First Opportunity

As I’ve talked to people about my trip, I’ve repeatedly said how I anticipate opportunities to present themselves as a result of what I’m doing. I always said how it’s hard to put a specific timeline on my trip because it could be dramatically changed based upon those opportunities. It could last a week, it could last a year. I just don’t know. However, I didn’t quite expect to have opportunities come to me until AFTER I’d started my trip. So, the phone call I got last Saturday came as quite a surprise to me.

In order to best introduce this, lets talk about what I’m looking for in an opportunity or in a new “life” for me. My main goal is to be an entrepreneur, and so any job I do get I want to contribute to this goal. I also want to enjoy what I do. By analyzing what I’ve liked/disliked about my post-graduation jobs, I think I’ve come up with a checklist of things I need in a job to really love it.

1. I want to live where it’s warm. I lived in AZ for high school and my first 2 years of college and so I got spoiled. Two years in Provo was enough cold for me. I just want to live where it doesn’t snow.

2. Performance-Based Compensation – I don’t really like working for an hourly or salary wage. I want to get paid what I’m worth. If I work hard, I want to get paid based upon that hard work. I think hourly jobs can lead to a lazier mentality. At least for me. Also, as an entrepreneur, this is a good thing to learn and get used to.

3. Authority to implement change – This one is big. A lot of sales jobs give me the ability to make lots of money, but don’t allow me to implement change. I like to be efficient. I like to fix problems. When I see a problem that could be fixed in a business, I want to have the authority to implement a solution. I want to be able to give feedback that improves the companies I work for. I often am excited about creating systems that will encourage more efficiency in business. This is one of the things I look for that is the hardest to come by as a “recent grad”.

4. Variety in task – If I do the exact same thing every day, I tend to struggle. The task can even be similar every day, as long as the situations and problems continue to change.

5. I want to avoid the application process – I know a lot of people might think this is unrealistic, but I hate going through the application and interview process. I want somebody to offer me a job because they know me and they can see the potential that I have. I don’t want it to be because I look good on paper and I interview well. Which, I do consider myself to be good at interviewing. I’d much rather work for somebody for free for a week or two and then have them offer me a job, rather than go through a series of interviews and applications to find a job.

So really, those are the main things I want. I’ve realized that all of these things are important to me. So, you’re probably wondering what the phone call was that I received. Well, I received a call from a cousin of mine last Saturday. Him and his dad had been reading up on my blog about my trip and my different ideas, and they thought I might be a good fit to work with them. I didn’t know anything about their company or what they were doing before we had this conversation.

So, their company name is Despain Craftsmanship. Basically, they do wood repair and restoration for commercial buildings. It was started by my uncle and was fueled mostly by word-of-mouth. Once my cousin decided to get into the business a few years ago, it has started growing much more rapidly. Well, they’ve expanded the business into Las Vegas, and they’d like me to be in charge of Sales and Marketing of their office down there. Also, they are wanting to create a replicatable business model that they can then franchise out.

It sounds like a great opportunity and appears to meet all the criteria that I’m looking for. There is a huge potential for the business in Las Vegas because of all the repair and maintenance that could be done on Casinos. They’ve already done work on the City Center and Venitian in Vegas, and they are getting great feedback from those projects. I like that with this job there would be a lot of flexibility to fix and improve things as I see fit. I would also be able to be an integral part of learning how to grow a business. Very valuable experience. It actually seems like with my experience, it’s a greater opportunity than I really deserve.

Although it looks like a great opportunity, I still want to gain experience from traveling and having this adventure. So, I’ll be working with them for a week or two so we can see if it’s a good fit for both of us. I’m going to hitch a ride to Vegas and start working for them next Monday. If it’s a good fit, then there is potential for a long-term position in the future. It’s just funny because I really didn’t anticipate finding an opportunity so quickly that I was interested in.

So, now that I’ve started this blog and got my hopes all up to travel around and experience life, I don’t want to give it up for a job so soon. If it really is a great fit for both of us, I’m sure we’ll be able to work something out so that I can still have the experiences I’m looking for. I’m really hoping that Vegas is just the beginning of my journey…

Want to know how?

As I’ve been telling people about my trip, I continually get asked how I plan on doing things. People ask me how I’m going to find places to sleep every night. How am I going to find rides and get where I need to go? What am I going to do if I can’t find rides or places to sleep, etc. So, I intend to answer those questions in this post.

In reality, I do have some ideas about how I’ll accomplish my goals. I’m of the opinion that as I meet and talk with different people and I tell them about what I’m doing, they will want to help me with my journey. The more people I can get to follow my blog, and the more people I meet, the larger my network will be to pull from. Every person I stay with, will probably know somebody else that might let me stay at their place, an so forth. However, I don’t intend to plan every single thing out about my trip.

Sometimes, you just have to act, and things will work out. If I waited until I had everything figured out about how to survive on this trip, I might never go. There is absolutely no way I’ll be able to plan everything that is going to happen. I know it will be hard at times, but I just plan and expect things to work out.

I see this trip a lot like I view entrepreneurship. I mean, a lot of people will talk about their good ideas and talk about how they want to start businesses, but then they don’t do anything about it. Really, you’ll never learn until you get out and start DOING stuff and learning from your mistakes. Too often, people are held back by their fears of the unknown or not having everything figured out.

That is what has bothered me about trying to figure out what to do with my life. I’ve had a variety of different jobs, but in addition to my jobs, I’ve also taken personality profiles, read different career assessments, and looked at job profiles online. But, we learn so much more through our experiences than we do sitting on a computer. I feel like the best way to learn what kind of things I might enjoy doing is to get out and DO stuff. The more people I meet, the more opportunities I’ll find. I can also learn from all of the different people I’ve talked to. I’m sure a bunch of people have gone through my same situation, and unless I get out and talk to them, it’s hard to learn from them.

So, no, I don’t know exactly how I’ll do everything on my trip. But, I think that if I just go out and do the trip, I’ll learn a ton from it. There will be so many cool experiences that I can’t foresee at this time. That’s the great thing about action. Just do stuff, and things will eventually work out.

Problems That Recent Grads Face

I found out about a company that is built around the idea of helping recent graduates learn what to do with their life. They have some really interesting ideas, and I think that this is definitely a problem that is ready for businesses to find solutions to. They are building two different companies, EndeavorPrep and Daily Endeavor. It’s interesting, because although I’ve been struggling with trying to figure out what to do with my life, I never viewed that problem as a business opportunity. I’m surprised by that, because I’m always excited when I see a problem that can be solved by building a business around it. So, on this trip, I’ll continue to think more about the problems that are faced by recent graduates, and I’ll see if there are other solutions that could be put in place to help us. Because really, with all the companies that are out there to help people to find jobs, there really aren’t too many that help people find the right job.

Well, this blog should be getting shut down pretty soon. I’m going to build a Wordpress blog, and I didn’t know any other way to do it except to shut this one down. I’m not exactly sure how long it will take, but hopefully I can get it up and running pretty soon.

Making the Plans

Well, while I was at my sales job today I just wasn’t feeling it. I already want to quit and just get ready for my trip. So, I think I’ve decided that I’m going to quit in two weeks so that I don’t have to pay for rent for the month of December. Then, I think I’ll live in Provo for another week and just couchsurf for that week. That will help me learn better how to use the couchsurfing website, as well as get some positive reviews for my couchsurfing profile. I’m excited, but I better work hard these next two weeks so I don’t have to worry about money.

The more I think about it, the more I’d like to try and get sponsors. I mean, even if I don’t get them, I’ll learn from the experience of trying to get them. I was wondering who the people are that I’m going to want to talk to and what not, when I realized that I could probably just talk to Brogg and ask him about it. Brogg started BBSC Endurance sports and I know that he’ll have experience contacting companies for sponsorships. The sponsorship amounts that I’ll be asking for will be so small that I’m sure companies will go for it. Either that, or they’ll wonder if I’m for real. That’s the bigger concern, that they don’t take me seriously. Oh well, somebody will I’m sure. If not, I’ll forge ahead anyway.

I’ve made some more definite plans about what I’d like to do on the trip. I’d like to make my trip a combination of two successful projects I’ve seen: LetMeStayForADay.com and OneWeekJob.com. I want to stay with a different person every night and go to work with a different person every day. I’m not going to set any restrictions on when I’d like to finish or not, because I’m genuinely going on a journey looking for occupations that I could enjoy or cities I might like to live in. Once I find what I’m looking for, I can stop my journey at anytime. However, I don’t want to make any decision until I’ve seen a majority of the U.S. and most of the major cities. Well, tomorrow I’m going to start calling companies for sponsorships. I guess we’ll see how it goes.

If I had a million dollars?

On Thursday I ran into a friend of mine at 24 hour fitness. He also majored in Entrepreneurship, so we started talking about what both of us are doing. He is still living in Provo, even though he has graduated, and so I thought our situations were pretty similar. The part that kind of bewildered me was how he feels content with what he’s doing in his life and I feel so restless. We talked about a bunch of different things, but there was a question he asked me that kind of stuck with me. He asked me what I would do if I received a million dollars a day? Essentially, if money wasn’t an issue at all, what would I do with my life? It’s a very valid question, and I’ve been thinking about it.

I’ve been doing research on careers and post-graduation life, and I found out that there is quite a bit of literature aimed at recent graduates. I guess what I’m going through right now is referred to as the Quarter Life Crisis. There are quite a few books that talk about how twenty-somethings can get through that period in their life that follows graduation. A lot of the things I feel are characteristic of what many recent graduates feel. It was interesting to find this out, because it opens my mind to some possibilities I might have with my blog. Also, some of the literature also mentioned that asking yourself the question about what you would do if you won the lottery is helpful in deciding a course of action.

See, on Friday I made friends with a guy over the phone, who I ended up selling. He is a president of some company out in PA, and I told him how I’ve been having a hard time deciding what I should do with my life. He posed the same question to me that my friend posed, what would I do if money wasn’t an issue? Well, at this point, I had thought about the question, and these are the two things I think I would do if money wasn’t an issue. I would travel, and I would start businesses. Starting businesses is just a big interest of mine, as well as traveling and seeing the world. So, what I told this guy is that I would probably travel. He started questioning me about what information I could gain from my travel that somebody would want. He said I might be able to get hired by a company for that information.

Well, that got me thinking, which led me to do research and find out about the Quarter life Crisis literature. I think if I have my blog focused on career exploration from the eyes of a recent grad, I might have something that could attract the eyes of recent grads and college students. There are plenty of websites out there that give tips and strategies for helping recent grads know how to get through their transition. If I have them as my target market, I might be able to set up some sort of job or sponsorship before I even leave.

So, I really think that if I’m going to get anything rolling with this trip, the earlier I decide to go the better. I’ve pretty much made up my mind that I’d like to go on the trip. I’m probably about 90% sure of it. The job with Launch Sales and Marketing isn’t going to work out because he said I don’t have enough experience. Also, I haven’t heard back from Ragnar Relays, and I just don’t anticipate hearing back from them at this point. So, I think I’m just going to start making plans and getting ready for the trip. Even if Ragnar does contact me and wants to hire me, I really think going on this trip will be the best thing for me. It will help me explore and see some of the world, so that I will be better able to commit in the future.

Also, as I was talking to a friend at a party tonight, I realized I’m kind of going about this thing all wrong. I mean, in terms of my career exploration. I’ve been looking for a job that I can enjoy. Well, I think the reality of it is that I don’t really enjoy working for other people. I’m too entrepreneurial. So, I need to find a business I can get into that will pay well enough that I can have the time to work on businesses. I think that’s where real estate comes in. I always had an interest in real estate, but mostly because of the money. Well, if I’m able to live at my parents house(they might be leaving on a mission and they want me to live in their house by myself), and I don’t have rent payments to worry about, then I should be able to find enough stuff to keep busy until I get some real estate deals worked out. I’ve already talked to some guys that will mentor me. It benefits them because we’ll split the profits, and they’ll be able to do more deals than they could on their own.

I could use that as my revenue source, and then with any other extra time I have, I can work on businesses I would like to start. I still want to go on this trip first, so, that will be my focus for now.

Same Old Thoughts

I think that I continue to have the same thoughts about my options, but writing them down just seems to make those thoughts that much clearer, and it seems to help me make a decision. The nice thing at this point is that I don’t feel pressure to make a decision soon. I have time. I mean, I still have two months, or, more like a month a half to make a decision. So, I can continue to weigh the pros and cons and see what kind of options come up for me.

As far as the job search goes, I’ve decided that I don’t really want to keep looking for jobs the traditional ways. If I meet somebody and they tell me about a job, then great, but looking for jobs and submitting my resume to companies and stuff just isn’t my style. I think once I get my first job, that I’ll never apply for another job in my life. I just think I’ll continue to see opportunities because of people I meet along the way. However, at this point, I’ve never been looking for a job and so those opportunities may have presented themselves, I just wasn’t ready when they came.

The two jobs I’ve applied for right now are to work for Ragnar Relay and Launch Sales and Marketing. Ragnar seems like it would be a fun work environment. It’s a new company and is growing really fast. It is in an industry that I’m passionate about, and I’d be getting involved in Sponsorship sales. I haven’t heard back from them yet since I submitted my resume, but I think working for them is a great option.

Second, is Launch Sales and Marketing. They are a B2B sales outsourcing company that takes care of different portions of the sales cycle for technology and service companies. I’m not exactly sure how it would be, but it seems like the job would involve a lot of change. That’s what I would like. I could see myself selling something for a certain company for a while, and then getting moved over to a new product or service after a few months. It seems like it would be a good job to have because it would help me get experience selling lots of different things. Not only that, if sales is all the company does, you would think they would have a good training program and have their sales cycle pretty well figured out.

So, those are really the only two jobs I’m interested in at this point. If I decide to work for one of these companies(assuming they offer me a job), I want to work for them for a while. The only question that remains is if I’d be happy working for either one of these companies in Utah.

One of the problems with me getting a job is that I always wonder what else is out there. If I don’t enjoy some aspects of my job, I instantly start trying to think of other options that might exist that I would enjoy better. I wonder if these part of me will ever go away. It may not. That’s why the trip might be beneficial in helping me explore and see what other types of careers and jobs are out there. I really just think I’m very hands on. I can do all the research I want and I can read up on what careers do what. But, until I get out and talk to people and actually see what’s involved in certain jobs, I really don’t know what to expect. So, unless any other jobs come up that I think I’ll really be interested in, it looks like I’m deciding between one of these jobs and the trip.

Have Interest

Well, today I was getting sick of trying to sell and I hadn’t made any sales. Two days in a row without making sales? Yeah, that would hurt. So, I started thinking about quitting and how I just don’t know if I can sell a product that I don’t feel good about. Not even that I don’t feel good about selling the product, more that I just don’t feel good about selling it to the people I talk to. Anyway, I started talking to this one lady, and we just got a talking. We ended up having a great conversation, and I could tell she really liked me. She told me to never be a teacher because she hates her job, and I was telling her about the hard time I was having deciding what I want to do with my life.

To make a long story short, I ended up selling this lady, even though she wanted to wait. I remembered how this morning I had read a chapter in How to Win Friends that talked about how we should show a genuine interest in people. That’s what I did with her, and I ended up selling her. Although I don’t think selling her was the most important part, my spirits lifted considerably after that call. I remembered how sometimes when I got sick of knocking doors and selling pest control, I would just try to find somebody nice to talk to. I would just make a friend, and I would a lot of times sell that person. But, I liked that because it rejuvenated me. Rather than feeling like a selling machine that didn’t really care about people, I felt like I was making friends and still giving my friends something they could benefit from. Well, after my first phone sale, the next lady I called I used a similar approach. I just started joking with her and she thought I was “a riot”. Her words, not mine. Well, I ended up selling her as well. What started as a horrible selling day and where I thought I was going to just quit and hate my job, turned into a very rewarding and fun day. I need to use that approach more often when I sell. I need to have a more genuine interest in the people I sell and just make friends with them on the phone.

During the time that I was having a hard time selling, I was talking to my coworker David. He’s the one who went on the trip from California to Rome. We talked about how I’m planning on getting a job, but that I still have my nomadic trip as a backup option. Well, he invited me to read some of the journal entries from his trip that he has posted on facebook. He has the first 19 days of his trip posted, so I went and read them tonight after work. They were so fun and interesting to watch, and they got me laughing really hard on multiple occasions. The trip just sounds so much fun.

I think one of the biggest fears I have about going on a trip is that I’ll regret going on it. Although one side of me does want to go out and explore and experience more of what is around me, the other side of me wants to start learning a profession and to get good at something. I just don’t want to go on my trip and regret not getting a job and getting started on life. However, reading his journal entries has fueled some of my desire to go on a trip. I’m just not sure. I’m just realizing more and more that there are tons of different occupational options that sound like lots of fun to me.

I think consulting, Venture Capital, Private Equity, and sales all sound like careers I would join. However, that’s only based on my personal experience and my personal experience is very limited. Also, as I search for jobs, I just feel like it’s useless. I’d much rather get a job because I know somebody, not because I apply on some website or something. So, if I go out every day, meet and talk to people and see new places, I’ll gain more experiences that I can then utilize to make a more educated decision. If I make a decision based up on my limited experience, will I continue to wonder if it’s the best thing for me? Will I ever be content with what I do until I’ve explored other options? These are the questions I face.

Looking Up

I’ve started reading the book “How to Win Friends and Influence People” again, I forgot how amazing it is. Probably the best book I’ve ever read besides the scriptures.

I felt so good today, and I’m not exactly sure why. It could be the fact that it’s now lighter outside in the morning, and so it’s easier to get up and going. Also, I had to go and meet my friends at 9 so we could prepare to sing in stake conference. Some Sundays it takes me a little longer to get up and going. I feel so much better when I get up early and get out of the house. I think that might be something I should start trying to do. Instead of sitting in my room and being productive during the day, maybe I’ll start going to the local library or something. It just feels so much better to get out and about.

I made my weekly goals today and I’m really excited for this next week. I’m feeling a lot better about things now that I’ve made some definite decisions about what to do. I mean, they really aren’t definite, but I feel like I’ve learned a ton from all the jobs I’ve had, and I’m ready to move on. Although having all those jobs really kind of sucked, I’ve learned a lot from the experience. It has helped me to see the types of things that I really don’t enjoy, and I can see where I will be the most successful. I’m excited to apply for a bunch of different jobs and see where it takes me. I think before I would just move too quickly from one job to the other without doing a lot of research and evaluation of the jobs I was jumping into. I’m so glad that part of my life is over and done with and I can start moving on to bigger and better things. I’m excited for change, as well as having a job that I can commit to for a while. It’ll be nice to develop some sort of consistent daily schedule.

Junto Partner?

I like to be able to look at different times of my life and see the things that I’ve accomplished. I just don’t feel like I’ve accomplished a whole lot over these last two years of my life. That second summer of summer sales really made me think upon my life and realize I was working really hard and trying to get places to fast. Unfortunately, that thinking led me to do the opposite, and do really do much at all. I mean, if I started partying a lot more and going on tons of trips and what not, that’s one thing. But I didn’t even really do that. So, I eliminated a lot of the hard work and ambition from my life, and I didn’t really replace it with anything else. I look at these last two years of my life, and I have some regrets. I don’t really know how to define them. When I think of those years and the idea of my nomadic trip, the words of someone I respect come into my mind when he is describing my age group as “twenty something peter pans”. Or whatever it is that he says. He talks about how people in this age group are postponing the responsibilities of marriage and family.

I don’t want to be like that. Next year, I want to be able to look back at this past year and see all the things I have accomplished. I want to be proud of what I’ve done. As far as my trip is concerned, it’s not completely off the table, but I think going on the trip will only perpetuate that feeling I have. I do have a desire to go travel and I love seeing places and hitch hiking and what not. However, I also know that when I go on a weekend trip or something, it satisfies my desire for a little while. I remember when I was working at Qualtrics, I was really wanting to just travel the country and do my thing. Well, after I went on the trip to San Francisco with Ty, it quieted that part inside of me that wanted to do that. I was content for a while after the trip to just work.

Also, when I didn’t have a job or much money, there were some opportunities that I missed out on because I didn’t have any money. My cousins went to Havasupai, which I’ve been wanting to do for a long time. I couldn’t go because I had no dough. I also had a friend invite me to go with him and some friends to Hawaii for a week. I would have loved to, but again, I had no money. So, I think that if I have a job and a fairly steady source of income, I’ll be able to afford to go on trips and see places. I also will be able to look back at my life and see the experiences I’ve gained and what I’ve learned in the workplace. I really think the next job I have I’ll be able to stay at for a while.

The diversity of experiences I’ve had have come to show me where my interests are. I think the two main reasons I had a hard time sticking to jobs were because I wasn’t sure what else I was missing out on, and I wasn’t content staying in Provo. Now, with me moving, and having had quite a few jobs, I don’t think I’ll have the same problem. Now, I know that I need to stay at a job for a while in order to learn as much as I can. I need to become a master at what I do before I ever decide to move on. For a while I convinced myself that maybe I just wasn’t interested in the internet or technology businesses. I also don’t think this is true. I still have plenty of interest in these businesses, and I’d love to learn how to be good at B2B sales.

I’ve decided now that I’m just going to apply to every job I hear about that sounds interesting at all. I don’t need to stress about it, but I’ll just apply when a job sounds like it might be a good fit. Then, I’ll wait and see who I get offers from. At that point, I’ll decide what job offer to take. If I don’t get any job offers by January, then I’ll go on my trip. I’m not staying in Provo, so if I don’t have something else to do, I’m not going to sit around and wait for a job. That’s when I’ll travel around the country, networking, sightseeing, and making lots of friends in different places.

I don’t know why, but now I almost kind of want to stay in Utah. Well, I kind of know why. I know there are great entrepreneurial opportunities in other places, and maybe once I move to a place like that, I’d be interested in staying. But, Utah has so many startups and companies that I’m interested in working for. I’m mostly interested in working for startups or small companies, and I don’t think that I have to work for a company to become proficient in sales. I feel like it’s one of the best places to work and live in order to get in on a great startup that I can get passionate about. If I get an offer that I really like that is someplace else, then great. If not, I think I’ll probably move to somewhere in the Salt Lake Valley. Another reason I kind of want to stay in Salt Lake is because I really would like to do the Junto Partners program. It’s basically a free entrepreneur training course that lasts 6 weeks or so. At the end of the six weeks, they pick 5 of the 20 participants to become Junto Partners. I’m not completely clear on what a Junto partner is, but it sounds like you become involved in a group that is designed to help people start businesses. Access to capital, entrepreneurial coaching and mentoring, among other things are involved. I want to be Junto Partner next sumer.

The Budgeted Nomad?

Well, I’m sick. I’m a little surprised by that, because I don’t remember the last time I was seriously sick. It was before my mission sometime. I think part of the reason I may be sick is because I haven’t been exercising as regularly as I usually do, and I’ve stopped being quite as diligent in my eating habits. I guess it could also be that I just got a virus. I guess I shouldn’t expect to never get sick no matter how healthy I keep myself.

I continue to mull around in my head the idea of this nomadic trip. I would really like to make a decision, but I just want to make sure I’m going to commit to whatever I decide to do. On Sunday I went to personal finance class that our Stake wants to be taught to every ward. I really enjoyed it, and I learned a lot. When I was listening to it, I realized that I really need to start saving and putting money away. I guess you could say, I need to start planning for my future and being financially prepared for it. That’s one of the bigger doubts that I’m having now. I mean, I’m almost 25, and I have nothing saved away. Nothing. A lot of people my age are in debt, but that’s not really an excuse.

So, if I go on this trip, it will probably only delay the amount of time until I start making money and putting it away for long-term plans and goals. See, there is one part of me that is starting to realize all the lessons that I’ve learned from my many different post-graduation jobs. The reason I kept getting new jobs is because I wanted to find something that I loved doing. I kept telling myself that the money isn’t important, and that if I find something I love, the money will follow. Well, I’m starting to realize that is true in a sense, but if doing what you love doesn’t pay enough to satisfy your daily wants and needs, then it taints the activity and you start not to enjoy it as much. I’ve been so concerned on finding exactly what I’d like to do, that I haven’t been consistent with anything. I think that a better plan is to find a job I enjoy that pays well, but that still gives me the time and freedom to explore other options at the same time. See, I could have had a part-time sales job during all of these different adventures I’ve had. Then, since I wouldn’t have financial necessity to worry about, I could more fully analyze how much I enjoy the different projects I get involved in.

I’m an entrepreneur by heart. I see opportunities, and I always get excited about trying something new. Although having money isn’t necessary to make businesses successful, it sure makes them a lot easier. There are some ideas that I’ve had that I just couldn’t pursue because I didn’t have the financial resources to pursue them.

For example, with RateMySummerSalesJob.com, I got sick of going through the website and trying to search for problems that needed to be fixed. If I could just hire someone to do the beta testing for me, I could be off and running on the project. So, although starting a business is a great and worthy goal, I need to have a job that pays well while I explore different business options. That way, I won’t even consider myself to be finicky. I’ll have a job that I do regularly, but I can just consider my different business adventures as hobbies. And that’s completely fine to me if I have lots of different hobbies.

Also, to me it’s not necessarily just the excitement of working on my own ideas that intrigues me about entrepreneurship. I think it’s the idea of taking nothing to something that sounds so fun, whether it be my idea or not. In the Utah Valley, there are a lot of startup companies, and I would love to get in on the ground floor of many of them. However, I need to have a specialty that I can bring to the table. Although I consider myself really good at fixing problems, being very organized, and having an eye for opportunity, those aren’t the kinds of skills you sell yourself on. I need to have a specialty that will make me a valuable asset to any company, especially startups. I think the best thing for me to become specialized in is sales. I like sales, and that’s the lifeblood of any company, especially startups.

So, I guess my concern is if I go on this trip, I’m just delaying making money and starting my life. However, I can still go on this trip, make money, and put it away like anything else. In fact, if I don’t have to pay for housing, my expenses will be lower, although my food expense will increase, and my travel expenses could increase as well. But, I could set up a very specific budget for my trip that I need to stay under, while still working and making money through my sales job. I’ve been feeling more and more how I need to set a very specific budget. I want to live for about $1000 a month as far as my living expenses are concerned. That seems like it would be rather easy to stay under while traveling on the road, and I could make a budget specific to my nomadic lifestyle. Once I want to return to a “normal life”, I can just readjust my budget to the different expenses that will be associated with how I live.