I’m going on vacation later this month. There, I said it.

I talked about this once on my old blog, but it always amazes me how touchy us American businesspeople are about vacations. It’s like we’re afraid to take them. I recall a vacation e-mail autorespond message from a client awhile back. Let’s call him “George”. His message said something like:

“I’ll be on vacation from XX to YY. However, I will be checking e-mail twice a day, and if it’s an emergency, you may reach me on my cell at XXX-XXX-XXXX. The hotel front desk # is XXX-XXX-XXXX if you wish to leave a message there as well.”

Goodness, it doesn’t sound like George is taking much of a vacation, does it?

Now, maybe I could understand this type of dedication if George was involved in, I dunno… national defense, or maybe saving lives. But I know for a fact George works in marketing. And I also know for a fact there was really nothing pressing going on at the time. In plain terms, George was scared to just “go” on vacation and cut the cord. Either he felt that way on his own, or his company bullied him into feeling that way, or maybe a combination of both. It’s no wonder he’s going bald and has an ulcer. 

Not this guy. I’m going on vacation sans laptop. And my cell is a “family/friends only” cell - no biz stuff. No client will be able to get in touch with me. And no e-mail will be checked. And that’s fine - I cannot imagine a scenerio where anyone will say “Quick, get ahold of Dan Furman or ALL IS LOST!!”  In fact, that phrase has never been spoken before. Which is just fine w/ me.

I was this way back when I worked for “the man”, as well. When my vacation time came, I just went - whatever I was doing could wait until I got back. It got some managers mad, but I felt that was their problem and not mine. If their tightly wound type-A personalities couldn’t handle me not being in touch for a few days, well, they’d just have to learn to live without me. And a few did - permanently…. I’m not going to say my attitude is without risk.

But at least I have hair

Note for you new businesspeople: We’re wise to the “partner” ruse.

Trust me, when I give you my price and you say “Hey, that sounds great. Let me bring it to my partner, and I’ll get back to you”, I know I’ll never hear from you again.

Not that I’m complaining - I know you don’t want to say “I can’t afford you”, and you’d also rather not say to me “your price is too high”. I get it - you’re just trying to be nice. But I just thought I’d tell you that us experienced businesspeople are totally wise to the lie. We know there’s no partner. Most of us used this same line at one point as well. (edit: I realize some of you really have a partner and are right now thinking “but… but…”. Trust me, I don’t mean you

And trust me, you’ll stop using it the minute it gets used on you. In fact, it’s kind of a right of passage. Once the partner line gets used on you, it’s one sign that you are truly in business.

You freelancers / work at home / service people will LOVE this.

Ok, I’m about a month into this sleeping thing I mentioned in an earlier post, and it has been fantastic. It’s made me look at insomnia and the like a little differently. At least in my case.

Quick recap: I had horrible insomnia, which started two years ago when I began “getting up earlier” to be more businesslike in my business.  At least I thought it was more businesslike. A month ago, I nixed that, and followed my heart/body in wanting to stay up until 2-3am, and sleeping until 10-11am.

I’ll fall short of saying “my experience is everyone’s”, but I am also convinced that if one goes to bed / gets up when they really want to, they won’t be as apt to have sleeping problems. I know it worked for me, and I had AWFUL sleeping problems. Because I’d turn to the clock and say “@#$%, I gotta get up in 5 hours. PLEASE fall asleep”.

But now, I look at the clock and say “it doesn’t matter” (because it truly doesn’t), and I fall asleep. Plus, I go to sleep whenever I am truly tired enough to sleep, not when I have to. This is a huge revelation for me - I feel like I hit the lottery.

Now I understand that this is not useful to millions of you out there. You have your life setup where you have to get up at 5am or whatnot to get to work, etc etc. But this is useful to millions of others who, like me, kind of have options. I work for myself - work starts when I get here. As long as I can realistically converse with other people during “some” normal business hours, it makes zero difference if I’m here at 8:30am, or 11am. Let me repeat - it makes no difference.

If you have insomnia, yet can realistically set your life up to follow whatever your body’s natural sleep pattern is, I strongly encourage you to give it a try.

I sometimes hear little motivational quotes or the like that make a lot of sense to me. I just read this one a few minutes ago. It was in the sports section of the NY Times - Joe Namath left a note for Mark Sanchez (the current NY Jet QB), which had this little nugget on it:

Focus on your priorities. If you chase two rabbits, both will get away.

I really liked that, and wanted to share it. Because I’m guilty of chasing like… nine rabbits sometimes.