The Pinch

The inevitability is now here. The first winter of the first year of our first seasonal business. The sensitive experts remind us that half of all small businesses don't make it to year 3, and over 80% don't make it to year 5. In fact, only 2% of small businesses ever go the distance which means the day we went public we made a choice to probably fail or be one of the blessed 2%. Ours is a pressure packed choice and right now we're definitely feeling the pinch. We've decided to focus our present efforts on networking, education and getting things ready for the crazy Spring but there's still days when we wouldn't mind work now. Bottom line, we trust our plan and are confident in it's execution. We just have to be patient and eat lots of peanut butter.

We had the pleasure of watching our kids perform in their school's winter concert. There was nothing Christmassy about it but it was cute and I was a proud parent none the less. I understand the importance of not using Christmas as a time to Christianize the world but Christmas is Christmas and should either stay as it is or be replaced by something else entirely. Perhaps the replacement has already begun and will take decades longer to reach completion but I have a feeling the completion won't ever occur unless businesses can find a new way to make money. It's interesting how money determines how relevant something is.

As far as I, the writer of this blog goes, I've been loving my Oilers play as of late, even loving my own play as of late scoring on a breakaway last night in front of my cheering wife and kids. Believe me, that doesn't happen every night. Or ever come to think of it. Besides hockey, I'm reading a lot these days, most on Soil Chemistry(I know, yawn but I actually find it fascinating) and the Origin of the Species (Darwin is incredibly misunderstood, its shocking actually) and I'm loving the 5th season of Lost, 7th season of Curb Your Enthusiasm and all our traditional Christmas shows. On top of all this, I'm loving the connections I've been making in my new business and church community.

Life in the pinch can still be good, especially when you're confident of what's coming next.

John