by Marty Coleman | May 14, 2014 | Anthony J. D'angelo, Launching a Business - 2014 |
I am passionate about today being day #4 of my ‘Launching a Business’ series!
So Close I Can Touch It
When I graduated with my Masters in Fine Art from San Jose State University in 1984 I went about applying for college level teaching jobs. I landed a job right off the bat as a part-time, or adjunct, instructor at Cabrillo College in the town of Aptos on the Monterey Bay of California. That seemed like a good start. I landed other part-time teaching gigs shortly thereafter at Evergreen College and Mission College in the San Jose area. I was on my way, a full time job couldn’t be far off, right?
So Far Off I Can’t
It was far off. It was so far off that 8 years, hundreds and hundreds of applications, many interviews and more than a few finalist positions later I gave up. I switched focus, retrained myself on computers during the 93-94 year instead of applying for teaching jobs. I started applying for computer graphic jobs instead, focusing on getting something in the educational computer game market. It worked and by May of 94 we had moved to Tulsa and I had started a new job creating educational CDroms for children. It was the best job of my life.
Giving Up
I made the decision to give up because I saw that my persistence and passion was becoming stubbornness and ignorance. What I wanted may still have happened, who knows, but in my circumstances of having a family and 3 small children, I could not afford to be stubborn and ignorant any longer. I made the switch and never regretted it.
Self-Awareness
The same need to be self-aware is true when you have your own business. You want to be persistent and passionate. And some may call your persistence stubbornness before you do, and call your passion ignorance before you do. You might succeed in spite of having others say you have gone over the edge in those categories. You don’t need to bow to their opinion. But you should consider it. You should be willing to hear them out, see if they have any valid reasons why they think what they do. Especially consider their opinion if you believe they understand you and always have been on your side.
Honesty
Most importantly though you need to honest with yourself. No matter what anyone else says, you have to be self-aware enough, egoless enough, humble enough, strong enough, to face reality. If you face reality, you can move forward, if you don’t, very likely disappointment or even ruin will follow. You don’t want that.
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Drawing and commentary by Marty Coleman
Quote by Anthony J. D’angelo, American author
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by Marty Coleman | May 13, 2014 | Japanese Proverbs, Launching a Business - 2014 |
I got distracted (as entrepreneurs tend to do) and didn’t finish my ‘Launching a Business’ series I started a few weeks ago. Here is #3.
Being the Boss
My wife works for a big company, she is not an entrepreneur. But when she talks about her legacy it’s not often about her actual work, it’s about the team she leads and how important it is that she lead it well so those under her continue to be employed and get paychecks. That is what she really cares about. These people work for her, but she works hard for them as well.
Being the Entrepreneur
It is even more the case when you are an entrepreneur. You might hire 1 or 2 people to start. And then you understand very quickly that someone’s livelihood depends on you. The man works for you and you work even harder for the man.
Here is the whole series thus far.
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Drawing and commentary by Marty Coleman
Quote is a Japanese Proverb
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by Marty Coleman | May 7, 2014 | Illustrated Short Stories |
Your Turn
I liked doing my ‘Unnamed Series’ so much last week that I decided to try a variation on it. This time I am showing a drawing from my sketchbook. It has no title.
What I want you to do is tell me the story you imagine, then post the story in the comments. The only limit is the story must be five sentences or less. I will write my story based on the inspiration from your stories. I will then post the stories with this drawing in a blog post later this week and we can vote on our favorite story.
Ready to give it a try? GO.
Drawing by Marty Coleman
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by Marty Coleman | May 6, 2014 | The 'While Coffee Brews' Exercise Plan |
Last December I did a series illustrating my morning workout regimen. I have added some exercises that I do somewhat regularly since then and wanted to update the series to include them.
Butt Lift and Kicks
The big craze the past few years has been planking. I never planked until I did this exercise. It’s simple enough. You lay on your back, lift your butt of the ground and hold the pose. You really have to work to push your butt up in the air so you body is in a straight line, you can really feel it in your hip flexor and quadricep muscles. It was boring to me to just stay in that pose so I started kicking up high with one leg while maintaining the straight body line. It’s harder than planking if you ask me. I did 20 kicks on each leg.
Flutter Kicks
While I am down on the ground it’s easy to move to the next exercise. I simply lower my butt back to the ground and lift my legs so they are off the ground by a foot or so. This can also be a held plank position of course but once again I like action instead of just holding a pose so I scissor my legs as wide as I can. I mean REALLY wide, then bring them together and cross them, and then back wide again. This is great for strengthening your lower back since your legs are off the ground. It’s fantastic for your glutes and your hips, opening them up and stretching all the small muscles that go deep into your groin.
Because I am so unlimber and stretching is critical for me, I sometimes will lower my legs and use my ottoman and my coffee table to hold my legs wide open. It hurts but it also really helps me avoid really tight hip and groin muscles when I run long distances.
It usually takes about 15 minutes to do 3 circuits of the exercises. Just enough time to let the coffee brew.
The rest of the series is linked here: The ‘While Coffee Brews’ Workout Series. Scroll down once on that page to go from newest to oldest in the series.
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Drawing and exercise plan by Marty Coleman
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by Marty Coleman | May 5, 2014 | Being Alone - 2014, Blaise Pascal, Frederic Dard, Julien De Valckenaere, Marilyn Monroe, Martin Luther |
Hello Napkin Kin! Have you been wondering all weekend what the theme of last week’s ‘Unnamed Series’ is? Well, wait no longer, here is the answer: Being Alone
I started it because a dear friend of mine who is going through a divorce is now living on her own in a condo. She is learning how to be alone for the first time in many years. It’s hard enough to be alone when things are going right, but when your world has imploded and all seems lost, being alone can be devastating. These drawing and quotes were a result of my exploration of the idea of ‘being alone’.
Here they are from first to last, with the quotes written in.
Being Alone #1 – from the series formerly known as ‘Unnamed’
Being Alone #2 – from the series formerly known as ‘Unnamed’
Being Alone #3 – from the series formerly known as ‘Unnamed’
Being Alone #4 – from the series formerly known as ‘Unnamed’
Being Alone #5 – from the series formerly known as ‘Unnamed’
So, now that you know, what do you think? Do the drawings make sense now? Do the quotes fit the drawings? Come on, let me know. I want to do another series like this, it was a lot of fun and there was more than average interaction with the Napkin Kin and your feedback will help make the next series even better.
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Drawings by Marty Coleman
Quotes by the following:
#1 – Frederic Dard, 1921-2000, French author
#2 – Julien De Valckenaere, 1898-1958, Dutch writer
#3 – Martin Luther, 1483-1546, German monk, religious rabble rouser
#4 – Marilyn Monroe, 1926-1962, American actress
#5 – Blaise Pascal, 1623-1662, French mathematician and philosopher
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