It’s the first day of Christmas… oh wait.\u00a0 That’s not what this is about.\u00a0 It’s about gratitude.\u00a0 I have a lot to be grateful for this year.\u00a0 Or rather, the year and a half that I have been following the wind with WeatherVane.\u00a0 I am thinking that 31 days won’t be enough even.\u00a0 But let’s start with Day 1.<\/p>\n
Day 1<\/p>\n
I want to start at the beginning of the seed of WeatherVane.\u00a0 So, I am grateful for\u00a0the ability to wonder what it would\u00a0be like to start a business and\u00a0what kind of business it would be.\u00a0 Or should I start with getting fired at Duck Delivery in Portland, OR back in March of 2011?\u00a0 Should I be grateful for that?\u00a0 *sigh*\u00a0 Yes, let’s start there.<\/p>\n
Oooh this one is a\u00a0wee bit touchy.\u00a0 I often am confronted\u00a0by how much I should tell people about this.\u00a0 Especially on an online forum.\u00a0\u00a0How about this- this is what I put on job applications when it asks the question “Have you ever been involuntarily terminated?\u00a0 If so, explain”:\u00a0\u00a0“Oregon is an at-will employment state.\u00a0 The owner of Duck Delivery Produce exercised his right.\u00a0 My supervisor\u00a0had no idea\u00a0I was to be fired and was surprised.\u00a0 It was not performance or policy based.”\u00a0\u00a0The more detailed\u00a0explanation has to wait for my tell-all biography or made-for-tv movie.\u00a0 It definitely has to be reviewed by my publicist\u00a0and legal team.<\/p>\n
So, to be grateful for this… that really takes something for me sometimes.\u00a0 And I remember a conversation that I had with my friend Gary shortly after.\u00a0\u00a0I think it was a frustrating one for him.\u00a0 He kept pestering me to tell him\u00a0what my dream<\/em> was.\u00a0 And I had no idea what he was talking about.\u00a0 I didn’t even know where to start.\u00a0 And there were a few people who even had the audacity to tell me how wonderful it was that I could now “create my life” and “how perfect” it was.\u00a0 I had some choice responses that I only had the balls to say in jest.\u00a0 It took a few dazed weeks, more\u00a0endings,\u00a0and a\u00a0life-changing\u00a0weekend in San Francisco for me to shake it off and understand what everyone was talking about in a way that was beyond a concept.\u00a0 And I started to\u00a0dream <\/em>and create<\/em>.<\/p>\n My original plan was to go back to Wisconsin to the people who loved me unconditionally (my family). \u00a0I had this idea that I could possibly start a coffee shop in River\u00a0Falls, the town I had fallen in love with in college.\u00a0 Last time I was there, there were a few coffee shops, but none really doing what I had thought was a “good job”.\u00a0 And so here I was ten years later with my Starbucks, other food service experience, and the “worldliness” of living in two major metropolitan areas\u00a0under my belt.\u00a0 I thought it was time to shine as a big fish in a small pond with all my street cred.\u00a0\u00a0I failed to see lack of funds as an issue for some reason.\u00a0 I think I was in the “dream and create” haze of optimism that probably plagues all pioneers, trailblazers, and many an entrepreneur.\u00a0 In fact, I think it’s part of the initiation process.\u00a0\u00a0So, I rented a\u00a0van, packed up my stuff, and headed back to River Falls with not much more than the dream.<\/p>\n I am trying to\u00a0think\u00a0of a way to explain exactly what I am grateful for here.\u00a0\u00a0It’s kind of like when I was a\u00a0resident assistant in college.\u00a0 At the end of it, I loved it and was grateful for the\u00a0experience but I would NEVER do that job again.\u00a0 And I\u00a0wouldn’t recommend it to anyone, either.\u00a0 But I am\u00a0a better person and grateful that I did it. \u00a0There should be a name for that. \u00a0A category. \u00a0Because I have many other things that would fall nicely in it, too.<\/p>\n And that is how I feel about the catalyst of losing my job that fateful day in Portland.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" It’s the first day of Christmas… oh wait.\u00a0 That’s not what this is about.\u00a0 It’s about gratitude.\u00a0 I have a lot to be grateful for this year.\u00a0 Or rather, the year and a half that I have been following the … Continue reading