Who Spiked the Water Cooler?
Two Bloody Mary's and one Miller Genuine draft later, I wrapped up a large project for a prominent real estate client in Vancouver. As I sit at my desk and wait for the phone conference, I can't help but reflect on the life I lead, wondering how did I get here? This story is about the life of a new-economy entrepreneur, cowboys in our own rights, blazing new trails that break the conventions of the "old economy" - cubicles, road rage and heart attacks at age forty-two.
The Internet has lead to the basement office and replaced suits with coffee stained T-shirts and sweat-pants, making it possible for individuals to forge their own path to financial freedom or failure, but freedom nonetheless. Scanners, printers, thirty-six inch monitors, two phones and a fax machine - I have them all, right next to the Barrista coffee machine and the beer fridge, colloquially referred to as my "brew center".
These are the days of opportunity and innovation for those brave enough to take them. Time and space are no longer obstacles to the realization of self-efficacy. Just having a job has been replaced with introspective questions about personal purpose and passion. What do I want to do with my life? What am I passionate about? What am I good at? How much money do I want to make?
Once these were just questions that we were supposed to ask, or so the self help moguls said, but could never actually explore and find the answers to. Jim Collins' "hedge-hog" concept is only a nice thought unless people are capable of breaking free from the confines of a prescribed linear business model. Now this is possible - my eight-foot whiteboard on the wall proves it.
The details of eleven clients, two new ventures, and a host of new projects maturing into new business are scribbled in dry-erase pen to help me put order to the chaos I thrive living in the midst of. Boredom is impossible with a basement business, because as soon as I don't feel busy enough, I just go out and find new business, or start one of my own. How? That is the rub.
It all comes to one word - risk.
To get here you have to be willing to take a risk, stop operating in a state of fear, go against the grain. It reminds me of a lyric from a George Strait song entitled the "Road less Traveled" - "It all might come together, or it all might come unraveled, on the road less traveled."
It's been almost four years now since I quit my job, since I left the perceived "security" of working for a company. Once you realize that you can be fired and left with only your own resources and ability to find a way to succeed you quickly begin to ask yourself - what the hell am I doing this for? I was never fired, but I wasn't going to leave my long-term fate in someone else's hands either. The exhilaration, the freedom, the opportunity that opens when I chose to control my financial destiny was incredible. My only question to you is what are you waiting for?
My conference call is just around the corner, and I think I'll crack another beer from the brew center before dialing in. After that, it'll be 2:30, so I'll head to the gym before the diner-time rush. Here's to freedom! Cheers.
Written by Chad Lefevre
