#&&( let curse words fly when shit goes wrong ) → memes

[evie-morris]

If you could date two people at once, would you do it? If so, who?

“They know who they are.” Lies.

@alycia-acosta @ben-brody

[scottkalwei]

7 Reasons It Sucks To Work For Yourself

Listen, I love working for myself.  I really wouldn’t change it for the world.  But it’s not all rainbows and unicorns all the time.  Allot of the time it can really suck.  I get tired of reading all of these articles about how awesome it is to be an entrepreneur working for yourself.  Yeah everybody has an asshole boss at some point in their life.  Nobody likes to get bossed around all the time.  Well I’m here to bust your bubble, sometimes the grass isn’t as green as it looks on the other side.  Here’s some good examples why:

Accountability

You know you get pissed off when you have a boss breathing down your neck to get something done on time.  It’ll be some stupid report that no one is going to read, yet your boss will email you 15 times to make sure your doing it.  Seriously dude?  It’s like bosses have too much time on their hands so they just fill the void with annoying the living shit out of people.

Well I’m sorry to bring you down, but you’re probably a really lazy person.  No I don’t actually know you, but in general people are really lazy.  I’m not saying that that’s necessarily a bad thing so don’t go getting all offended about it.  I still remember my engineering professor telling us in his old timely voice, “Laziness is the mother of invention.”  Everyone knew that the real quote was about necessity but as engineers we agreed with the slight modification to fit our context, aka laziness.

The only reason I bring up the laziness is because you have to be highly motivated to work for yourself.  Having that annoying boss might bug the hell out of you but they are making you get your work done in time.  There’s something to say about that!  What do you do when you have free time?  Watch television?  Kiss your free time away if you work for yourself.  You better be working or networking and you better be doing it without anyone there telling you to do it.

Time Management

I wake up at 5am every single day.  Why?  Because after trying all kinds of different “life hacks” and waking up at different times, I’ve come to the conclusion that I’m the most efficient when I wake up at exactly 5am.  I don’t wake up that early just because I want to.  I don’t wake up that early because I need to be to work.  I wake up that early because I’ve told myself that it’s important, so that I can better myself.

Have you ever woke up early just so you can make oatmeal and go for a jog before reading a book at the coffee shop before going into work?  Have you ever went into work when you didn’t have to?  I wake up every day with nothing on my schedule that I absolutely have to do.  Yeah, there’s usually stuff that I SHOULD do but never anything that I have to.

That means I have to fill out my entire day, everyday!  That probably sounds like it would be awesome, but if you’re trying to improve yourself and your business every single day for years on end, then you can see how at times it can be difficult.  That’s a whole lot of time to fill!  If you don’t stay on task you can quickly fall into the quicksand of stupid cat videos and meme hunting.  You don’t have reports, bosses, deadlines, or any of that to keep you focused.  Staying disciplined when managing your time is a never ending battle!

Being Lost

Ever go to your boss with a question about how to do something?  Maybe you’re just feeling a little lost and need some direction, what do you do?  You go to your boss.  This is such an overlooked responsibility of the boss that people tend to overlook it.  People can explain in great detail everything their boss has done wrong over the years.  But to be fair there were probably allot of things that they did for you that you never took notice of!

Having a superior above you that can help to guide you in the right direction can be a godsend at times.  But if you’re lost and you don’t have a boss you can be in real trouble.  I think this is probably the reason that entrepreneurs work so much more than those with normal careers.  Because we don’t have anyone that we report to that can help to guide us, we have to work twice as hard to figure it out.

Just about every entrepreneur I know has a rolodex of contacts that they would consider to be mentors to them.  If you work for yourself and you run into a problem you start with Google and then you go to your rolodex of contacts.  But allot of times what you have questions about is so specific to your particular situation that no one really knows how to help you.  So you’ll be out on your own with no guidance.  Figure it out!

Noone to blame

At my last corporate gig they had turned passing blame into a freaking art form.  I’d never seen anything like it.  Grown men out on the manufacturing floor acting like a bunch of children in front of their angry parents.  Everyone had an excuse and a scapegoat.  Anything to keep them out of trouble.  Allot of times they even believed the crap that they were selling to upper management.

Well guess what, that shit don’t fly with entrepreneurs.  You can pass the blame to someone else if you like but at the end of the day it’ll only affect your pocket book.  So you can live your life in denial, always blaming other people for your problems, but you’ll end up broke while bragging about how awesome you are.  Nobody wants to be that person, bragging incessantly when it’s abundantly obvious that they’ve screwed up just as much if not more so than you have.  Don’t be that person!

It’s easy to look at braggadocious idiots and laugh about how out of touch they are.  But think about it, have you ever bitched about a co-worker not doing their job?  Someone else screwing something up and making your life more difficult?  I always hear this from people working 9-5’s.  That’s the same thing!  You’re blaming other people any time you sit and bitch about what they do at work.  Working for yourself, people don’t care who screwed up your product/service, it’s ultimately your fault and you have to fix it.  No one is going to do it for you and blaming others won’t help the situation.

Inspiration

I can’t convey in words how important I think inspiration is.  I attribute everything I have in my life to different inspirational moments I’ve had along the way.  I thrive off of having big goals, I live with my head in the clouds, and I find most of the joy in my life comes from figuring out how to achieve those goals.  I’ll have a spark of an idea from the most obscure situations, leading me to want to change some major part of my life.

For me, working for myself actually helps me find those inspirational moments.  I’m a wanderer and explorer though.  I crave new experiences and constantly go out of my way to find them.  I can’t say that that’s true for most people.  From my experiences, most people don’t want to go outside of their bubbles to really explore foreign ideas.

If you’re an entrepreneur you make a living by seeing the world in a different light.  You’ll constantly be looking for inspiration.  This honestly takes away some of the fun of those wandering moments.  You aren’t living in the moment and letting life come to you.  Your actively seeking inspiration instead of letting it come to you which adds an element to the equation that can really screw it up.  So as you search for more inspiration it becomes harder and harder to find.  Can be a blessing or it can become a curse depending on your personality.

Lonely

Working for a big company gives you a built in social structure from which you can build relationships.  Working for yourself isn’t like that at all.  Making friends and being around people is no longer a passive activity.  You have to actively go out and seek new friends and relationships in the form of “networking”.

Networking can be extremely fun but allot of times it becomes a part of the job that you have to force yourself to do.  So making friends and building relationships isn’t something that you just have built into your job.  The fact that it goes from something that is passive and fun to something that is active and a chore, makes it hard to keep your networking game strong.

While your hammering away on your computer for hours away in a lonely frenzy you can sit back and be assured that your friends our out there having a great time without you.  Then when you have free time you’ll have to go to a networking event where you rub shoulders with a bunch of old men in stuffy suits.  So although it’s possible to have a great social life, you will definitely have to work allot harder to maintain it.

More Bosses

Everybody I talk to thinks it so awesome that I don’t have a boss.  They’d just love to not have a boss breathing down their neck all the time!  Technically they’re right, as an entrepreneur you don’t have a boss.  But, every single customer that you want to have becomes your boss and they will be way less understanding than your boss.

Not only will they be less understanding, but they can destroy your livelihood.  So you better treat them right!  You’ll have to deal with all types of people too.  So don’t expect to always be dealing with smart reasonable people.  You will get the worst of the worst wanting to just tear you apart.

These people will write bad reviews, demand their money back, call BBB, file lawsuits, and steal from you to try and make their point.  I just recently had an employee that I had to let go for poor performance write atleast 10 bad reviews about my business on different websites.  So ya you trade one boss, who probably worked their way into that position, for a bunch of random crazy people that would love to ruin your life.

FINALLY

Now that I got all of that off my chest, I gotta say that I still love working for myself.  I just think it’s important to see the good with the bad.  I wouldn’t change my lifestyle for anything in the world.  But I don’t think it’s for everyone.

So if you’re considering going out on your own.  Take a look at this list and ask yourself if you can handle all that.  Because, although this is a fairly negative article, the real world can be a very harsh place and this list isn’t all inclusive.  So you gotta be tough and you’ve got to be prepared for what you’re getting into!  If you can jump those hurdles you’ll be that much better for it.

7 Reasons It Sucks To Work For Yourself was originally published on ScottKalwei

[evie-morris]

1, 20 & 25 !!!

What are you grateful for?

“My health. My family and my friends. My job. The opportunities that I have.”

Can you name one goal of yours for the next few years? Do you have any plans to work towards it? Why or why not?

“I’m going back to school to get my criminal justice degree and I’m currently studying for my sergeant’s exam. If everything goes like I hope, I can make lieutenant in a few years because California law stipulates a college degree and two years’ worth of sergeant experience.”

What are your top five personal values?

Answered here!

[evie-morris]

11, 23

11…what is your ideal first date?

Answered here!

23…what is a deal-breaker for you?

“I would have to say married, rude to others, disrespectful, doesn’t partake in basic hygiene, and unmotivated.”

[evie-morris]

18, 24, 34

18…what’s your favorite love song?

Answered here!

24…have you ever changed yourself for love?

“I don’t think I did for my first love. He was great and he only wanted me to be myself. I definitely did for my last boyfriend because he had this major hero complex. He liked the idea that I thought he was great. He was my TO and he was married and living at home. I actually changed for the worst because he told me to not hang out with my very single best friend alone or any single person alone because it wasn’t appropriate. And he gave me crap when I told him I wasn’t going to do that anymore. My best friend is my person for a really good reason.”

@ben-brody

34…“whatever you do, you’re my ride-or-die.”

“I don’t know what I’d do without you.” Her voice was quiet. It wasn’t anything she ordinarily admitted, but the two of them often knew without having to voice it. After all the years they’d known each other, he was in her daily routine now. She talked to him at least once and there was something she wanted to tell him every day. “I just…I’m really glad you’re here. That sounds stupid, but it’s true.”

[evie-morris]

last person to make you smile?

“My best friend. He bought me cold brew because I’m pulling an all-nighter.”

@ben-brody

[evie-morris]

What habit do you have now that you wish you started much earlier?

“Standing up for myself. If I don’t want to do something with someone, like hanging out after work, it’s okay to say no and not give a reason.”

[evie-morris]

What is your biggest irrational fear?

“Alligators. We’re in salt water and they hate them, but after seeing as many episodes of Swamp People that I have, my biggest fear is that I’ll open my back sliding door and there’ll be this big-ass alligator.”

[evie-morris]

have you ever regretted your words?

“I’d say that I have. It’s happened more often than I’d like to admit, honestly. Agreeing to go on dates with certain people ranks at the top.”

[evie-morris]

Why do you matter?

Evie exhaled sharply at the question and her teeth sank into the inside of her lip. What mattered was that she was remembered, even if it was stupid. 

“Really hitting me with the heavy shit right off the bat, I see. Why do I matter? Do any of us, really? If anyone’s watching this, then I hope you at least know my name. Hopefully Sergeant Evie Morris or even Lieutenant Morris. I think I matter because of all the work I’ve done and that I hope I matter to the people in my life. That I’ve never really given up. I think I matter to the people whose lives I touched, even if it’s just one person, you know?”

[evie-morris]

8, 15, 21!

What does the term “give thanks” mean to you?

“Doing something with what was given to me.”

When do you feel truly alive?

“When I’m doing my job. Is that a total workaholic thing to say?” 

What’s the most sensible thing you’ve ever heard someone say?

“Not everyone pays attention to who hurts you, but they pay attention to how you retaliate.”

[evie-morris]

16 & 18

16…diamonds, chocolate, or flowers?

Answered here!

18…what’s your favorite love song?

“H.O.L.Y. by Florida Georgia Line. Without a doubt.”

[evie-morris]

11, 12, 13!

11…what is your ideal first date?

“Something casual, no pressure. Coffee, drinks. I can tell a lot about someone by the kind of drink they get.” 

12…which is worse — a physical affair or an emotional affair?

“Emotional. At least with physical affair, it oftentimes doesn’t mean anything. I can get over that if it means nothing. But I don’t think I could take it if they actually fell in love with the other person. Then I...kind of feel like a roadblock to their happiness. If I really loved someone, that’s the last thing I’d want to do to them.”

13…how did/would you propose to the person you loved? alternatively, how were you/would you like to be proposed to?

“Something pertaining to an inside joke. I mean, the whole shebang with flowers everywhere, wine, candles, music, that stuff’s fun, but I’m the sentimental sap who loves something that’s just us.”

[evie-morris]

16

16…diamonds, chocolate, or flowers?

“Flowers. I know they die easily, but they’re simple and I think it’s the best way to tell someone that you’re thinking about them.”

[evie-morris]

I assume you like the way people in your precinct talk about you

“You mean the degrading names I get called? You’re right. Love being reminded I’m a homewrecker and every bit just like my mother. Getting told by every wife I meet that I’d better not sleep with her husband? No feeling like it.”

[evie-morris]

i assume you're never solve the case

“Not every case gets 100% closed. Some drag on for months or even years. It’s the nature of the beast.”