Day 83 - Second Day in the Trenches

Friendly, Stray-looking Cat

June 30th, 2015

Today is a later start (thank dog), though the mornings still feel a bit excessive at times. We show up at 9:45am to have a meeting with the office manager/boss/person, Jen. She brings me and another new person, who is, to my knowledge, the only other new hire from my cohort to actually stick around. This isn’t entirely true, she’s just the only other residential person; the business-to-business (b2b) people start/finish earlier, which means I’ll almost never see them.

Highlights of today: 

• Get a guy at the door (which has a bunch of holes in it) who is super friendly and asks me to come back in a short bit. I return later to find that no one is home. Something felt off, and my mind went directly to.. Murder....!
• A Rotund, older gentleman gently turned me down, but introduced me to his tree out front after I ask what the fruit was called. They’re everywhere, and, as it so happens.. Kumquats. I’ve never had them before and have thought the name to be hilarious for ages. Now I know I like them and wish to grow my own. They’re olive sized sweet/sour candies!
• Joked around with a friendly, elderly Irish gent, and a German woman
• Not one, but two Sign-ups!

Again, what the hell is that?

We drop off Natasha/Natalia/Nataly (she gives the names interchangeably; explanation: Russian) at her place on the way to the office. I quickly run through the paperwork, drop it off, and grab the bus/train to Shimou’s to grab dinner by 8:15pm. Dishes, Shower, then collapse in bed where Shimou gave me a massage. She is fantastic.

What isn’t fantastic, however, is sinking my teeth into the “4 hour workweek,” as it’s all about efficiently finding ways to do your tasks, make money, and free your time. Seriously, check out the book if you haven’t already. In the case here, it’s emphasizing the 80-20 rule where 80% of your results come from 20% of your work; most of the sales seem to come from 4-6pm, when people are home. The book is bringing it up from the perspective of his entrepreneurial efforts: he isolated and maintained his top 20% of clients, which brought in his 80% of income, and determined his top 20% of headache creators, sending them a message politely telling them to clean up their act, or ship out. A few left, and the rest changed their tune.

Seriously, get this book.

A World of Wonder!