When I was a child I used to go and stay with my grandparents in the summers at their cottage on a lake in Connecticut. It was a warm and inviting place lovingly built by my grandfather. On rainy days, when my brother's and I couldn't go out and play we'd stay inside and oftentimes play card games like canasta or hearts. Sometimes we'd just simply use the cards to build things, carefully stacking cards. We'd create precarious structures of whole decks, only to have a slight breeze or a wobble of the card table bring them all down. I tell this story because I am seeing some parallels lately in the world around me.
Recently I "retired" though I use that word with tremendous reserve as I have yet to set foot on a golf course or go and travel in Europe. Neither have I had time to go and participate in the activities at the senior center, or even take as much time off as I'd like for my photography. When I left my 8 tho 5 job at the factory, I took on a much more daunting role and that is as an entrepreneur.
I recently read an article that said that with longer life expectancy it is not out of the question to have more than one career in one's life. I suppose I am a living example of what that article is talking about. I have been working at this for three years now and I've come to some understandings around my 8 to 5 job that I don't think I really appreciated while I was actually living it.
I recently had a conversation with my daughter who lives with me and it was clearly one that I had never had to have before. In this entrepreneurial life that I have built for myself I have a couple of hard and fast rules that I don't waiver from. One of those is that I am, at any given time completely liquid - I maintain very little debt and my goal is to have no debt. this means that buying anything becomes a conversation around current needs, future needs, and reserves.
These are very different conversations than ones around a paycheck where I'd simply say, "not till Friday when I get paid."
In my new life as an entrepreneur I have come to better appreciate the tenuous connectivity that binds products and service to value and that does or doesn't generate income and pay bills. In my new role I better understand the importance of expectations and results. In a sense, I have come to better understand the house of cards that we live in as we navigate a commercial existence based on a government regulated infrastructure.
This life is certainly an interesting and different mix of controls than my other life. What I do love about it, despite the tenuousness of it, is the FREEDOM. I have never known such Freedom in the work that I do, and neither have I worked with such dedication.
I get now, better than ever, that we live in a world of uncertainties. So most important for me is to be truly grateful for this house of cards that forms the infrastructure of my current life.
Hugs,
Betsy
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