Working From Home: You Telecommuters Have It Made!

In my oft-mentioned past life as a M-F 9-5 corporate gal, I would occasionally glance up from my desk and notice that not everyone got up, got pretty, and drove off somewhere to spend the day awash in fluorescent light. Their lives always looked so nice.

I assumed it would reduce the daily workload. Now that a part of my work life is spent in a home office, nary a fluorescent bulb in sight (I’m pasty enough as it is, thank you) I see that in some ways, it merely shuffles the workload and blurs the lines. And…I like it.

My husband recently made the critical error of coming home, exhausted, wearing a quizzical what-did-you-do-today? look. I suppose it was in response to the undone dishes and multi-room havoc inflicted by an active kindergartener with drive, determination, and nothing but time. Had I tossed out self control and answered the unspoken question, it would have been:

I got up at 5 and worked uninterrupted until 7 (bliss), went back to bed until 7:45 (even better), drove my son to school, got a haircut, grocery shopped, got back in time for my 9:30 conference call, worked steadily, stopping only to let in a repairman who charged roughly double what we had budgeted (much pulling out of freshly-cut hair), picked up my little treasure at noon, fed him lunch and me breakfast, put in some laundry, bribed aforementioned treasure to stay quiet for my 3:00 teleconference, sent several emails, wrote a report, returned phone calls, and gave scant thought to dinner preparation.

Here is the bright side: 90 minutes I once spent commuting made for a nice evening watercolor painting session with my son (that was the bribe—he loves to paint). And the dishes did eventually get done. So, as an office worker on the outside looking in, I may have had some misconceptions about working from home, but I was right about one thing: it is so nice.

Starting a Business: "Why Would Anyone Want to Do That?"

fwm staffer Viviana shares her thoughts on starting a business:

Why would anyone want to launch a business?

For years, I was a corporate woman all the way. I considered it essential to work for a large organization because (please don’t laugh, I was young at the time) of the stability that offered. If your company wasn’t big enough to require a diversity statement and at least a few regional offices, I didn’t work for you.

As you may have guessed, life quickly got around to teaching me not to put my faith and trust in the stability of any company or job, big or small. That is a good thing, because it has made me more open to (and less afraid of) looking at different types of organizations. In fact, it’s made me look at work in general a little differently. Before, I would have never considered becoming involved with a company launch of any variety. Every hotel I managed was built long before I arrived, and any web community I moderated was buzzing and humming by the time I logged my first post.

What was I missing? Several things. There is no comparison to the fulfillment, fun, and just plain excitement you derive from your work when you are helping to build something that you know is a winner. I’m sure you’re familiar with the feeling I’m describing, because you know it deep down when something is destined for success. Being a part of it, even in a small way, sticks with you.

If you are an entrepreneur, either in practice or just as the keeper of an idea that is brewing in your mind, then I must tell you, the thing I was missing most of all in my work life was you. Those of you with this gift are not like the rest of us. You can ignite passion for an idea and take us along with you. Working with people who approach their work this way is a gift that sat under my tree for years because of my fear of the unknown. I’m glad I finally got around to opening it.

So, to all of our fwm member/entrepreneurs...tell us--when did you realize that you had "the gift" of a great idea or simply the desire to start a business?