About

I tried to work in corporate jobs.  Honest, I tried.  Then I tried working for start-ups.  That didn’t work either.  I never held down a job for longer than 2 years — and the average was more like 8 months.  But I learned a lot and was motivated to go back to school, thinking that more education would make me fit in better.  You can probably guess how well that worked out.

The upside is that I went to lots of schools and learned lots of skills, and although I never became an expert in a single thing, I developed a broad skill base and a pretty sharp BS-detector.  I could tell when somebody knew their stuff, and when they were tap-dancing.  Between my odd skill set and keen people skills (ahem) I made a decent project manager.  Then the bottom fell out of the IT market and I had nothin’.

Long story short, after the big layoff I thought it was about time that I figured out what I really wanted to be (if I ever grew up), and I decided to try teaching English as a Foreign Language.  I saved up from my severance, let my husband hold down the fort,  and I took off for Barcelona for 4 weeks alone, to study — my first time traveling and living on my own  I fell head-over-heels in love with Spain, and a lifestyle that always puts the “life” part first.  And knew that whatever work I did from that point on, it had to be something that I enjoyed, and something that would allow me to work anywhere in the world.

But how was I going to achieve this impossible dream?  It was obvious I wasn’t going to get rich being an English teacher. I figured only writers and actors could live anywhere they wanted.  So I did my homework.  I started off with yet-another-course to learn the ropes of becoming an Online Business Manager — basically a project manager helping other entrepreneurs.  When they (at the school) asked me what my goals were, and I said I wanted to have a full practice within 2 months of graduation, “they” all smiled and patted me on the head and suggested I might want to lower my sights just a tad.  But they were wrong.  I had a full practice before my 2 month deadline had expired.  Not because I’m special, but because I had all those skills that I thought I’d never use again.  Step by step I had inadvertently been working toward my destination for my entire career.  Talk about a surprise!

But it wasn’t enough.  Although I enjoyed working with small business owners, there was something more that I wanted to do.  I struggled and searched and studied.  I gave away a lot of my hard-earned income to gurus who said they could help me figure out what I really, truly wanted to do.  But none of it worked.  I became a major Seth Godin fan, and through reading every word that he wrote, I was introduced to more and more business concepts.  They were all exciting and interesting and useful.  Then one day, he recommended The War of Art by Steven Pressfield.  I bought it immediately, and (here comes the cliché)  My Life Changed Forever.  I couldn’t put that book down.  This little bit of wisdom;  creating a non-negotiable time and space for focused, disciplined work — on the right things — was what was glaringly missing from the skills of almost all struggling entrepreneurs.

The bottom line for me is simple; it’s about living 100% every day.  Blending work and play — because your work should not be separate from your life.  It should be an extension of who you are.  Whether you follow along here and I kick your butt a little to help you create the infrastructure you need, or you choose to go off and find your own way, I don’t care what path you choose.  But I DO care that you choose it, and live it.  What are you waiting for?