Innoveering Nebraska

My gym is at a Hilton hotel in downtown Omaha.  It’s near the airport and attached to Omaha’s largest convention center, Qwest.  The hotel also has a Starbucks where I receive a 15% discount thanks to my gym membership.  The combined gym/Starbucks gravitational pull practically guarantees that I’m here everyday. 

I do some of my best thinking, daydreaming and planning while exercising.  There’s just something about concentrating on the physical and wearing myself out that frees my mind from thought traps and thought loops.  Which means that it’s great to wander down to the Starbucks area after my work out to spend a couple of hours caffienating and capturing some of the creativity I just experienced.   

Which leads me to the topic of bored businessmen.  They have a tendency to interrupt me while I’m sitting here intently focused on my typing or scribbling and yummy cold chai and fresh fruit plate combo.  This wouldn’t be such a bother, except that they always seem a bit taken aback and/or freaked out by the idea that I’m self employed.  It’s as though this fact makes me a strange and dangerous character to associate with.  Perhaps they fear catching the dreaded entrepreneurial bug and, once the infection has progressed enough, no longer being able to bear their current lifestyle. 

I suspect that someday I’ll be more comfortable with these interactions.  Or perhaps I’ll become more comfortable with the idea of lying to them.  Maybe I’ll tell them that I’m on a stakeout or planning a bank robbery.   I’ve tried just saying that I’m working and once I said that I was working on a deadline, but it didn’t end the conversation.  I think I need to work on my conscious scowl (I’m told I have a great unconscious scowl). 

Regardless, my point is that these bored businessmen who are wandering the hotel have an impact on my confidence as an entrepreneur.  On a really bad day, their absolute incredulity at my profession makes me doubt my career choice.   

Which leads me to my last point.  If you’re going to start a business, you have to really believe in yourself and your business.  There are lots of bored businessmen-types out there and you can’t avoid them all – no matter how good your scowl.

{image citation} – This is the pool where I do some of my best thinking.