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Interesting New Ventures
We started two new businesses. A life coaching service and a copywriting agency. A fast track to millions of dollars? Absolutely not! The only way to riches is to expand a business, get people to work for you. Leverage their efforts. Skim a decent profit. Replicate this with other businesses.
Like Rockefeller said: “I would rather take one percent of each one of my one hundred workers than do one hundred percent of the work myself.”
The idea is to build the two businesses and then expand it to companies. Hopefully the businesses can later deliver a decent profit for the stakeholders.
It sounds good on paper. But it is going to require an awful lot of work.
Warmer weather
More energy to start new things. Time to spread one’s wings and fly to the wild blue yonder. New energy for new things. It is nearing September and the weather is getting balmy. No doubt a cold front or two will make its appearance. But the birds are out singing and chirping. It was only two weeks ago that the tap water in the house froze one’s teeth if you mouth washed. That cold front passed and the weather is now livable.
The barbeque
Earlier this week I decided we should have a barbeque. On Saturday. This will be to relax the day and leave Sunday open for preparatory work for the week ahead. Instead I got stuck writing a blog entry for fidelitychurch.com. It was finally published on Sunday. After two days of writing and editing. Uploading the piece: My wife is our CTO (Chief Technical Officer). I do not bother with the technical stuff. Anyway, she uploaded it in duplicate. Fortunately, I checked and we corrected the duplication. This was done after her Sunday snooze. Certain things take priority in my wife’s life. So much for a painstaking, lovingly created piece of “literature”. Life happens yes.
The “braai” (barbecue) went very well. Since we are economizing our budget, we only roasted wors (that would be farmer sausage). It works out cheaper than meat cuts but tastes very good if barbecued on charcoal. A poor man’s BBQ. My wife made a delicious potato salad. Again economizing. The potato being the humble, cheap, all-round vegetable. For once I did not burn the sausage. The trick seems to be standing while braaiing. Then it is easy to constantly turn the barbecuing items. Usually I sit and braai, neglecting the meat. The result is very crisp meat, not appetizing.
Goodbye luxury times.
We have fallen from our lofty pedestal of the better soft drinks usually we buy. In the past we bought the branded good stuff. I undertook for years to absolutely not buy the cheap brand of sodas. I would rather buy fewer soft drinks or not at all. This has changed and you know what? The cheap stuff is not all that bad. There is less natural sugar in them but then Coca-Cola has also substantially reduced its natural sugar content. The RSA government tax the natural sugar content of soft drinks. So, what happened? The soft drink companies dropped the sugar content of their drinks like a stone. They substituted it with artificial sweeteners. How good can that be? Are the artificial sweeteners now replacing natural sugar in drinks not possibly worse for our children’s health?
Coca-Cola with artificial sweetener does not taste the same. Another reason to try out other brands.
2-weeks prison
We had Coronavirus in our house. Our youngest caught it at school. As a result, the school was closed and our house was on hard lockdown for 2 weeks. Fortunately, our town friends came to our assistance by buying groceries and meat for us. Ours’s is a small town. We stand together. It was a hard stretch of 14 days confined to four walls. Fortunately, we have a big house and a large yard. Wi-Fi saved the day.
Hooray! Direction at last!
My son seems to have taken a liking to Stack Development. That would be amongst other things web design and web development. It is good that he decides on something to do with his free time. Especially if the new activity is positive uplifting and can lead to a side income. His end goal is not stack development. He wants a career in physics and or mathematics. He will first need a basic degree in these fields and then decide on the next step. Any step into computer technology will help him to reach his goal.
Spotify enriching life
I started listening to Spotify some weeks ago. I am not bothering to subscribe. To loop and shuffle through albums or collections of songs is good enough for me. The advertising and interruptions do not bother me. The Christian music is very enjoyable. It is modern and light on the ear. I miss church. The coronavirus lockdown closed our town’s churches. Our usual enjoyment of church music and singing has been cut off. Spotify Christian music helps fill that spiritual hunger for elevating music.
Writing blogs regularly
In future I will have to write a lot of blogs regularly. Writing blogs is not that difficult. Doing It well is time consuming. From now on it will be a career and a calling.
Two serious businesses
We started two serious businesses. Copywriting (www.breakoutcopy.com) and life coaching (www.pointoncoaching.com). the first website is just about ready to launch. The life coaching website will follow shortly. Small steps.
Copywriting
Copywriting is a new skill set for me. I have been working on it on and off for 2 years. I am doing the AWAI copywriting course. I found that it is somewhat dated. Happily, I found other courses that are modern, up-to-date and comprehensive. AWAI’s copywriting course is a basic introductory course that is a long way away from our computer age. What can be said for the AWAI basic copywriting course is that it is a solid foundation for copywriting. It is a good place to start learning copywriting. Udemy.com has excellent copywriting courses. I snagged two good copywriting courses and am studying them intensively.
Life Coaching
Life coaching is a different animal. In many respects it is the opposite of being a medical doctor. I will have to unlearn many of my doctor habits and learn the appropriate coaching skills.
The two legs
Working with people is dynamic and energizing. So is working with words. These two legs are propelling my life forward. Working with words and working with people is enjoyable. I hope these two legs will carry me well and prosperously a long way into the future. I hope it will take me places, open doors for me and unlock opportunities.
Writing
Writing is a love I have. But it must have a point and a purpose to it. Writing willy-nilly makes no sense to me. Writing blogs in the majority of cases is slinging words into the dispersing winds of the internet. However, to use them for business makes for motivation and reward. Motivation: build a profitable business. Reward: helping other people and their businesses. In the process I grow as an individual and a member of society. This will be oxygen in our sleepy, rural Free State province of South Africa
Dimming rays
The sun is now setting. The 7days7thoughts blog is completed in its first draft. It was a lazy, satisfying day. With grace there will be many more happy, fruitful days in the coming seasons of our lives.