Being Sick is Hard for us Gritty Folks

I've been pretty sick for the past week - just a nasty cold. Fall allergies have been the worst this year here in Texas. Even the dogs are having sinus problems! At any rate, I have to tell you that yesterday was awesome. It was the first day that I was able to wake up and stay awake! Oh boy, I'm in trouble if that's considered a big accomplishment! I got so much done and my inner entrepreneur was screaming, "Hallelujah!" 

I felt I had been stagnating in terms of growth - not looking for new enterprises, outlets, ways to make money. The guilt and self-loathing was all compounded by the fact that I'd been sleeping about 50-70% of my day. Having a cold is not helped by my already compromised immune system and lots of time that could be misconstrued as "free" time to spend getting well, aka sleeping. One day, I woke up at 10 am, decided to take a nap by 1:30 pm and woke to the sound of my significant other coming home. He came in to check on me and I snarfled awake saying, "Is it 5:00 already?!" He laughed, I groaned.

Needless to say, I feel the same way about being sick as the wise philosopher, Sweet Brown. She said, "Ain't nobody got time for that!"

At any rate, I was thrilled to get back to work yesterday. I made great strides in accomplishing some new goals, found a new sales outlet and have made some good progress in my investments. It was an all-around great day! I hope my rediscovered energy holds out while I continue to fight off the remnants of this cold. Fall is a great time to be a retailer and I need to have my wits about me to take as many pieces of the pie as I can!

Grit it together, woman!

Life Gives You Lemons? Make Lemonade. Then Sell It.

In my last post, I talked about looking for entrepreneurial avenues and ways to make money. One of my proudest entrepreneurial moments is turning a huge life-lemon into a good, old-fashioned lemonade stand. Heck, why not? I found out several years ago, in my mid-twenties, that I was whole-hog allergic to gluten. In fact, Celiac Disease runs in my family, many of the women on my mom's side of the family suffer from gluten intolerance.

So, my sister and I started a gluten-free related business and turned the tables on that nasty little protein that has made life so difficult. Its one of my smallest sources of revenue, but the most meaningful.  Now, I see life problems, even someone else's life problem, as a hole in the market. That's an entrepreneurial perspective I'll never be able to unlearn. Its in there, in my noggin, waiting to help me turn a profit on something else one day in the future.

I love talking to other entrepreneurs and listening to TED.com talks so much because I invariably get a "nugget" of an idea that I can store away for the day it becomes relevant. Some of them are so exciting that they stay in the forefront of my mind, cropping up when I'm in the bath, about to fall asleep or while I'm cooking. Annoying me, reminding me that I don't have endless capital... yet.

At any rate,  like I said, "If life gives you lemons, make lemonade then sell it!" That's the best way to conquer an obstacle - turn it into opportunity.