Something that I have spent a lot of time since reading Tim Ferriss's book, Four Hour Work Week designing my life and building a business around what I wanted out of life, spending a balance between working and living, and not putting off my life goals till I retire.
This isn't something that is static, the first part was creating my own firm which meant needing to get the right experience and network; so that's where I worked. Then I started out my own firm and working on great projects, hired people, partnered with other firms, etc. Today though, I am changing again and don't know what that really means. I don't have any employees (long story), I only have one partner firm that I work with (another long story) and I'm busy.
I HATE being busy. Busy means that I failed at something. So I've stopped taking on new contracts (not a risk I'm very booked) and decided to figure out what my company is going to look like in the very near future.
“To me, ‘busy’ implies that the person is out of control of their life.” – Derek Sivers
I had been thinking about a few options including:
- Get a job? (yuck)
- Create a startup?
- hire people?
- Create a product or product-ized service
- etc
And while I've been thinking about this I cam across Paul Jarvis (again) who is getting ready to launch a new book Company of One, and he has some great articles on his site.
One article that really struck me was "I like having a boring business", it really made me start thinking. I want a boring business too.
I don't know what that means yet, but that is what I'm working towards. I'm not taking on any new projects until I figure that out. I'm not going to have any crazy deadlines and I have a goal.
I want to be able to have my task list set up weeks before sitting down at my desk at any one day, and be able to just work. There is no motivation needed, just work.
What are your thoughts? Where are you in your career? Do you know what your purpose is in life?