The Hokey Pokey.

“You put your left foot in. You put your left foot out. You put your left foot in…and you shake it all about.”

This childhood favorite pretty much sums up my entrepreneur life these days at HireMeAspen. Make a decision. Change that decision. Remake that decision. And then shake it all about. Do the hokey pokey while I turn myself around...

And I’m not indecisive.

It sure does seem like I’m shaking it all about these days though. But then again, these are crazy times.

There really are too many options to decide, too many to-dos to complete, and too many directions to head. Should I get an intern? Should I seek a VC? Should I launch another town or master the one I’m in now? Should I test a freemium model or stay firm? Should I change my registration form? Should I add video?

And that just leads to more woulda, shoulda, couldas.

It’s great being a sole-proprietor because you get to make all the decisions. It’s also not great being a sole-proprietor because you get to make all the decisions.

What’s even more bizarre is that I fantasize sometimes about having a mediocre job, making a mediocre salary, so I can have my mediocre weekends back. It’s just a fantasy, though, because I know if I really did that, I’d grow crazy with boredom.

The past seven years have been ones of such incredible growth, but I’ve been on a work treadmill, living in two places constantly with Minneapolis being my base. Back and forth to NYC. Back and forth to San Francisco. Back and forth to Aspen. (I know, I know…tough life, huh?). These past seven years have been anything but boring, and I wouldn’t change a thing. I just long for more weekends away from the computer and work, and more weekends spent doing mindless tasks.

For example, I can’t remember the last time I got fired up about a sports team winning the World Series, playoffs or Super Bowl because I don’t remember the last time I had 3-4 hours to actually sit down and watch a game. Or, I can’t recall the last time I took a painting class, a cooking class, or any class for that matter. I’m not really craving doing those things again right now.  I’m just craving having the option.

I guess as individuals, we always have options to create whatever life we want.

My choice right now is to keep moving forward as an entrepreneur, working hard to achieve the ultimate life of freedom I desire.

I'm also choosing the option of humming childhood songs during coffee breaks because “that’s what I'm all about!”

HireMeAspen Unplugged.

21 months ago, I started running, not walking, down the entrepreneurial path. A hilly path filled with ups and downs, brainstorms and lulls, grand successes and admitted failures, but it’s been an incredible journey nonetheless.

Before I set out, I did set some life goals. Mostly those goals were stepping stones to a broader vision I have for my life: freedom.

Financial freedom, of course. But also freedom to come and go as I please. Freedom to start and end my day when I please. Freedom to live and breathe wherever I please. Freedom to just do as I please.

Isn’t freedom what everyone truly desires?

With my vision in place, I set out to create an internet startup called Sharing Profiles so that I can “afford” a life where I come and go, start and end, live and breathe…and just do as I please.

What I didn’t realize at the outset was that this road to freedom also would lead to hot pants. Not because I wear hot pants or think I’m hot pants.

I’ve got hot pants because I’ve got a hot laptop.

It’s been running way too long for too many consecutive days. Every day for the past 21 months (except for a few days in May when I found myself signal-less in Mississippi), I’ve not only powered on, but I’ve stayed on for hours and hours and hours.

This last month, I think it’s started to catch up with me. I’ve been finding it difficult to write. I love to write, so it’s not for lack of passion. What I realize was that the the well of life was empty. It’s hard to tell a story when you don’t have any stories to recall. It was becoming difficult to focus, concentrate, make decisions, and get things done.

I was being so indecisive. There were too many options b/c I was on information overload.

I’ve been extremely busy working and achieving which is fine because I see this stage of my life as laying the foundation to my freedom house. But working and achieving and going, going, going leaves little time, if any, for simple living.

So, this weekend I decided to simply live. And I knew the only way to really do that was to totally unplug. No logging in. No facebook. No twitter. No blogs. (I did check my iphone a few times).

It was hard at first, but I survived.

I also got many more things off that long to-do list of mine. I put away my deck furniture. I cleaned out my closets. I organized my drawers, changed my sheets, grocery shopped, walked around a few lakes, called Comcast, cleaned out the garage and the shed, donated to Goodwill, paid bills, read a book, got my nails done, windexed my windows, went thru ALL my magazines, threw away all the stale ones, and cooked from scratch. I still haven’t vacuumed.

I also watched a fascinating PBS special called “Art & Copy: the social and cultural influence of advertising” and another fascinating show on penguins. Did you know that the momma penguin lays her egg, rolls it over to the daddy penguin to keep warm while she goes away for 4 months to find food, comes back with regurgitated food for the baby penguin, and resumes the parenting from the dad? And if she doesn't make it back in time, the daddy and baby die of starvation. You really can learn something new every day.

I truly had forgotten how great it feels to take a weekend off and simply live.

I plugged back in to write this post. And it feels right to have done so now that I’ve renewed my spirit, reconnected with nature, and enjoyed my home. I’ve also made a new promise: to unplug more often because I know it makes things better.

Unplug yourself. You, and your pants, will be glad you did.

Customer Training?

I went to Kinkos today. Oops, I mean “FedEx Kinkos.” I had to fax something, and I can never figure out my fax machine at home. So, off to FedEx I went.



I approached the counter and cleared my throat. The young (as in mid-20s) clerk magically appeared, so I presented my one page fax enthusiastically, thinking he’d be all excited to see it wasn’t a huge print job that involved collating.

Instead, I heard: “Oh no. What you need is right behind you.”

Hmm….Really? I whipped around looking to find that hot young stud with my winning lottery ticket. Instead, I stared down a fax machine on the other side of the store. It didn’t look happy to see me.

Could someone please tell me when and why every single thing is self service nowadays? Where oh where have all the friendly greeters gone? I just wanted to run in and out of there, get my fax faxed, and get on with my day.

Don't get me wrong. I'm not lazy, and sometimes I actually prefer self service. But what I prefer even more is having a choice.

So, I huff and puff my way over to the angry machine, knowing that this was going to turn into an ordeal. And I also noticed that Joe Kinko was following sheepishly behind, as I'm sure he could tell I was less than thrilled.

First, he said I needed to insert my card. I thought he meant my FedEx Kinkos Business Account card which he encouraged me to sign up for during my last not-so-short visit to FEK. After digging through every nook and cranny of my wallet, I finally find it. Swipe it. And naturally, it's no go.

Oh, he meant my credit card. I guess customer service reps don't even have to ring you up anymore.

So I find that, swipe that, and then dial the fax number. This is the point when he chimes in that I’m one of the few customers who knows to dial a one. Hmmmmm, I think to myself, I guess those customers must need some customer service.

We wait for a good three minutes while he goes on to explain that this fax machine is a weird one, it doesn’t make any noise whatsoever and that silence confuses all of his customers. Hmmmmm, I think to myself again. He then reads a message on the machine that my fax apparently didn’t go through.

Surprise. Surprise.

“It’s probably just busy, try again.” I oblige and listen to him go on about how faxing to law firms usually doesn’t work on the weekends b/c they turn their machines off. One, I’m not faxing to a lawyer. Two, can we listen to the mute fax machine please?

My patience is really starting to wane now that I'm going on about 12 minutes in the FEK store. Under my breath, I blurt, “For crying out loud, why does something so easy have to be so hard? I just wanted you to fax my fax.”

“It’s called customer training,” he says.

Are you kidding me? ARE YOU KIDDING ME?

“I don’t need customer training. You need customer service.”

I’ve always hated fax machines. And I still do.

Especially ones that require "customer training" to function properly.