It’s nearly impossible to “do everything right” when you’re doing “everything.” Even if you’re ambitious, resourceful, tireless and clever, you are a mortal with limitations, strengths and weaknesses. You simply can’t be best at everything, not to mention you’ll never have enough time to do everything on your own.
Small business people are often big thinkers with plenty of drive and motivation yet not a lot of capital, staffing or support. Their broad vision and intense drive sometimes supersedes the reality of logistics and the fact that there must be some money to spend in order to make more. Inspiration and operations must coalesce for small businesses to establish roots and grow.
In-boxes (especially those wood ones actually labeled “IN”). Fake ficus trees in office lobbies. Snail mail. Normal business hours. First generation Palm Pilots. Fax machines.
Anyone who’s a fan of the TV show Seinfeld likely recalls the episode in which Kramer, Jerry’s affable and laughable neighbor, decides to hire a college intern to help him with his various ‘enterprises.’ Eventually the college advisor terminates the internship because it became clear the student was working for “a solitary man with a messy apartment that may or may not contain a chicken.” Even still, the intern came back to eagerly help his eccentric boss. That was a devoted assistant!
Straight out of college, I signed up for temp work just to pay the bills while I searched for my first career opportunity. Freshly scrubbed and green as could be, I presumed my days as a temp worker would be short lived, that a great company would rush to snatch me up and launch my career. All told, those temp days didn’t last long, yet some of the lessons I learned during that time have lingered with me all the years since my career really took off with that first, permanent position.
David Jones writes With 