We’re almost there. Phoenix, that is. We knew this would be a long trip, especially with a 2-year old backseat driver (sometimes I wish my steering wheel was a bagel, too).
Driving from Portland to Phoenix was ambitious, we knew. Flying would have been quick and fairly painless.
But we are a little bit crazy. Yes, sir. One large Volvo wagon packed with crazy, please. To go.
This is how we roll. No chiseled-in-stone itinerary, just a broad, sweeping notion that we’d like to see a new city. So we skip the tourist guides, eschew the Zagat’s, poo-poo the parenting mags for the “Best Spots to Take Toddlers and Teens,” and shoot from the hip. Jenni and I have been doing this since we lived in Germany. So now we have our very own Heidelberg, our private Paris, our very personal Santa Ynez Valley. Out-of-the-way places that aren’t in the guidebooks are the places you will find us. We explore.
Sometimes that means we wind up in some pretty sketchy areas, nervously ordering pizza with one eye on the door. Sometimes that means we find paradise in a place where other tourists hurry past on their way to the Big Thing. Both mean that we get to talk about it for years afterward.
Is it any coincidence that I run my business this way?
It sounds like a recipe for disaster, right? Sensible, solid business folk have sensible, solid business plans, right? Well, sure I have a plan. I don’t just wing it from day to day. There has to be a strategy in place, with goals to reach for. I need to know if I’m getting off track and not effectively helping anyone.
It’s a little loose, but it’s not a stumbling drunk.
It’s like taking a long car trip. We know we need to be in Phoenix before November 5th, because there are a bunch of people showing up to an event that I’m supposed to be leading. There are a few nieces and nephews we’ve never met who need to plan around our arrival. We also know the general route we need to take, South through California (veering East into Nevada, while interesting, would be counterproductive to our goal).
That said, we’ve stopped a few times more than we planned. See, we used to live in Los Angeles and as a family we have strong memories of certain areas. For example, we decided to take our 2-year old to our old private Malibu beach haunt. Now we’re stopping in San Bernardino, because taking a rest for the night is necessary for the sanity of all.
We’ll get to Phoenix tomorrow. We’re cool. We’re “on target” as they say in Big People World.
Running a business is like that. You know where you’re supposed to be and you plan on a time to arrive, but you allow for stuff to happen along the way. You explore. You invent. You take a detour because it stirs something in your soul. That keeps your business alive and flowing, so it doesn’t get stale.
That’s not to say I wouldn’t peruse an article or a guidebook to see if there’s something awesome that a fellow traveler thought was worthy of pointing out.
That’s where reading blogs, talking to coaches, and learning about business and marketing have their value. It’s not about shoving you on a tour bus and telling you exactly what you should find interesting. It’s about jotting down that hill where you can see the same view of the Rhine River that Samuel Clemens was inspired by. If that interests you, great. If not, move along. There’s more to see.
Speaking of coaches and learning new stuff, I just read this post by Charlie Gilkey, “Today is Two Weeks From Two Weeks Ago.” Charlie reminded me that sometimes I can say “no” to the glorious new opportunity and still be okay.
Sometimes it’s cool to explore new territory and sometimes you need to drive on past, rest where you planned, and keep your sanity. If you’re already open to finding new awesome places, you’ll always find more.
[...] occurred to me a few months ago that I don’t actually have to be home to run my [...]