Step 2: Schedules are For Losers, and Me

GMTF: Schedules, while boring and anything but sexy, are essential to finding success. They help keep you on track and ensure nothing is missed.

So I’m still playing catch up with this “Blog of T” and I refuse to go back and read my last article. I believe we left off with not being a fan of the corporate world and having straight up homesickness for the Marine Corps.  So, we will start there. That very precise point in time (just kidding, there are few precise things in my life) when I realized what business I decided to start and how I started the first step to it.

After deciding I needed to find a job not working strictly in a cubicle. Not working for somebody else or atleast have the freedom to do what I want, and not being tied to someone else’s schedules, I realized I needed an idea to actually do it. It probably was not going to magically just happen, and for the life of me I could not come up with any ideas. I talked to friends, family, talked my wife’s ear off incessantly, and eventually, I realized I needed a better plan.

Schedules Make It Concrete

Knowing myself, I first I needed a plan to come up with ideas. You know, the classic plan for a plan. It\’s too easy to let life get in the way. The only way to stop that is to make what you want changed a concrete part in your life. My solution was to create schedules that prioritized my need for change. Which is kind of funny, because I suck at sticking to schedules.

It\’s not that I\’m not a fan, I just suck at actually following them.

I feel uncomfortable not knowing exactly what is next, but seem to have no problem deciding that schedules are for losers when I actually get to the part of following the. Even though I made it.

I still get all my taks done done and on time, just not neccessarily in the order prescribed. Though, I do take pride in the fact that I don\’t miss things. I don\’t drop balls, and I always get my work done, but it\’s on my terms.

Side note, my workout schedule is sacred. That schedule is the exception.  I always stick to it and have for the last 12 years. My wife would probably argue that my life revolves around my workout schedule, which may or may not have some truth to it.

Cut Out The Waste And Add in the Valuable

When trying to find time to fit in this new task for myself. I kept coming up with the \”I don\’t have time excuse\”. So, I made time. I realized that I had got into this habit of reading the news every day for an hour.

When I was in the Marines, I wanted to make sure that I always had an answer for any question they asked me. Part of that was making sure I was well versed in the daily news, which also let me tie in our training to something in the real world.

But, one, I didn’t need to do that anymore. Two, I realized that the news never helped me personally. Three, all of my friends, family, and co-workers were more than happy to fill me in on the news. Though with tier own bent, but you can\’t have it all. It was conveniently all summed up in a couple of minutes, legit.

Schedules Really Are For Losers

Moral of the story, I replaced my news reading habit with a habit of taking 30min-1 hour writing down new business idea sessions. My goal was to fill one page a day.

It was a small notebook that had maybe 15 lines in it and every day I would fill every line with a new business idea.  One of the ideas that I came up with was, of course, a completely stolen idea. That was drop shipping from Tim Ferris’s book the \”4 Hour Workweek\”. I started branching out on numerous different ideas with that, but to be honest I felt pretty inauthentic going down this path. Not because I think there is anything wrong with this business idea, it’s just not me. It\’s also probably a little bit of that “fraud police” that Amanda Palmer talks about in her book “The Art of Asking” (I also super recommended it).  If you don’t know what I am referring to, read it, or listen (the audiobook it\’s great too, listen to at 1.6x speed).

Who Says I Can\’t Do Both?

Many pages were eventually filled. I got to the point of deciding whether I wanted to start a blog or start a t-shirt company, I was torn between two. 

On one end I’m extremely picky about my t-shirts, which is weird because I normally don\’t care about fashion.  I typically wear things until they have holes in them or they have massive oil stains from working on my car without changing. Or my wife  throws them out behind my back.

This destruction of my shirts becomes a real problem for a guy who only wears t-shirts, yet can’t ever find any to wear. Seemed like a great entry point for selling t-shirts.

I Do Have Something To Say

On the other hand, I have gotten used to giving different viewpoints on things. I wouldn’t say I\’m right all the time, and I wouldn’t say I have sage advice, but I would say I’m a pretty weird dude in terms of how I think. Which while growing up sucks, thinking differently is not so bad once you\’re adulting.

I tend to not see things in the same light as those around me, which means that my discussions tend to  make people think differently. It\’s cool to see people thought processes change. Mostly because, as Tim Ferris talked about in his book “Tools of Titans”, I really do follow the whole “strong views held loosely” mantra. If you have a good argument, I’ll change my mind (just not always to your face). I also think, that things tend to be very black and white in specific environments. But, once those environments change, it might still be black and white, though they might be reversed. Wanting to do this on a larger scal, made me lean towards writing a blog.

But, you know what? Who says I have to pick one? So, I did both. Now I get to spread my thoughts around the world and make sweet t-shirts. And, hell, if all tanks, at least I will have some sweet comfortable t-shirts. Atleast one problem will be solved.

Best,

T