Inner Dynamo

Issue 006 - 2019-02-18

Lesson: Never ever ever ever give up

Last week a massive storm destroyed a large part of our island infrastructure. The only damage our family suffered was a burst tyre from a deep pothole. They told me it would take 30 minutes to replace, so I headed to the local kafenion for a double-espresso.

I sat there for much longer than 30 minutes, hacking away on my MacBook Air. Some neighbors came in with similar stories of burst tyres and we chatted for a while. Farmer Michaelis told me about an ancient tomb that they found near our house with a skeleton of a giant. The bones disintegrated when they touched them, like the ashes of a cigarette. The tibia (lower leg bone) was a meter long. After some ouzo, we decided that the giant must have been at least three meters tall. We also agreed that he died three or four thousand years ago, since there was no cross on the tomb.

I kept on working all day, writing a newsletter and updating the sales page of my Design Patterns Course. I could have taken the day off. But instead, I worked.

Employees have it easy. They have someone that they report to. I don't. If I take a day off here and there, no one will notice. I could take a month off. Or a year. Or a decade. Or I could stop working altogether. No boss will call me in and rap me over my knuckles.

So what keeps me working?

My inner dynamo. I enjoy what I do. I like digging around in the Java ecosystem and discovering new gems. I know that marketing is important, so I speak at conferences and write newsletters. Accounting is also necessary, so I do that too. I do what I need to, to keep the ship going.

I often imagine I am a farmer like my neighbor with the burst tractor tyre. I sow lots of seed, spreading the word about what I do and what I can offer. Sometimes a company will pick it up and buy 30 courses. Other times the seed will lay dormant for years. I did a course in January where they had seen me speak at a conference five years prior. That's a long time for a kernel to lie in the ground before seeing some result. And still I carry on.

Being self-motivated is absolutely essential if you want to live entrepreneurially.

YOU

SIMPLY

CANNOT

GIVE

UP!

EVER!!!

Giving up is not an option.

Never ever give up.

But I'm weak and frail just like you. I get discouraged when I send out a newsletter and the response is dozens of new unsubscribers. And still I carry on. As Billy Ocean sang: "When the going gets tough, the tough get going."

No one forces me to work. No one forces me to go and make sales. It's the inner dynamo that is spinning and makes me self-motivated.

Employees who want to become entrepreneurs have to first activate this inner force. Stop caring about whether your excellent work will get you a promotion. Do it for your own feeling of satisfaction. Donate your time to good causes. If you are a programmer, contribute to open-source projects. Don't tell me you don't have time. Time is the great equalizer. We all get exactly the same, irrespective of our station. When we are able to work hard without anyone knowing or caring, then we are ready to start off on our own.

Kind regards from your friendly entrepreneur

Heinz

Living Entrepreneurially Archive

• 012 - Crashproof Your Business
• 011 - "Was weg ist, ist weg"
• 010 - Fear of Rejection
• 009 - Quality, Reliability, Be Nice
• 008 - Be Prepared
• 007 - Riding School
• 006 - Inner Dynamo
• 005 - The Fuel Light is ON
• 004 - "I filled it in exactly as your father did"
• 003 - The Espresso Machine Guy
• 002 - "Escape is Giving Me Bad Dreams"
• 001 - The Cleaning Fluid Injection Device

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