It's Not in the Cards



Last year I jumped aboard the corporate HabitTrail with the rest of the hamsters and tried my best to play the part. Business suits, a brief case and an office in the spiffy glass office tower were part of the scene, and so was observing a cokehead, manic CEO, an inept CFO and a band of "executives" that had no executive experience.
They ended up sqandering almost a million dollars of investor money within six months, and I left that clown car with them owing me more than $11,000 in back pay.
Fortunately, I had also made a good friend there, a brilliant guy whom I liked at first sight. The feeling was mutual. We were soul mates.
When we left, we decided to take their idea and run with it.
He, his wife and I were going to make a new start of it and do it right this time-without the fancy office and shtick we couldn't afford; our clients would foot the bill for anything we acquired, and we wouldn't seek investors because we didn't believe in risking other peoples' money on our dreams.
I really like these people. They are smart, they have class and they get me.
But going in as a partner with a married couple is a lot like having a menage a trois with a married couple--someone always ends up odd-person-out and issues ensue.
Damn it, I'm a writer, not a business entrepreneur.
Writing is what I do best, and I love the solitary nature of it.
I hate meetings, I hate negotiations, I hate having to dress up and I hate consensus building in a two-against-one scenario, even when the other two are nice people.
I like people telling me what they want me to write, then I do it and get paid for it. One, two, three.
So, today I plan to meet with my partners and tell them I want a corporate divorce.
Once again, I find myself throwing caution to the wind and willing to leap into the void of the financial uncertainty that freelancing brings.
I've freelanced as a writer before, once for a 10-year stretch. I did okay.
I've always said that making a difficult decision is like sailing the open seas.
You struggle with the sails and the currents, then eventually you get into a groove and the boat starts to slice through the water like a knife through warm butter.
I can always tell when I've made the right decision because a calm washes over me.
Gone are the stress and the worrying and the dry cleaning bills.
I'm a lousy entrepreneur, but I'm a damn good journalist and writer.
So that's what I'll do.
And here's the song that buzzing through my head right now. Enjoy.