does it really work
My first couple of real jobs were as a receptionist/executive assistant. Those jobs were perfect just out of college roles - I learned a lot about what it meant to be a grownup - negotiating my salary, sacrificing paycheck $$ to my 401K, paying rent and utilities, etc. The responsibilities that school doesn’t teach you.
But what I really learned in those jobs is a lot about myself. There is nothing I enjoy less than sitting at a desk, waiting for someone to give me a task to complete. To me, that feels like a total and complete waste of time. This is absolutely no shade to anyone who does sit at a desk in return for a paycheck - it’s a very normal and probably lucrative thing to do! But for me, it really did not work. I was never really a stellar student in school, and I think for a similar reason - it all gave me very ‘what is this all FOR and why are we all here’ vibes.
Since then, my goal has always been to build a job that works for my life. That has manifested in a couple of different ways as I’ve been at different stages of my life, but has changed the way I live and think about work - I could never go back.
Now, not only do Britt and I actively build our businesses around our lives, but we also want that for everyone on our team. We’ve structured Mavinhouse specifically so that the planner’s role can change and morph and shift as their life does.
Whenever we are goal setting, for 42 North, for Mavinhouse, or with each of our team members, yes we talk about financial goals (none of this means we don’t want to make money - please, let’s make all the money, and doesn't mean don't work hard - we all do that, right?), but we also talk about whether a goal that we have in mind is right for us, right now.
There have been times in our lives and businesses where Britt and I have put a project or goal on pause because it’s not the right time, right now, and looking back at those times, I’m so glad that we did.
Sometimes we actually don’t have to do all the things that we are ‘capable’ of doing. Just because we are physically able to say yes to something doesn't make it the right fit.
In the spirit of my 2023 mantra of being more of who I already am, I thought it was important that you know all of this, but if you know me in real life you’ve probably already been at the receiving end of me asking lots of questions about your work and not holding back when I have ideas about how you could make it fit into your life better.
I think talking about business in a way that isn’t totally focused on hustling and working so hard that you miss out on life is a really important thing - important to me at least! So - if you own your business - does it fit into your life or does it totally take over? Maybe somewhere in between? I’d really love to know.