Re-entry after the sabbatical

I've now been back to work for 2 months now after my 3 month sabbatical. As you can probably see, one of the things that's happened is I've been able to post less. I still have tons of ideas for blog posts, but making the connection between idea and execution has been a lot harder with 10 hours a day, 5 days a week spoken for.

I enjoy the camaraderie with my co-workers back at work. I also like having all of the resources available to me that a large company has. As I'm working my project, 10-20 other people are working other aspects of it that I don't need to worry about. And the fat paycheck does wonders to replenish the hole in the savings account (before you think I'm really high in this company, I want to tell you that "fat" means fat for a single guy in a city with a very low cost of living).

But the frustration of being in the corporate world still gnaws at me. We still have functional silos that I hate dealing with. The organization chart for the function that represents the consumer and the function that represents production doesn't cross until the general manager (4 levels above me). Which means any decision that requires a trade-off between the functions must be made by someone who thinks about my project for maybe 1 hour a week. Which means we need to have endless meetings and create endless documents and presentations to frame the issue for the general manager, who then makes a call based off a high level view of the project and the company's strategies.

Enough of the complaining. One of the things I'm grappling with is how to find time to work on the outside of work stuff. Another development that has affected my free time is I'm in a relationship that has really progressed in the past few months. (She doesn't quite get the allure of blogging. When I come across people like that, I blog about them. That either causes them to read the blog, or if they don't, I can talk about them without fear of repercussion). The only goal that ranks above being financially independent is being in a great relationship and family. However, she completely buys into the vision of being financially independent, so the prospects are good for finding a win-win at some point! Meanwhile, I'm still working the balance.

Being back at work has given me the challenge of trying to find time for my own projects. The techniques I've learned about have really helped me keep things rolling, but I'd love for things to progress faster. Being on sabbatical had different challenges... it was more getting myself motivated and developing self-discipline.

Re-entry after the sabbatical

The last day of the sabbatical

Today is the last day of my 3 month sabbatical. It's been very relaxing, and it definitely recharges your batteries. On Monday, I return to the corporate world. Now, I pause and reflect on some things I've accomplished, discovered, or figured out during my 3 months off...

It's a really nice break mentally. Your life is a lot simpler when you aren't required to be anywhere at a particular time. You have no bosses telling you what to do, and no organizational things you hafta worry about. My alarm clock broke about a day into the sabbatical, and I haven't had one in my room since. When I wake up, I don't know what time it is until I boot up the computer. I usually wake up around 8-9 AM on my own, but not being jolted awake is very therapeutic.

I feel like my capability to take !@#$! is a lot higher. If you asked me a month into the sabbatical about going back to work, I would tell you I dread it with all my soul. Right now, although of course I'd prefer to not need to go back, I feel OK with it and that I can handle it. I think even a 2 week vacation isn't enough; you aren't able to completely unplug. A 3 month vacation where you're working on something also doesn't really cut it. The ability to not have anything on your mind, and the ability to work on whitespace for an extended period of time is really cleansing for my mind.

One thing I was able to accomplish was cleaning out an extra bedroom and making it a home office. I live alone, and I used to do all my work in the family room on the couch with an IKEA laptop desk. A couple months ago I packed up the pile of books that were on the desk and shipped it off to Half Price Books. I now have a nice desk that faces out the window that I work from. I still would like to "pimp my home office" sometime (maybe add a fridge and a tea maker, maybe a sound system so I can work to some classical music?), but just having a nice space with a window really inspired me. Plus I would keep my laptop there, so when I woke up in the morning it would be the first place I'd head... and it'd get me started on my day fast.

I discovered the Pomodoro technique, which helped me overcome my natural weak points. I tend to not want to focus on one thing at a time, jumping around to do other things. I do this because I'm a curious person, but also because I tend to doubt myself and wonder if what I'm doing really is going to help the big picture. But setting a timer and requiring yourself to 25 min with no distractions was really effective for me.

With this technique, I feel more confident that I can continue to work on the ultimate goal of financial independence while working in the corporate world. I can set aside 25 min of my time daily to advance my projects. My home office is a nice place to work now. Panera's are the best place to work (outside of the 11-2 lunch rush), with ample space, free soda refills, and a nice environment. Barnes and Noble and Borders now offer free wifi and are great places to work too. Starbucks also has free wifi now if you buy something with their gift card, and there's of course one on every corner. I was able to figure out what to get at these places now, since I don't drink coffee and I don't like Panera's food all that much... I get a iced or hot tea, with milk and sweetener. With all that, I can easily set aside a chunk of time to move forward with my projects.

I'm OK working on my own. One concern I had was if I would miss the human interaction with my co-workers. And honestly I don't (nothing against them, they're great to hang out with). I have friends who are entrepreneurs and corporatepreneurs, and I have lunch with them. I figureed out that my company IM system links with AIM, so I was able to keep in touch with my good friends. I definitely see less people than at work, but it's the equivalent of working at a small company.

The burn rate is real. Usually I take my paycheck, pay off all my bills, and deposit the rest into savings. For the first time, I had to do it backwards... figure out how much my bills were, pull that amount out of my savings, and pay my bills. That was quite a shock to the system watching my savings account dwindle like that. Usually a bad month was when there was nothing going into savings. This just made me want to have a good cash flow in from another source before quitting my day job. For me, having my day job fund my ventures is still a pretty good model.

So on Monday, I rejoin the corporate world. It's been a great 3 months. Hopefully the next time it'll be for good!

The last day of the sabbatical

Inspiring video about sabbaticals

Thanks Tom for this TED video about from Stefan Sagmeister...  Stefan closes his design studio for a year every seven years. The best part of this talk was the illustration of little pieces of retirement put into the working years (about 1:30 into the video).

As I enter the last week of MY 3 month sabbatical, I plan on taking some time to reflect on what I've learned and accomplished in the last 3 months. But one thing I can say for sure right now: it was definitely a great thing to do. Enjoy the video!

Inspiring video about sabbaticals

Hitting 4 hours a day - with the help of a tomato

I blogged earlier about how I was struggling trying to reach my goal of 4 hours of good work a day. I'm happy to report that the last two weeks have been very productive and I've gotten to 4 hours a day!

I went over the tipping point with the help of a technique I read on a blog... I would love to give the kudos, but I honestly can't remember where I got it from. It's called the "Pomodoro Technique" (after looking into this technique some more, I discovered pomodoro means tomato. You'll hafta check it out yourself to find out why it's called that).

In a nutshell, you basically set a timer for 25 minutes (one Pomodoro). You start the timer, and you have to work on one task for 25 straight minutes. If you stop and do something else, you have to start the 25 minutes over. If you're tempted to do something else, you should just write it down, then decide if it's worth it to start over. You must stop at the end of the 25 min, and take a 5 or 30 min break (depending on how many you've done already).

The technique is great because it makes you focus on one task; as I mentioned in previous posts, I have a hard time doing that. But I like that it recognizes distractions occur, and it has you write down the distraction so you can get to it during your breaks. Or you combine them together to form a whole 25 minute session. The forced 25 minute session (technically you're not allowed to go over) also gives you some sense of urgency to get your task completed so you also are inspired to be efficient.

I used this method to tackle important tasks that I procrastinate on. I procrastinate because the task appears too big to tackle, or tasks where I feel some self doubt on. For instance, as I mentioned before, I hired a programmer to help with the latest NOTtheBookStore.com. His part is done, but I have a lot of things I still wish to change on the site. Taking one look at the code floored me. But I set my iPhone to 25 minutes one day, with the goal to figure out how to change the design of the front home page. I ended up figuring out how to do it, and along the way learning about organizing functions, object oriented php, css, and why Internet Explorer is a pain in the ass for web designers.

I relax the forced 25 minute rule... if I need to keep going I do. I know I'm not motivated by deadlines as much as normal people, and the bigger issue for me is getting going and staying going. I tend to doubt the "big picture" when I dig into things, so when things are moving and I don't have that problem, I want to keep it going!

So with two weeks and counting on my sabbatical, I'm starting to hit max productivity. This is a great learning because once I go back to the "Corporate" part of my Corporatepreneurship, I know I can do 1-2 hour chunks after work and keep up the "preneurship" part.

Hitting 4 hours a day - with the help of a tomato

End of the first sabbatical trimester

It's been a little over a month since the sabbatical started, so about 1/3 of the way done. Here are a few of my thoughts/impressions at this juncture, and some updates:

The day goes by really fast. The first week or so, it was because I would wake up, read up on my fantasy leagues, play some Mario Kart Wii... But since then, I haven't watched any TV,  played any video games, nor sat around wasting time during the day, and a below average amount during the evening. Granted, the reason for that is because the Milwaukee Brewers fell out of the playoff race and the fall TV season hasn't started yet, but it goes to show that even when you're not wasting time, the day goes fast.

I set a goal to get 4 hours of business related work done a day. I'm still struggling very hard to get there... I'm still at 2-3 hours. I discovered that my house is not conducive to getting my work done, because it's a mess from lack of maintenance since I've been living there the last 8 years. So I've spent a good amount of time fixing it up, with the latest project decluttering (4 bags to Goodwill last week) and painting the kitchen. I want to make "pimp my home office" the next project. I figure if I can make my office an inviting place to work, it'll get me to 4 hours a day a lot easier. Right now I'm compensating by going to Starbucks, Caribou Coffee, Panera, and trying to discover new places to work. I still plan on going to these places to work, but the home office might get me the incremental hours I'm looking for...

The biggest learning for me is to focus on one thing at a time. It's REALLY hard to do that. I'm a divergent thinker, lots of random ideas and thoughts I like to chase. It is one of my strengths, but I do need to hunker down and focus if I want any of those ideas to take off! So I've changed my line of thinking. My original goal was to start 3 ventures, to get failures out of the way. Now I'm going to focus on one project, NOTtheBookStore.com, and then with any leftover time in my 4 hour a day goal, I'll work on other things.

Overall, this has been a great experience. It's been a great mental break from corporate life. The work I do for my own ventures doesn't feel that much like work... it's more getting over fears. I think because of that, I'm not mentally drained at the end of the day like I am from work. Plus not having to fight traffic helps too. In the next "trimester" of my sabbatical, I hope to get to 4 hours of work a day or more, really driving NTBS, and making my house a place I love to work at.

End of the first sabbatical trimester

1 week into the sabbatical

I'm now one week into the SEEF3M... one of the objectives was to feel what being an entrepreneur was like. I've definitely accomplished that:

• At night, I can't wait for the morning to come so I can get up and work on stuff. Slightly different than my day job.
• It's really easy to just let the day go away... It's amazing how fast a day goes! I find myself working maybe 2-3 hours a day of real work, which was discouraging to me until I figured that at my corporate job, that's about how much real work you do too. But through Toodledoo, I'm trying to get myself more efficient and accomplish more in a day.
• My main project, NOTtheBookstore.com, is in the middle of selling season for the fall semester, and it's going pretty slow. I'm barely breaking even on revenue with all of the marketing costs I spent on it. So that's led me to freaking out that I'm not getting a paycheck and wondering how I'm gonna make money. I guess just like an entrepreneur eh?

If you asked me today how I'm feeling, I would be thinking "Thank god I have a real job to go back to" instead of "this freedom is great." Last week it was the latter, but a little dose of reality today. I'm doing some traveling over the next couple weeks, but still plan on doing some work each day. Hopefully I can work on getting some new projects going and get re-encouraged again!

1 week into the sabbatical

And so it officially begins...

The three month leave of absence begins as of tomorrow. I think the first order of business will be to do a renewal of my goals... starting from high level to what I want to accomplish in my 3 months, down to what I want to accomplish today.

One thing I really would like to get right is to get a system working that allows me to do the "GTD (Getting Things Done)" concept... I'm a scattered thinker, so having this method buttoned up would allow me to know exactly what to do when I feel like doing something else for 10 minutes. Right now I tend to check the stock market, play Mario Kart, and see how many people have read this blog (not many if I don't post new entries). I've struggled with many different methods; an iPhone ap (Toodledoo), Microsoft OneNote, Microsoft Excel, and iPrioritize. I've read tips on how to use Outlook, Gmail, etc. I think I have a couple of issues: 1. I don't take the time to maintain my GTD list, and 2. I haven't found the right tools yet. If anyone has tips, I'd love to hear them!

And so it officially begins...

Countdown to the sabbatical!

Last week I turned in my leave of absence form to HR... And it's suddenly it's feeling a lot more real that this is actually going to happen! I've spent the last few days working on finishing up some things, transitioning my work to my replacement, and starting to do some pre-work in finding my new role for when I return. I sent out an announcement to my project team today, and the best response I got was "You lucky SOB." August 5th will be my last day in the office for three months... Only 12 business days left!

I read an update about the guy who left his corporate job to join a baseball league in Germany on the Escape From Cubicle Nation blog. One thing that hit home with me was how his parents didn't exactly agree with his decision, just like mine, and it encourages me his parents are starting to come around (my dad still avoids the subject when I bring it up). He's enjoying his time and doesn't regret doing what he did. Here's to me having the same experience with what I'm calling my SEEF3M!

Countdown to the sabbatical!

Bloginage

So once in a while I like to do a "Bloginage" which is a takeoff of the word "blog" and "badinage." The word badinage, which I learned in a game of cranium, basically means "banter." So I'm just gonna banter a bit, giving some snippets of random stuff...

So about the upcoming leave of absence (or SEEF3M), the analogy I had earlier was I felt like I had senioritis. You know, when all you can think of is graduating and being free from all this homework. Well, since I'm a little over a month away now, I have a new analogy from my college days: It feels like final exam month. I have all this stuff I need to get done at work before I can leave for summer vacation!

I've inched my way out of the dip... The new project I'm looking at trying out is a single use wipe for use on the exterior of cars. It's not a ground breaking idea, but it'll let me learn about selling a physical product. Also, I'm thinking this as an example of a commercial innovation: the product is very similar (if not the same) as an existing product, but you position it in a way so it solves a different problem for the consumer.

I had a short meeting with the wipes vendor and learned about the typical issues with this kind of business model. Minimum order quantity is 50,000 wipes. The cost isn't too bad (in the thosands of dollars for 50K wipes). But then I figured in fulfillment and shipping costs, and I'd prob at best break even if I charged $0.50 a wipe. Adam, how do you make money using this model? :) Next step is some testing with people...

I've gotten some buzz on NotTheBookstore.com, as 3 students have signed up for my mailing list in the same week. The mailing list is invaluable; these are people who voluntarily want to be reminded to buy your product. I haven't rolled out the new site yet, but I've gotten to the point now where I've redesigned one page and have sent it in to my programmer.

I find it interesting that Brad was in "The Dip" just as I was at the same time...

I've always wondered if this blog would ever make money for us. It's been great as a way to get inspiration and meet people similar to you in this journey, so even if it doesn't make me a penny it'll be worth it. But last week, someone bought a copy of the E-Myth that I blogged about. So our first pennies of revenue! Funny how such a small thing inspires you so much...

As usual, things just kinda flow when you just start writing and instead of a bunch of small snippets I end up with a pretty long post!

Bloginage

Best response to my leave of absence yet

So word of the pending personal leave of absence is starting to spread around my project teams... Most people have a hint of jealousy, one colleague said "You're lucky, I hafta wait until I retire and the kids get out of college before I can do that." Yes, one other reason why I'm doing it is just because I can. I have no baggage... I'm single, unattached, and only have a goldfish that depends on me.

I had this IM exchange with a co-worker:

Him: I hear you're going on a sabbatical
Me: Yup, gonna take some time off just because I can
Him: Rumor has it that it's paternity leave.

I told him I wish I was bad ass enough to hafta deny it, but no one would believe it anyway!

Best response to my leave of absence yet

What is Corporatepreneurship

This blog has been going for about three months now... Figured it be a good time to reflect a bit on "Corporatepreneurship" and why we started this blog. We got the term "Corporatepreneur" by adding "corporate" and "entrepreneur." We all work at a very large, Fortune 50 company as our "day job" and are or aspire to be entrepreneurs at all other times.

So why are we both? Speaking for myself, there's a few reasons... From the corporation side, I don't know enough about entrepreneurship to make enough money to do it full time. I get a nice steady paycheck from my current job. I enjoy the camaraderie with my co-workers. I'm scared to leave my job to be an entrepreneur. All the role models, education, and messages I ever got was for the corporate world.

The fun part is from the entrepreneur side. Why? I'll never live up to my potential in the corporate world. I can make a much bigger difference as an entrepreneur. There are so many ideas I want to try that the corporate world will never try. I believe my strengths fit an entrepreneur very well. I can make a lot more money and reach my dreams as an entrepreneur.

There's a lot of unique pros and cons to this double life. Pros: You don't hafta worry about putting food on the table and paying the bills. You can learn a lot in the corporate world that you can reapply to the entrepreneur world. You can fund your own ventures.

Cons: By the time you get home from your 9-5, you're tired and all you feel like doing is sitting down and watching TV. Sometimes you hafta work longer hours and run out of time at night. You can't do any ventures that require you to be available during the day. You can't sink all of your passion into your venture because you've got a day job to worry about that's first priority. Your employer may get paranoid about you doing something on the side.

We've come up with a bunch of ways to live this double life. SEEFADs make you take time out to work on your stuff and allow you to feel the life of being a entrepreneur. We try to find business models that don't require constant involvement. I'm looking to take a personal leave of abscence, which kinda gives me the best of both worlds.

Hopefully this blog will touch people out there in the corporate world who've always had the itch, and show them that it is possible. We've also gotten great contributions from people who've done it and can share experiences. And maybe I'll be in the position where I'll hafta think up a new name for this blog someday...

What is Corporatepreneurship

Other's responses to my SEEF3M

So I've had a chance to tell a few co-workers and friends about my upcoming leave of absence. Of course they ask "What are you planning to do with it?" And I test the waters out by saying:

"Make enough money so I don't hafta come back."

I usually use this one as a gauge on what conversation to have with the person. There are two responses:

1. Ha ha. Better go buy a lottery ticket!
2. Awesome... what ideas do you have?

People who answer #1, I say "Yup, I plan on buying a lottery ticket my first day off!" And then I have the "I'm gonna go on a roadtrip, enjoy life, and it's something to do when I'm still single" conversation.

People who answer #2, I tell them about notthebookstore.com, and my thinking that you hafta fail 10 times before you hit something, so I want to get 2-3 failures out of the way during the 3 months.

It's been really interesting talking to people type #2. There are more people than I imagine who Corporateprenuer... i.e. have some sort of business on the side, or have the desire to. One guy told me all about the stuff that his entrepreneur wife does, owning franchises and stuff. He also made a point to tell me that it was great that I was doing this.

One really interesting response was from my dad. I brought up the idea to him a month ago (I haven't even told him I've already discussed this with my boss). In a "why are you doing this to me" tone of voice, he said "Why would you want to do that in this economy? I don't think it's a good move." He was almost hurting for me, which is pretty frustrating because when I'm hurting, the only person that needs to be hurting is me. And I'm not even hurting. Guess that's parents for you. Well, I haven't brought up the subject since... I probably won't until everything's official.

So, in a nutshell, everyone has been supportive except for one person... and he'll live, I'm sure my sister and I have done worse things to him in the past. The most meaningful support and encouragement I've gotten (other than my co-horts in this blog) has been from Jason Cohen of A Smart Bear blog and Adam McFarland (his blog here), because the vision is to be in their shoes someday... and it's nice to know there are people out there who get it.

Other's responses to my SEEF3M

More on the leave of absence... SEEF3M

I've given my 3 month leave of absence a name... It's gonna be called "SEEF3M" If that doesn't make sense to you, check out this previous post.

Yesterday was the first time I had a "oh my god what have I done" moment. I had just had a couple friends over for a BBQ lunch and they had left. I suddenly felt very unproductive and unsure of whether I wanted to go through with this. I think it was because I was left alone after a good time with friends. My second biggest fear for the leave or entrepreneurship in general is that I will go stir crazy from the lack of human interaction (the biggest fear of course is losing all my money and not being able to afford a place to live).

I took today off as a vacation day (so a traditional "SEEFAD") and am now sitting in Caribou Coffee. I'm feeling much better about the decision and am looking forward to it again. Things are moving forward with the website (I just hired my first programmer!) and I'm excited to work with him.

More on the leave of absence... SEEF3M

I did it...

Last week, I did one of those things that could be life changing... I put in for a 3 month personal leave of absence. Now that doesn't sound too dramatic (nor risky, because it's a normal benefit we get and I basically come back to the same job afterwards). But I've always followed the "right" path... went to school, got an engineering degree, got a job at a Fortune 50 corporation where I have a "secure" job. Taking 3 months off is one of those things that's both scary and exciting for me.

People ask what I want to do with my 3 months off... I tell them ideally to make enough money so I don't hafta come back. But 3 months is a bit of a stretch to accomplish that (although I will buy a lottery ticket on my first day off). So I will settle for significantly advancing my textbook website and starting 2-3 low barrier to entry type businesses.

I will be using this as a safe way to test out living the lifestyle of an entrepreneur: no paycheck and no one to blame but yourself for anything. I know it could be really easy to just piss away three months, but hopefully the giant sucking sound (sorry Mr. Perot) of my monthly expenses draining my savings will motivate me to make the most of my time off.

So now, I've got a major case of senioritis... which I haven't gotten in 8 years. The leave isn't for another 4 months! I plan on blogging about my experience on this blog, and hopefully have people continue to keep me motivated and encouraged... and maybe inspire others too.

I did it...