business

It’s said that hobbies are healthy. I can remember hearing about to local dry cleaner where I lived once who worked hard and saved all his life. He retired and had plans to travel with his wife with their savings. The day after he retired he died.

Some of us have too many hobbies. I’ve had some hobbies I used to enjoy and was considered skilled at such as plastic model building, a skill learned from my dad. I made dioramas and competed in national events. That would be an attention to detail if you were listing hobbies as resume skills. I also learned to see a project through. I sold a few dioramas as well. Taking an idea or out-of-the-box template and creating a winning business with imagination sound familiar?

I grew up in the old car hobby. I can work on older vehicles and know quite a bit about identifing different makes, models, and years. The specs, how driving an older vehicles from the 1940’s through 1960’s differs quite a bit from today or even 20 years ago. Taking tried and true classics in any condition and make them fit in today’s world can translate into a variety of business situations. You have been using the same management style you learned in school and it’s not working? Time to update it.

I enjoy genealogy and history. We learn a lot from where we’ve been to be able to understand the imporance of moving forward even in directions that we couldn’t imagine 5 or 10 years ago.

I collect a wide range of ‘junk’ to some even though I’m a minimalist at heart. I’m always evolving in this aspect the way we all must evolve to be successful in our personal lives or business ventures.

Lastly, I volunteer and spread the message that we all have something to give and should give something of ourselves. There is nothing better for your soul or your ability to look at any situation more openly than to volunteer with something you feel passionately about. If you’re not passionate, then it won’t mean nearly as much. We must be open minded and open to new ideas to be successful in any business venture.

I’m interested in what your hobbies have taught you? Email me or leave a comment.

I recently had a conversation with my dad. We talked about some of the books I’ve been reading and he brought up the idea that he believed because I was raised in a small business environment I was better prepared for the world and more open in business. I never gave that any thought EVER. Do you think it’s made any difference in your life?

Yes, when I was very young my father ran the local airport. He was a flight instructor also. He started his own trucking business when I was in elementary school. I began answering phones after school and taking messages. My voice has never been feminine so people would always comment on how polite his ‘son’ was on the phone. I later began making appointments and by late junior high I was doing quotations for customers. In high school I took some accounting classes and did the day-to-day accounting which transferred to my grandmother who was in business for herself as a public accountant and who did our taxes at the end of the year.

I also learned a lot from my grandmother. She worked in the trucking business for decades in freight claims near the end. She began working from home and doing books for a number of clients and doing audits for businesses and her church. Come January she was always swamped with income tax business through April. She wouldn’t turn anyone away. She did this until the day she died at age 98. A true inspiration.

I don’t know that I am any more rounded than anyone else, but I do have a background and positive experiences in business. I know how important it is to look and act professionally. I realize how important word of mouth and customer service is. Any of these not handled well can sink a business. I ran my own business for 10 years.

I’ve done other business as well even if not officially a business. For a few years I ‘flipped’ cars. Before the Internet I would buy rust free cars in Oklahoma where I lived and adverstise them in Old Cars Weekly, a national paper, and sell and deliver them to buyers in the rust belt.

I’ve also been a very successful eBay seller. I started in 2001 when my late husband (before we married) began moving some of his belongings from Philadelphia (where he lived) to Roanoke, Virginia (where I lived). There was a lot of overlap or things he decided to part with. We would make sure everything was clean and take excellent marketing photos. He would generally write the descriptions as he was a great writer. We researched similar items that sold and were selling to find our starting price. We sold some amazing stuff we never believed. After his death I carried on and spent six months carefully cleaning, photographing, and researching vintage go-kart speed parts and lived on that alone.

I was fortunate enough to have a lot of great role models in my family. Everyone contributed in some way to who I am today. We all have opportunities to influence people. You don’t need to have children to influence someone. How you act, what you write, what you do with your life can all influence. Who will you inspire today? Will it be something you say at dinner? Will it be something you write give pause and makes someone think? We all have that power. It’s what you choose to do with it that matters. Who will you influence?

Share this:

Share this: