We are all tired. It is the dog days of summer, the bad economics have lasted too long, and we need either a break or a shot in the arm to excite us.
If you are deeply tired, take some time this week to rest as we approach Labor Day. It is important to rest as well as work. I mean take a real rest, a non-working rest ~ go to the beach, or hang out with your buds or your family, or read a junk book. Turn off the computer – don’t putter, don’t do administrative work, turn your mind off for a couple of days.
When I was young, vagabonding around the world, I worked for a year at an architectural building site in Brighton by the Sea, in England (a delightful seaside town with a pier and salt-water taffy and little twinkling white lights in the trees all year round down on the promenade). The architect and I were gazing out the window of the rooms we were working in, as the demolition crew – long-haired happy muscular young men with a big wrecking ball on a chain – crashed down our building from the opposite end, on their way slowly to where we sat. He pointed out a worker leaning on a shovel at the top of the site. “See there?” he asked. “Always remember that the time you lean on your shovel is as important as the time you are digging.”
Balance is precious. It restores your spirit. A quiet mind creates new ideas. A calm mind is open to new thoughts.
The recession got you tense? I’m sure if you are suffering from it, it has. But remember that these companies were built in various bad times:
During the (first) great depression, 1873–1895
§ Hersey’s
§ IBM
§ General Electric
§ AT&T
§ Johnson & Johnson
§ Gillette
§ Chevron
During the Great Depression, 1929-1939:
§ Fisher-Price
§ HP
§ 20th Century Fox
§ United Technologies
§ Texas Instruments
During the stagflation, oil crisis and market crash of the 1970s:
§ Microsoft
§ Apple
§ Genentech
During the downturn of the early 1980s:
§ Sun Microsystems
§ Autodesk
§ Adobe
§ Electronic Arts
§ Symantec
So, take a break. Think a new thought. And after Labor Day, when our Calvinist work ethic kicks in and we put our heads down to work until the year-end holidays, take your new thought and your renewed energy and build your dream company.
And, in taking my own advice, I will be playing on Monday, Labor Day, and this blog will be resting as well.
Thank you, Joey, for the advice. You are absolutely right…I should slow down at least for once a month. But you know what? I cannot do that…I always find myself at the computer by the afternoon: “Oh, I have to check that stuff…just five minutes…”
In America, I am naturally a workaholic.
When we go home to Europe, during the first two days I anxiously turn on the compute every day to see what’s going on. But from the fifth day I kind of forget about it, and the change of the air completely consumes me — I can finally start relaxing.
Have a great time playing this weekend. We will fly to Europe in two weeks…to relax.
Edith
Great post with a phenomenal lesson for us all. “Great opportunities are created in the worst of times – if we only look for them with open eyes instead of hiding from them out of fear of loss.”