Is It Time?

Early in December, not long after my last job interview, I was talking to a friend on the phone. We have been friends for forty years, and it's safe to say she knows me almost as well as I know myself.

I said that if the job didn't come through I was going to have to do something different in the new year.

She said yeah, she'd heard that before. She said that's the same thing I said last year.

I hate when that happens, when a friend zaps me with the truth at close range.

She was right. I knew it.

We had this conversation just before my presentation for the entrepreneurship skills class I took last fall. The last class was December 15, the day I was scheduled to share my business plan with classmates.

My presentation went very well, better than I expected. My plan was commended for its detail and conciseness, although a three-page plan does tend to stand out among plans of a dozen pages or more. My PowerPoint went off without a hitch. We had fun, which has always been my goal, and classmates made excellent suggestions about marketing and production. They think I'm onto something and should aggressively pursue the sale of my product.

Then two days later I had a cookie swap for ten people at my house, and three days after that my son came home from California. Then it was Christmas and New Year's, and then it was time to clean up after the holidays. This week my youngest son is home and...and...and....

To humor myself, and so I could tell my friend I was trying, I told myself I needed a sign to know if I should go forward with my idea for a business.

Early last week, while I was in Boston, someone explained to me how he prints out his own postage for packages at home to save time at the post office. Then I saw a television commercial where a postal carrier explains how easy it is for a customer to have packages picked up at their house.

That's not that big a deal though, is it? Anyone could benefit from that information [especially someone who has a business that involves sending packages to people].

Early this week Mir wrote a post at Cornered Office where she mentioned how much she likes using Quicken to track her finances. I left a comment, and she emailed me to emphasize how much she likes the Quicken program.

That's a coincidence, right? I have Quicken on my laptop and learned during my class that it's a great tool for someone with a small business. A lot of people use a computer program to organize their finances [especially someone with a small business who keeps their own books and wants to have well-kept records for an accountant].

Two bits of information. No big deal. I believe in three. For signs to be important, they need to occur in three's....

Today I realized while I was vacuuming [talk about being in a meditative state] that I did receive a third sign. Several weeks ago I started talking about what kind of image I wanted for marketing purposes. I found a photograph I liked, and I shared it with several people, who liked the idea. The photo is copyrighted and not exactly what I wanted, and I haven't heard back from the artist, so I set the idea aside. This week my friend who-knows-me-well sent me an email with a drawing attached, a sketch that her stepdaughter did when she was asked by my friend if she could draw something for me to use. With small changes, it will be just what I had in mind.

Three. That's three, Sharon. Now what do you have to say?

I say that this isn't what I had in mind. I had a nice little hobby, no pressure, that I was going to do on the side. I wanted to go every day to a "real" job where I would work with other people, earn a regular paycheck, and make use of the degree I spent two years and lots of money to get.

After more than two years of job hunting, dozens of applications, and more disappointment than I care to recount, I think it may be time to change my intention.

I say that I believe that the universe hears our intentions, though whether it chooses to listen or not is out of our hands. If I go forward with this idea for a small business and put all my eggs in this basket, then I am saying that I intend to succeed. Until now I didn't have any eggs in this basket, and I kept the basket hidden. If I put this intention out to the universe, I need to be ready to deal with what happens next.

A new year is under way.

There is a follow-up meeting of my entrepreneurial group on January 26 where we will discuss strategic planning.

I have set that date as my deadline.

It may be time to "just do it."