Business: August 2004 Archives
It has been a long and tough month for me this July (as it was June and April and May). My horoscope said this would be the best and most rewarding time period I have experienced in 10 years. No shit, star lady! Work has been all consuming and I have enjoyed maybe 1 to 2 hours a day of down time when I have eat and watch a little TV. After that, I'm back on the phone again or tending to pilled up paperwork until well after midnight. Then its back to the grind again from 9AM to 6 or 7PM the next day, then its food and back to work again. I'm exhausted - making wheelbarrows full of cash, but exhausted. A client said to me today, "Sounds like you need a vacation,..maybe a Miami weekend again." He's right, but all I would do while soaking in the pool would be thinking about the 27 things I had to complete for 9 different people on Monday morning.
Don't get me wrong. I'm happy. Way happy! I just know that in the back of my head there are 3 or 4 wonderful projects that I have been waiting a lifetime to do - projects that I can finally do - and I don't have time to breath, let alone contemplate when I can do them. What's funny is that I took this route in my career so that I could focus on my "special" projects - deals that I loved and were near and dear to my heart. Only problem is that they don't pay the bills. So I have to take on other people's dreams to make the money to pay for my deals that represent my dreams. It would be kind of like the guy who wanted to be a writer and took a post at a local paper so that he could spend his weekends writing the novel in him, who then discovers that the local paper is the only source of news within 50 miles of the alien mother-ship landing. The novel idea is now buried under a dozen exclusive interview requests with Dan Rather (or the like), ten-thousand marriage proposals from whack-job wannabe crop circle farmers and a 200 page legal demand notice for information by the US government on the status of national security. As a committed representative of my clients, I am obligated to attend to all of these (not quite) similar matters. But I long to do my deals - a.k.a, write my novel. But who has time?
BTW - the above novel analogy can be broken down as such:
The dozen exclusive interview requests with Dan Rather (or the like) = IR/PR groups all wanting a piece of what I'm doing, and wanting me to pay for it too.
The ten-thousand marriage proposals from whack-job wannabe crop circle farmers = the hundreds of shareholders or wannabe players that ring me incessantly to talk about my "plan" for the stock. In this group I also include all the idiots that have no clue what they are talking about, but could be vary dangerous if you let them run amuck. These "running-with-scissors" people come from all three groups and require the most attention.
The 200 page legal demand notice for information by the US government on the status of national security = all the damn paperwork that I have on 10 or so deals that need to be filed with either the state of record, the attorney or record, the NASD, the transfer agent, CUSIP, or the SEC but haven't been because I can't make the phone stop ringing.
Not mentioned above are the clients: They are all beautiful people with wonderful dreams and goals. I mean that! If they were not, they wouldn't be my clients. I wouldn't work with them otherwise. Who has time? Not me.
Further note: The star lady says that August is gonna suck, but that September & October especially are going to be my time to shine and command the universe as it relates to business. I hope she includes an assistant.
