A sick day

I guess people are reading this blog. Not a lot. I get anywhere between 20 and 70 hits a day -- a really wide swing, I know, but I guess it depends on the content and the amount of free time people have.

But I took a sick day from work yesterday, and someone mentioned that I didn't blog. Hmmm...

Okay, I'd be lying if I said it's not a nice feeling knowing that people are actually reading and taking Action Bob in.

But, yeah, a sick day. Something I haven't done -- or had a chance to take -- in maybe six or seven years. That's one of the perks of working for a company vs. yourself. I'm still nursing a low grade something. Sore throat. Low fever. Just feeling blah. I'm chalking it up to fatigue and not some new strain of virus that may decimate the population.

But a sick day...

When you're on your own, if you don't work, you don't eat. It's that simple. You get sick, you keep working.

Last week I went out for coffee (of course, by now, you know I went to Dunkin' Donuts) and was riding back up the elevator when this good-looking, brown-skinned man got it. I didn't think anything of it.

Later that day, at an office function, this man entered the room I was in and came right up to me. "Here's someone I don't know," he said. I introduced myself, then he introduced himself. "Oh," I said, "you're the president of the company."

This is so much like me.

Anyway, he asked me what I did before I came to this company, and when I told him I was freelancing for five years, he asked me what was the difference between working in an office and working freelance.

I smiled, and said, "You hustle a lot more out there."

It's true. Every morning the first thing I would do is search all my sources for work. It's a constant effort to keep the work coming in. And I don't know if I miss that, but I do miss the edge, of constantly being sharp and focused and in charge. It took me five years to go from absolutely nothing (no clients in the worst economy in twenty years) to a fairly solid business. I say fairly because I don't think any business is ever truly safe and clear. But I did it, and a big reason is I'm just plain old stubborn. I wanted to do it, and I didn't quit until I did, and believe me, there were some times when even I wasn't sure. But I did it day by day.