Words of advice from several of the speakers at the HOW Creative Freelance Conference in Chicago. “Develop an inner circle of advisors.” The first mention was from Luke Mysse, and then from the breakfast round table the next morning, again from Von Glitschka and again from Dyana Valentine. Find a MasterMind group. Do this, do that. Hmmmm. I guess it’s on my to-do list. Or, do I already have an inner circle?
Could it be this person that I’ve been married to for over 28 years? We can go looking for the multi-millionaire advisors, the business owners, the CEO – but then sometimes we can look right next to us and find exactly what we need.
Dean and I took off from Minneapolis for Chicago at 5:40am Tuesday to enjoy a couple of days in the city before the conference started on Thursday afternoon. We’re off the plane quickly, hopped on the train and found ourselves on the doorstep of the restaurant, Eleven, for breakfast in Chicago by 8 a.m. We were moving fast! And, we didn’t stop all day. (I finally dropped from exhaustion Thursday evening)
All day going here and there doing what seemed fun at the moment. Stopped by the Architecture Foundation to pick up tickets for a tour on one of their boats. Amazing stuff! Drifted by the old Montgomery Ward building which is supposedly the largest building in the world and now occupied by Groupon (What? Huh? Is that right? Are they really that big?) Up and down Michigan Avenue. I love shoe shopping but didn’t want to put Dean through that pain, so we stopped by The Purple Pig for a couple of small dishes for tasty and unique food.
Small dishes. It’s the little things that move me the most. Like the way the homeless choose to ask for money. Shake a cup. Pray. Sit with a child. Hold up a sign. They made the biggest impression on me. I was torn with what to do. Would have loved to pay for a room, buy them dinner, give them all my cash. What about the free ice cream cones a large company was giving away on the corner one evening? Did they give any to the needy? Or did they just hand them to the successful visitors and business people walking up and down the streets? They were advertising a TV show. Don’t remember which one – didn’t care. The ice cream was tasty though.
So, I enjoyed the ice cream, walking by the needy people. In all my selfish, piggish, self-doubting attitude. And then I went on to absorb what I could from the conference. How to be a better designer, communicator, business person, co-worker, team player. How to make a million dollars – which turned me off the most. Is it because deep down inside, I don’t believe in myself? Or is it because wealth is something more than how much money one has in the bank? The speaker was obnoxious, rude and ugly. Was it just me thinking that? Was I the only one who walked out after she boldly announced she wasn’t about to pay her new employees’ health care benefits – were they kidding? Ugh.
Making a million dollars didn’t look so good now. How about making a few thousand FEEL like a million? Turn SOI into ROI. Turn my Sphere of Influence into a Return on Investment. I’m doing that every day. The return on investment – of spending time on this earth with wonderful people – FEELS like a million.
