While I have been building up my own business I’ve seen quite a few others come and go.

The more and more I work towards my own goals, the less I really care about trying to fend off my ‘competition’ and here is why.

First, many of them give up. For any number of reasons, maybe they get overwhelmed, run out of money, lose their passion from being over involved, etc. Being an entrepreneur lends itself to a certain level of hardships.

Secondly, I do my best to offer quality. Regardless of what my product or service is, I try to work and learn hard so that I know what I am offering is something worthwhile. I am dedicated to being great at what I do and keeping that quality level high.

How does this tie into Drive and Dedication?

Drive allows me to keep stomping through the muck on my way to reaching my goals. Without this drive, I would be like many of those that end up giving up.

Some hardship would come up and instead of trying to figure out how to work through the problem, I might just say “Screw this, I’m out”.

Instead, and what I feel is a characteristic of many of the people that inspire me, I push through, and in pushing through I learn.

My dedication to learning and training to master my crafts turns right back around and gives me that drive that I need to continue building.

For example, let’s say I am a web developer(I am), and let’s say I have all these skill sets for building websites and driving traffic to them(I do), then in order to monetize those skill sets, I need to find clients.  “Oh no….I’ve never done that, I’ve always had a boss tell me what I am supposed to be doing.”

No Clients = No Money

No Money = Failing Business

Time to start marketing myself…

This alone could scare most people into updating their resume and sending it out to every job they may or may not qualify for.

“Marketing myself means talking to people and selling them stuff(my skillset). No one likes to be sold stuff.  How will I ever figure that out?”

Instead of just giving up and trying to ‘market’ my skill set to an employer so that I can make a capped salary, I embrace having to obtain this new knowledge. Gaining this new knowledge is going to mean getting new mentors in a field I’ve never been in. Hours and hours of research on case studies and split tests. Meeting and interacting with high level people that already have this knowledge.

Making more contacts! This will come in handy down the road.

Knowing how to find and get in touch with people that actually need my product or service  would not only make getting clients easier, it also adds one more skill to my skill set. This increases my value which in turn will increase my own  confidence in selling said skill set to those that need it.

This example is a true story and shows you how embracing the unknown can build you up to become better at what you do.  As well, while embracing these unknowns, I am carving out a path that will set me above my competition and keep any clients that I obtain, wanting to work with me time and time again.

Without being dedicated to your goals you will lose the drive that got you started on them in the first place.  Don’t stop, keep pushing through. If you do this, you will work it out and you will be better because of it.

“Do you think if Friday was the weekend, and Thursday was Friday, that it would be as hard to work on Thursday as it is on Friday?”

I think it was after having seen the stream of facebook messages which all had similar meaning.

It is hard to work on Friday because once you are finished you are FREE!

Think about this.  It is 11am Friday morning, and you are sitting there halfheartedly working on a not so important work project.  Clicking around on the computer, reading whatever not work related websites you can access through your companies firewall. You are READY to GO!  It does not matter what you plan on doing once you leave work, all that matters is that it is what YOU want to be doing.

Almost like the anxiety you get when waiting for christmas eve to end and christmas morning to be there. The same feeling you get right before the big game that you and your team have been practicing for all year.  It’s the weekend, it’s your time to do whatever you want.

So I started thinking, what if you had more time to do what you want. How many days of doing whatever you want to do are fulfilling enough to warrant a feeling of going back to work?

Hence the question, “Do you think if Friday was the weekend, and Thursday was Friday, that it would be as hard to work on Thursday as it is on Friday?”

Would you get more work done if you only worked Monday through Thursday than a full 5 day schedule? Would you get that same feeling at 11am on Thursday morning knowing that as soon as you get off work you’ll be free again?

Based on the replies that I received, the general consensus is Yes, it would be just as hard to work as it is on Friday right now.

Ok, lets take it to one more day.  Thursday is now the weekend, you are only working 3 full days, Monday through Wednesday.

You take your job seriously, there are things you have to do in order for business to keep on trucking.  Are three 8 hour days long enough?  Do you think if you really buckled down for those 24 hours in the week you would be able to get everything done?

Instead of going to Tuesday being the last day of the work week, I want to try and flesh out an idea about this and commerce.

I suppose it really all depends on where your income is coming from, and what your income is numbers wise, for this idea to really get detailed. So lets just go with a standard 9 – 5 M – F work week. No 24 hour shops, no 7 day shops.

Most employers require that you work 40 hours a week.  This has been stable now for quite some time, and at least the last 15 or so years that I have been working.

At 32 hours a week you have to be really on your hustle to fit in 40 hours worth of work. If you had 40 hours worth of work to do.  If you had about 8 hours a week of idle time at the office, you at least now get to spend that time at home.

Cut to Wednesday and that is only 24 hours of work time to do what you normally do in 40 hours.  Can you do it? And if so, why are you not already doing that? Why drag out 24 hours worth of work for 40 hours?

Anyways, I guess I am starting to babble.  These are just some things to think about.  Maybe after some more diliberation one of us can come up with a solution that will give everyone more free time to do what they want and less time at work.

What if working is what you want to do in your free time?

- b