{"id":157,"date":"2011-07-28T21:24:58","date_gmt":"2011-07-29T01:24:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/chiefcookandbottlewasher.biz\/?p=157"},"modified":"2011-08-02T21:44:19","modified_gmt":"2011-08-03T01:44:19","slug":"remembering-priorities-or-schooled-by-the-nephews","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/chiefcookandbottlewasher.biz\/?p=157","title":{"rendered":"Remembering Priorities, or Schooled by the Nephews"},"content":{"rendered":"

A few weeks ago I was humbled by my nephews.<\/strong>\u00a0 Don’t get me wrong – nieces and nephews are awesome.\u00a0 They embody all the benefits of having your own children with none of the real responsibility.\u00a0 I have sixteen and\u00a0 strive to maintain close relationships with all of them.\u00a0 My film maker nephew Ty and I discuss art and literature.\u00a0 Jimmy teaches me how to differentiate\u00a0makes of tractors.\u00a0 (We are both partial to International Harvester.)\u00a0 A gaggle of little nieces beg for stories and pony rides.\u00a0<\/p>\n

But, when it comes to nineteen-year-old twins Ben and Dan, I’ve got nothing.\u00a0 They listen to bands I’ve never heard of.\u00a0 They do extreme sports\u00a0that involve twisting body parts at unnatural heights that I am sure cannot be healthy.\u00a0\u00a0They are young and hip and cool and I’m……not.<\/strong>\u00a0 To make matters worse, they are identical<\/em> twins, and I, apparently, am the only member of the family who cannot tell them apart.\u00a0 Oh sure, when they are side by side I can see that one is slightly<\/em> taller and one has\u00a0a touch <\/em>lighter shade of bluish green eyes.\u00a0 But, the thing is, I can never remember which one<\/em> is taller or has the greener eyes.\u00a0 For a while Ben had braces, which was a boon to our relationship, but that ended with middle school.\u00a0 So, for now, a lot of\u00a0conversations start out on my part with an awkward “Hhhhhey…..”\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

You can imagine my excitement, then, when\u00a0the family scuttlebutt was that Ben and Dan were starting a t-shirt business.\u00a0<\/strong> YES!\u00a0 Finally, here was some way we could connect.\u00a0 I would fill the role of\u00a0trusted mentor to guide them along the complex and difficult journey of Small Business ownership.<\/p>\n

The concept was simple enough:\u00a0 design really rad t-shirt graphics, screen a few samples in a friend’s garage, hawk the shirts to the ubiquitous surf\u00a0shops along the Jersey Shore boardwalks, and print to order.\u00a0 How easy is that?\u00a0<\/p>\n

Oh, but there could be so much MORE!\u00a0 Fully in my comfort zone, on my\u00a0next\u00a0trip to\u00a0New Jersey\u00a0I came prepared.\u00a0<\/strong> The Business Plan.\u00a0 The Marketing Plan.\u00a0 The Production Plan.\u00a0 The Growth Plan.\u00a0 The Exit Plan.\u00a0 I attractively spread my ideas before the twins like a peddler displaying his wares.\u00a0 <\/strong><\/p>\n

Cricket. Cricket. Cricket….\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Finally Dan (or was it Ben?) said, “Yo, dude, we just want to earn enough extra money so we can surf all summer.”\u00a0 <\/strong><\/p>\n

Huh.\u00a0 Imagine that.\u00a0 Starting a Small Business so that you have enough money to do the things you really want to do.<\/strong><\/p>\n

People say starting a Small Business is like having a baby.\u00a0 And, like parents, we Small Business owners nurture and guard and watch that baby grow.\u00a0 Too often, though, our businesses consume us.\u00a0 We become the helicopter parents of commerce.\u00a0\u00a0Like Gollum and his ring, we can no longer separate ourselves from\u00a0our treasure.\u00a0 We forget why we started the whole thing to begin with.\u00a0 But, no matter how vested we are, our businesses are a means to another end, be it serving the community, personal fulfillment, independence, or a paycheck to do the things we really want and live our lives.<\/em>\u00a0 We are not our businesses.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

So, this summer remember to take a break from your Small Business, and if you happen to be at the Jersey Shore, pick up a\u00a0t-shirt and help a few college kids catch their<\/em> next wave.<\/p>\n

When was the last time you did something you<\/em> really wanted to do?<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A few weeks ago I was humbled by my nephews.\u00a0 Don’t get me wrong – nieces and nephews are awesome.\u00a0 They embody all the benefits of having your own children with none of the real responsibility.\u00a0 I have sixteen and\u00a0 … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[41],"tags":[8,42,20],"class_list":["post-157","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-small-business-and-your-life","tag-small-business","tag-small-business-lifestyle","tag-small-business-ownership"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/chiefcookandbottlewasher.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/157","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/chiefcookandbottlewasher.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/chiefcookandbottlewasher.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chiefcookandbottlewasher.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chiefcookandbottlewasher.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=157"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/chiefcookandbottlewasher.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/157\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":166,"href":"https:\/\/chiefcookandbottlewasher.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/157\/revisions\/166"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/chiefcookandbottlewasher.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=157"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chiefcookandbottlewasher.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=157"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chiefcookandbottlewasher.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=157"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}