Keep On

The fog has rushed back in to blanket the tip of this peninsula, as it so famously does every summer. This can be a very quiet and lonely time here in many ways. Especially when my kids are out of town, this apartment grows still. I spend such a large part of my time, normally, with them here that their absence, even just for a week, opens a huge hole in my world.

But that's also a good chance for reflection, for some extended privacy, and for writing. This blog, for example, is getting some much-needed attention.

***

News: My first e-book is closer and closer to becoming a reality; I think it may be available for purchase within a few weeks. As I was sifting through some of the proposed chapters today, reviewing updated versions of blog posts I originally wrote over the past nineteen months, something occurred to me, and that was how drawn I am to entrepreneurs simply because they so often convey a deep sense of hope about their futures.

You need to cultivate lots of qualities within yourself to be an entrepreneur -- persistence, open-mindedness, and the ability to discern good advice from bad -- but you also have to be optimistic.

Of course, almost everyone is at times persistent and at times less so; at times flexible and at others, not so much; and in one state hopeful while at another quite hopeless. So it is not so much trying to carve out a new "you" from the constant mix of emotions that literally define us as living creatures, but how to encourage the ones that might better help sustain you through the startup experience.

Having met and interviewed hundreds of these folks recently, I've started to recognize these patterns, and others.

***

It is horribly quiet here, however. I never have confused the online experience of connecting with friends on Facebook, for example, with the real world experience of sitting down with a friend and talking over coffee or tea.

The latter is vastly preferable, so much so that I sometimes wonder whether we might all be better off by turning off our Facebook connections to force ourselves out in to the real world more often.

I don't know what is best. But every day I try to make sure I have at least two real interactions -- in person or by phone with at least two real people. I also text with my closest friends and family members daily and exchange emails in something approaching real-time with a few others.

All of this represents staying connected to me. Because in my view the most dangerous thing in the world is to find yourself disconnected from those you love and care about.

-30-