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Giving Virtual Thanks
I didn’t expect to be writing a blog entry on thanksgiving, but I really want to get this down on “paper” and into cyberspace before I forget.
Last night I was over at my great grandmother’s house making stuffing and my aunt was talking about…something…I don’t remember most of it but the last line.
“It’s horrible we live in a world where some people just get everything and the rest just get screwed.”
I watched personal responsibility and accountability go right out the window as the ubiquitous “THEY” got blamed for my aunt’s plight.
I then had to listen to my grandmother and my aunt talk about how horrible it was that she had to go to court and prove she had insurance when the car was totaled and she didn’t have it anymore. I worked in insurance for five years but my opinion doesn’t count because it does not agree with the theory that my aunt is a victim of this “horrible society/world we live in.”
Generally, I’m pretty quiet at the holidays with my family. Not being a victim is considered gauche.
Later in the evening, my aunt came out with another great quote, “When it’s all said and done it’s the little things that matter. People don’t care about money when they’re dying, they just want their loved ones around them.”
My aunt lives in a world of OR – you’re either rich OR happy, you’re either working OR have to drive to work every day.
I don’t know about you, but I live in a world of AND.
My goal is to create a legacy to leave to my children AND have them around me when I’m dying. It is not a prerequisite to be destitute in order for your family to love and care for you in your old age.
I think it’s the big things AND the little things that matter in a life when that life is coming to a close. My children being born are big things in my life. Starting and running a sustainable company is a big thing in my life. These will forever be important to me.
Perhaps the biggest, most important thing in my life is the knowledge that my path of staying at home and running a company instead of working a corporate job will imbue in them the understanding that there are many paths in life they can take. Teaching them that the “road less traveled” can also be the more financially fortuitous route will instill in them the knowledge that they can really do almost anything they want to and make it work.
My children will not be raised to hate the entire country of India for "taking jobs away from Americans." They will know that in a globalized world they have to have a unique selling proposition to create value that only they can provide. They will know that any job that does not give them freedom is a "dead end job" not worth selling your integrity for. If I’m really lucky, they’ll never have a phone conversation where they tell the person on the other end "I’m pretending to work because there’s nothing left to do but I have to look busy."
My children, as with all the children of work-at-home parents, will understand that there is no such thing as a “5 day week” or “weekend” in this new world of globalization. That’s a good thing! They won’t be chained to a desk waiting for a fifteen minute break. They will work until something is finished, and then have the ability go to the park and read a book for an hour or two. Working from home has a sense of freedom that a corporation can never give you.
So, to all small business owners out there, I will be silently toasting you tonight over stuffing and turkey. We are making a difference. We are special. We, more than anyone else, have figured out the big secret to success and happiness and the whole ball of wax.
We are the people moving everyone’s cheese.
