident “bad dog” Marshall, with me. Every morning Marshall is up promptly at 7am sitting by my bed, looking at me and wagging his tail. Does he want to go out to the “little doggies room”? Of course! But then he’s promptly back inside and under my feet until we go for our morning walk or run (depending on how tired I am that morning).
It never fails, every day Marshall wakes up with a huge “doggie smile” on his face ready for his walk. And every morning we walk the same path around our neighborhood. Yet, his motivation to go on our walks never diminishes. What’s his incentive? That fact that we might encounter a random dog on our walk? Or maybe he’s looking for that one squirrel that isn’t so quick to run away? I may never know the answer to that question, but it got me thinking; as a business owners, what motivates us to get up every morning?
There are a million reasons why I love owning my own business (that could be a blog entry within itself), but working from home and setting my own schedule can be a dangerous perk. I could sleep until noon, run some errands, have lunch with friends, then take the rest of the night off… sounds fantastic right? Unfortunately, that won’t pay the bills. So what’s my motivation?
I think what it boils down to is the challenge of thriving and surviving doing something I truly love. The day I turned in my notice at my “corporate” job in 2005, my boss looked at me and said “You know, freelancing is hard, are you sure quitting is a good decision? Can you really make this work?” That statement hit me like a ton of bricks. Is he doubting me? Why can’t I make this work? So there lies my motivation – being successful when others questioned my ability. Those words sit in the back of my head every morning when I rise, and when I feel down and defeated, they pull me back to reality. It’s been four years since I started my business and each year has been better than the previous. It’s the best decision I ever made and I thank my former boss for giving me the motivation to become a successful entrepreneur.
What’s your motivation? Do you own your own business? What made you take the leap? Do you want to own your own business one day? What’s your motivation to make it happen? We’d love to hear from you! Please share your thoughts below and if there’s anything biz-e-chicks can do to help you get, or stay, motivated, please let us know!
Helloooooooo….
To quote Pink Floyd: “Hello, is there anybody in there? Just nod if you can hear me. Is there anyone home?”
Sound like what you’ve been thinking about our biz-e-blog? How long has it been since we’ve written? Well as our group accurately states – we’ve been biz-e! Not only have we launched the new biz-e-chicks interactive area of our website, but our co-founder Liz has welcomed a new rooster into the hen house (i.e. the very cute photo at the beginning of the article)! As you can see we’ve had hands full the last few months – but we’re back!
So I guess instead of Pink Floyd being our theme song of the moment, maybe we should quote the famous Eminem by saying, “Guess who’s back, back again – Shady’s back, tell a friend”. Ha! So here we go….
I went to happy hour with a friend of mine tonight who posed a question that got my “wheels” turning. She asked me “Do you journal?” I thought about it for a second and answered, “Well, I did.”
Why did I stop? It’s something that always made me happy – taking a few minutes to get some things off my chest: happenings from the day, a play-by-play of a good moment from the day, or discuss why something unpleasant might have gone on. More importantly, it gave me an opportunity to write down the things in life that I am grateful about.
So why has it been MONTHS that I’ve journaled? Call it laziness, being busy, not having anything to write about. I don’t know really. But hearing that question made me realize that it’s time to start back.
Thinking about starting to blog again made my mind go crazy. What will I write about? What can I say that will get people motivated and inspired? What will start conversations?
While I mull over the topics I’m going to write about in the upcoming articles, I wanted to just say hello! I hope everyone has been doing well and if we haven’t seen you at any of the recent biz-e-chicks meetings, we hope to see you soon! In the meantime, if you have any topics you’d like to open for discussion – bring it on! We’d love to hear from you!
Until we write again – peace out peeps!