The blessing and the curse.

I have an entrepreneur heart, and soul. I used to think my dad was crazy, going on and on about how unfair corporate America can be. We would roll our eyes, and barely listen as he spoke off the truth about what it can be like to work for the man. The man who pockets huge amounts of money and hands out 17 cent raises for all your hard work and contribution. You see at the height of these discussions of my dads, I was a stay at home mom/photographer. Which meant, my husband brought in the bacon, and I got to make the fun money. These corporate rants didn't matter to me. 

Well after we got divorced, I found myself super excited to get a BIG GIRL JOB again. You mean I'll get paid every two weeks and not have to worry?! SUPER!  It didn't take long for me to start staring out the window, remembering how big my passion for photography is, and wondering why the heck I was sitting here. I am sorry to say I wasn't very positive about the whole thing, the cost of rent kept sky rocketing, while the paychecks stayed the same. I would get just enough clients to keep sparking that fire in my soul, and I would sit here, and be miserable and dream of my dreams.

This is what I call the blessing and the curse. I have noticed in my time in corporate America that there are those who are perfectly content to be here, dreaming of hitting twenty years, and then retirement...and then there are those with a dream. A dream of their screenplay being picked up, a dream of getting paid to travel and take photographs, a dream of doing something else, on their own, with no required time to clock in. The corpora-teers ( I made that up just now) come in, do their work, exceed expectations and find ways to make their company blossom. The entrepreneurs sit here, and google endlessly how to be better at their dreams, and how to make it happen. Its a blessing because we have talent, and a way to make our passions come true and its a curse because sometimes you just can't break away and go off and do it. So you sit, and dream, and pursue. Its a constant roller coaster of emotions, failure, woohoo moments, and more failure. 

I have been listening to podcast everyday and recently became obsessed with Oprah's Super Soul conversations. Today I listened to her chat with Howard Schultz, the CEO of Starbucks. He was just a kid, who grew up in the projects and watched his dad struggle with blue collar jobs. He ended up hurt, and fired from the job with no insurance. Howard grew up knowing he would create a business that treats their employees better. When Howard had the idea for Starbucks, he has zero dollars and needed someone to invest in his idea. He was told no TWO HUNDRED TIMES, and kept trying anyway. This is the heart and soul of an entrepreneur, chasing your passions and making them come true isn't easy, but when you finally make it happen its the greatest most incredible thing to ever happen. As my buddy Winston Churchill said " never give up, never give up, never give up, NEVER"

Which side are you on? I am in no way implying that being a corpora-teer is a negative thing, I see people completely content with this way of life and that's great!