I've heard that it's hard to envision what I do all day. Before I left OWN, here's my day:

7:00 - 8:30 AM: wake up, get ready for work, have breakfast, etc

8:30: leave for work

9:00: arrive at work

11:00: coffee

2:00 PM: lunch at desk

4:00: coffee

6:30: go home (goldern that LA traffic...)

7:30: arrive at home

8:30: dinner

10: bed Monday through Friday, day in and day out.

There were meetings and sometimes I started earlier and/or worked later, but that was about it.

 

And now... My schedule has absolutely no semblance of continuity whatsoever.

Today's schedule was:

6:00 AM: sneak out of bed trying to be as quiet as possible and put on clothes I found on the floor

6:10: kidnap Roxy so Russ doesn't wake up

6:30: coffee and croissant on a walk with Roxy

8:00: get home and realize -- oh right, I have to send the Thinkgeek order today. Fulfill web orders and correct addresses of subscription boxes I nearly sent to the wrong people. Oops.

8:30: Wrap 120 bars of Unicorn Poop in biofilm and stack for shrinking.

9:30: decide it's probably time for breakfast pizza Unicorn Poop Soap

10:30: remember that I meant to go get breakfast pizza an hour ago

11: share breakfast (now lunch) pizza with Russ

1:00 PM: return to the shop with Russ and continue to shrink wrap Unicorn Poop

2:30: finally finish shrinking poop and start bagging and tagging This is an endless job. I think I might die doing this.

2:45: cut finger open with scissors and fashion a tissue paper/packing tape bandaid. The first aid kit is 15' away and I don't have time for whiny bandaid-needing. It seems I might actually die doing this.

3:00: box poop. (see photo)

3:30: phone call with accountant about 2013 taxes [minor panic attack]

4:30: send Russ to UPS with a giant box of crap, er, poop.

5:30: dinner + some terrible tv

8:00: run out of wine, mope.

9:00: lights out! See?

It's ... I am actually now wondering if this is worth posting. It's so painfully boring. But this should clarify any misconceptions that being an entrepreneur is in any way glamorous or exciting.

I literally spent all day elbow-deep in dung. Granted, it was sweet smelling stuff that sheds an alarming amount of glitter, but still. It's full days of low-level grunt work with very occasional "OMFG WE ARE IN THINKGEEK" or "HOLY BAZUNGAS, URBAN OUTFITTERS ORDERED FROM US" or "I am so in love with this book store in Idaho who just wrote us and want to carry our soap! Look at their website, honey!!"

Most of the time, though, it's a lot of manual labor with the occasional terribly disruptive panic attack about money. Whee.

People wonder why I'm so busy... it's not like any of that is structured anything or that I couldn't move it around, but like I wrote in my last post about falling or flying, I absolutely must wake up and do the day-to-day manual labor or I'll be one with the ocean of bloody entrepreneurs that didn't know when to fly and when to flail.

And it's the discipline to do these things that truly differentiates my days at OWN from my days now. At OWN, heck, I was at work anyways. I might as well do the work.

But here, there's absolutely no line between working and not working. With a few exceptions, no one is waiting for me to turn in a project or dazzle someone with a presentation. It's all me.

Well, all me and you.

Which is why I'm very grateful you're reading this. Thanks for being here.

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