The Value of Your Work

Oh dear lord, I promise that this piece isn't John McCain carping about how he walked uphill to school, both ways, and it made him a better person for it, whereas kids today will never know the character-building benefits of six months in the Hanoi Hilton. Naw, it's Saturday: no need to berate anyone. 

When I mention the value of work, really I'm talking about appreciating the value of your work...whatever form that work takes. Which, of course, really means, appreciating the value of yourself. As I've previously mentioned, when I started this business, I had only the vaguest (and incorrect) idea as to what it meant to be self-employed. Thank god I had no idea, since otherwise I'd have given up and married a family for $15,000 and they'd be living in Queens, while I'd have settled on a small Greek island with about 45 cats...hmm. Is that option still on the table? Food for thought.

Seriously, I had no idea whatsoever what it meant to run a business. No idea how creative and exciting real business is. No idea that business can take any form; from emailing, to blogging, to having a conversation with someone at the gym, to Tweeting, to posting on Facebook, to helping an old friend network....to name but a few ways. Since I'm a type-A personality (surprise, surprise!), I assumed business was 9-5, sitting at your computer, putting up online ads and whatever other happy cubicle-themed horseshit. And so, to ensure that happened, I would skip out on going to the gym, and seeing friends, and all the other things I enjoyed.. And yet, somehow, despite following the rules, I was not making bank. It was rather disappointing.

But slowly, the more time I invested in researching, networking and extrapolating, the more I started understanding that business can happen anytime, anywhere. And I started getting clients anytime, anywhere: at the gym, while on the phone with Banana Republic's customer service, in line at Starbucks, at parties. And I started understanding that yes, going to the gym was actually business since it cleared my head, and gave my brain time to create exciting business proposals which would always lead to more business opportunities. Happy happy joy joy.

You people know where I'm going with this: when you start trusting and valuing yourself in one way, it bleeds over to everything in your life and suddenly you realize, like Dorothy at the end of The Wizard of Oz, you had the power to go back to Kansas allll along. (If you are not a fan of The Wizard of Oz, you probably should stop reading this blog now and forever, since forget it, it'll never work between us. Yes, I totally respect and value your opinion, but sorry, you're wrong. I might have to call you up at home and sing the entire soundtrack to you to make it clear how wrong you are.)

 You have to value your work, in order to create your best work. You have to value that little voice inside of you, in order to let it get louder and louder so you can learn how to do the things you're yearning to do...not to mention all the things you have no idea you're able to do. Yet. As Picasso said: "I am always doing that which I cannot do, in order that I may learn how to do it." And he ended up fairly successful, right? Fairly. Despite how bizarre and terrifying that may sound...it does work, and it does get easier. It even gets rather fun.

Interested in learning how to value your work? Of course you are! Email me @ carlotazee@gmail.com, and visit my Facebook page, "Carlotaworldwide Creativity Yenta," for a free consultation.  

I'm almost hesitant to post this one, since I feel it makes me sound like every other cranky old person, but I spent some time this am reading the Wall Street Journal online, and this article... http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702303657404576363783070164132.html?mod=WSJ_newsreel_careers#articleTabs%3Darticle

...sort of gave me a heart attack. One girl, who graduated in May, submitted "five or six"(!) job applications between January and March, and shockingly, none of that effort resulted in her getting a job, so now she's living at home and planning to travel. Oh. Another graduate profiled discusses that she's heard how hard it is to get a job...so she doesn't want to waste her (obviously, extremely valuable) time, and she's also living at home. Amazingly, the reporter didn't laugh openly at them and/or bitch slap them, saying, "You cannot be serious!"
I'm not sure what's more insane: thinking that one could send off five or six resumes in this recession, and seriously get any job...or the attitude that well, other people say its hard out there so, I better not risk it... Or, the fact that these kids' parents are letting them move back home. The article then ends with some talk about how "young people get pushed out at the bottom" of the employment ladder...right, sure. Or, they push themselves out, because isn't like sending out five resumes enough, gawd?
[This is what I meant about coming across like John McCain yelling at kids to get of his lawn, dammit!]