Growing Up: Being Your Own Boss

You may have noticed in my blog description, the curious statement, "This is a story about growing up." This bothered me when I wrote it, and still bothers me. I don't know why I wrote it, and now, even in retrospect, it isn't QUITE clear. It would have seemed the opposite is true, yes? When you leave normal life and gallivant around the country visiting old friends, it isn't what is popularly thought of as growing up. It's kids who get to not work and to live and explore from day to day.

Well. I've thought about it a bit, and I do see two areas in which I was mentored on this trip, which might contribute to my 'growing up'. Here are my thoughts on the first:

AREA #1: Being Your Own Boss

One of the things I admire most is when people really take initiative in using their gifts and building something new...often at great cost to themselves, but the intangible rewards then seem to far outweigh the inconveniences.

A few examples that stood out to me were:

1) My friend Michelle Han. Having seen many bits and parts of her journey from PR employee & freelance writer to full-time artist with 3-4 employees working for her, she's probably the biggest 'success story' I've had close access to. And walking through much of that with her, praying weekly together, I know it has not been easy. You know, they say when you work for yourself, you only have to work 1/2 the time - but you get to choose which 12 hours! She's now a home-owner with a few other couples, has a dog she loves muchly and has her work showing at flea markets and art openings all over the city. I would often say to her, as this process began, "Seriously. Your stuff is better than 95% of what I see out there." and I still stand by that. If you do something well, you should make it happen!

2) My cousin Marie Gurule. She's still in the beginning stages of her screen-printing business where she is working a regular job and doing her business on the side, but it's really cool to see what she's doing and the steps she's taking to accomplish it!

3) Andy Sanchez. His furniture and art business is by far the most established family biz I observed while on the road and it was awesome to be walked through his shop and life, with all the bits and pieces explained. We even stood and talked for a long time about the system he came up with to come up with fair prices for his work, taking into account both what the market value is, and the actual cost of what it takes to run the shop and pay all the workers.

There were many others that stood out to me along the way - Erel Pilo, whose singer-songwriters & storytellers 'variety show' of sorts succeeded so well that she now has a monthly spot at the venue we performed at; Ally Spotts, who traveled to all 50 states with a friend blogging and working on writing a book; Cory Kaufman and his hammered dulcimer hammers; Keith York who has a painting business and travels; my cousin Sara Malnar who is organizing an enormous musical outreach in New Mexico; and Dan Cooper, my former boss, who is working on books and other projects on the side... Thank you to all of you, and more that I haven't mentioned. I think I have a lot to learn still about perseverance and entrepreneurialism (sp?), but...I think that connecting & re-connecting with all these folks has been a really positive look at choosing how to shape our lives. Whether we succeed or fail in these endeavours, we have taken the risk... and that seems invaluable to me.