The next trickiest, at least once you’ve got an established business, is motivating yourself to leave your neighborhood. Life can get so comfortable out here in the virtual work place that you can forget there’s a world outside your office, the health club, grocery stores, cafes and wherever else you roam during your work day.
And, as the years creep up on me, I find it harder and harder to get the motivation to pack my things. Which is incredible as I list travel at the top of my list of loves. But packing . . . Boy, does packing start to weigh on me, both literally and figuratively.
Plus, unless you have enormous back up support -- and which of us really does in this realm? -- prepping for a trip and then returning feels like climbing Everest 20 times over. Having just done the hard chug to get three hours to New York City two weeks ago with teenage daughter in tow, I can still feel the burn of that last day as I raced from computer to bedroom to bathroom in a mad dash to get into the car within an hour of our scheduled departure time.
But once out and about, wow, it was so worth it!
Even though New York City isn’t my favorite place, it’s hard to beat as business networking destination. Where else can I meet more interesting and important people in the space of two city blocks? And don’t believe what people say about New Yorkers being aloof. If you’re open to connecting, you’ll meet people without even trying on subways, at supermarkets, in ticket lines, etc . . . some of whom may even become business contacts.
This visit I promised my daughter would be FUN (note emphasis), meaning I wouldn’t drag her from office to office on endless business calls. That created a certain challenge as I really wanted to take advantage of being in the city to build on some older contacts and make some new ones.
Visiting my editor to discuss the release in early 2009 of “2030” -- my upcoming kid’s book with James Daly about the future of technology and society as experienced by generic kids -- was relatively easy to sell to my daughter. Even a 14-year-old can’t raise too many objections to checking out a major publishing house, being treated to lunch in the Village and handed free books from their publisher’s dump pile. Plus, I topped off that day with a stop at Macy’s and H & M.
I knew better than to try to get said daughter to New Jersey to meet a magazine client or book a late afternoon meeting with the CEO of another client, even though it nearly killed me knowing thousands of dollars of business could be a stake. But when your kid is at the stage when they talk to you one minute and spit the next, spending quality time with them is the most important thing.
The publishing house meeting was better than I’d even imagined. My editor and I have been collaborating on this project for seven years. We are familiar enough to scream and yell and make up over silly details, and all via phone or email. But nothing beats an in-person, relaxed meeting. By the end of lunch we’d covered marketing issues and even cooked up several ideas for future projects, none of which would have as smoothly if we sat in our respective offices with other phones ringing and endless distractions like the beep of incoming emails. And seeing my daughter light up as she discussed literature with one of the top kid’s editors in the world made my heart sing.
I had planned on a quick meeting with editors at a famous business magazine about 10 blocks uptown from Dutton, figuring that wouldn’t intrude too much on kid time. At the last minute, my editor begged off. But she did agree to promote my work elsewhere in the magazine. Could this have happened from my home office? Sure, but I think it impressed her that was I was willing to visit in person. I became more than a voice on the phone or a file in her inbox.
Fortuitously, the landlord and lady of the apartment we rented are global business people who may provide huge work opportunities down the line. Taiwanese by birth, Wilson and Zoe have integrally involved in international business and global affairs for a number of years. Semi-retired now, they are exploring a variety of consulting options from advising the clean up of coal plants (him) to developing global women’s conferences and even doing some feng-shui consulting (her).
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Given that we were staying one flight up there wasn’t much intrusion on my daughter as we were able to meet at breakfast and teatime when she was otherwise engaged. Over these quick meetings we explored mutual interests and started to outline a future direction. By the time we paid the breakfast bill the last day and Wilson hailed a cab, we had agreed to exchange resumes and meet in New England to create an action plan.
Who knows where any of this will lead? Will I sell another book? Promote Wilson to environmentalists and utilities in the U.S.? Create feng shui programming at women’s conferences in Bangladesh?
One thing is clear: none of these options would be on the table if I had stayed at home in my pajamas.
