My lunch with Dave brought up some sobering questions. While discussing my plans for the future, he seemed determined to play the devil’s advocate. It seemed that every idea I put across to him was shot full of holes. Now, I had to keep in mind that I was talking to someone who had a background in that area. His education and business experience was centered upon sales and marketing.
His take on things was that, in order to succeed in business or self-employment, one must shoot for the moon, pull out all the stops, and make a super-human effort. That is the minimum requirement to get a business off the ground and turn it into a success. Nothing less would do because one needs every advantage just to have a chance at succeeding - and even then, it’s a long shot.
So his view was that there is a minimum “escape velocity” required to launch any venture. I could appreciate that analogy and it seemed to make sense, but there had to be another way. Putting in 18 hour days was not what I was looking for. I was simply looking for self-sufficiency and nothing more. I could not seem to get this point across to him.
I could see why though; he was trained to think this way. He was programmed so efficiently that the thought of anything less than a super-human effort was foreign.
There had to be some sort of compromise. Perhaps the problem was that most people starting a business define success in a purely monetary sense (the more profit the business generates, the more successful it is). Otherwise, why would you risk everything and invest all that time. I knew, then, that I was on a different track.
I could not relate to what Dave was saying because my goal and definition of success was entirely different from the main-stream business models that are followed today. I wanted freedom and time, while most would-be entrepreneurs want money. There was no way I could really talk to Dave about this because he kept trying to steer me in the “all-or-nothing” direction. He could not understand why I would not want to aim as high as possible. I gave up trying to convince him otherwise, and we slowly got off the topic.
There is one thing that has bothered me since that lunch, however. What if he is right? Could there be some unwritten rule that any attempt at self-employment will be thwarted unless a massive effort is put forth?
There must be exceptions. After all, I don’t want or need much. My definition of success will be entirely different from the average person. I’m sure there is a way to generate just enough income to buy my freedom. Finding it might not be that easy.