The One Thing You Can't Afford to Blow Off

Sonia Simone

I have lots of friends who are entrepreneurs. Some of us have day jobs as well, others are making a full-time living in their businesses. Some think they "aren't really entrepreneurs" because they run schools or nonprofits.

Some are successful and some are struggling, but we've all got one thing in common. We've maxed out our personal resources. Not our checkbooks or credit cards (although sometimes those too), but our creativity, our time, and our productive energy. (keep reading »)

Photo from icanhascheezeburger.com

Comments

[Shayna]

With "pornagraphic origami" as the possible exception, I'd half swear you wrote this just for me! Thank you for the reminder - I'm going to send this post to every one of my wedding coordinator pals.

[David Linke]

Okay, I have told my wife...That I have been prescribed to play more golf. I will be getting back to the driving range twice a week and out on the course on the weekend...Now my wife might just work out how to find your blog, so could you just add a specific reference to the golf bit for me? :)

[Ali]

Thank you for this ... something I really needed to read! I'm at a stage (full time job, as much freelancing as possible in the hope of "transitioning") where I feel guilty if I'm not making good use of every spare minute.

However, I'm starting to get not just that weird grinding noise, but a persistent alarm going "warning, warning"...

I'm going to take your advice, and have some time purely to recharge. Because you're right, I'm not going to be doing my best work if I'm curled up in a hysterical sobbing heap under the duvet...

[Judy Dunn]

I'm loving all your posts, but this one is perfect. We're discussing this on biznik.com right now.

I have a plan to play every day. Don't always get 40 minutes in, but I had to laugh at your reference to the watercolor box. I have my watercolor set handy. My juggling balls. My Elmer's Glue and glitter.

I read two hours a night (I know, it's crazy) because there is nothing on television worth watching. I have a "no business book rule." (Currently I'm rereading Ayn Rand's Atlas Shrugged.)

I'm saving this post to share with some stressed-out buddies of mine. Thanks so much for the permission to play.

[Janice C Cartier]

"Read trashy books. Color with crayons. Take a hot bath, preferably with puppets or bath crayons. Make pornographic origami or models of Star Wars spaceships."

Crunch , grind, warning ,warning all happening here. I am laughing so hard...this post is perfect!!

And I love Ayn Rand's Atlas Shrugged. It has been so long since I read it. Might have to head to the library ...wait that's not trashy enough is it?

[James Chartrand - Men with Pens]

One, why are you on Typepad where I cannot subscribe to comments? Tsk tsk...

Two:

A broken machine means no work, or lousy work that quits getting results. It means crappy money, crappy success, crappy momentum. It means significant pain for the people who rely on you, whether they're your clients or your kids. A broken machine is frustrating, massively inconvenient and painful as hell.

You couldn't have said it better. We need to hear stuff like this more often.

[Michael Martine]

This is the second post I've read like this in as many days. Somebody must be trying to tell me something.

By the way, Starbucks is also a crappy substitute for coffee.

[Sonia Simone]

@David, good luck with that! Get her to start doing some maintenance herself and she will probably forgive you anything.

@Judy, Janice, Shayna, funny how universal it is, ain't it? (Janice, if you love it, I hereby give you a trash license for Ayn Rand.)

@James, yes, Michael Martine has already mocked me for my lowly Typepad blog. It's on the list of stuff to fix. Somewhere.

@Michael, yah, there's a lot of crazy in the air right now. I think a lot of entrepreneurs don't think of business as a creative process, so they think it's "self indulgent" to fill the well.