Shoud The Savvy Entrepreneur Live The Dream? Or Live The Reality? Let’s Ask Carl Jung
December 11th, 2007 Filed under: Uncategorized — Small Home Business AuthorI can remember having several debates with my girlfriend who is a high-profile attorney on the west coast. The fact that she was a high-profile attorney, though impressive, was not her lure. For me, the fact that she started from scratch, actually on a park bench, worked her way through one of the most prestigious law schools in the country, and has offices in Beverly Hills and beyond, was the lure. It was the struggle. The way she thought. The way she works. Her discipline and organizational skills; business elements of which I am still but nubile and shall be for awhile.
I am a better marketer, she says, anyway. I am not so sure about that. She never advertises, does not even have a website, and her waiting room is always full of people waiting to pay her and pay her well.
I, on the other hand, though a bit clumsy and not as organized, have managed to create some exciting things on the Internet. But, if not for the Internet, I do not think they would exist. One, for instance is the largest cartoon website which lures about 4000 visitors per hour or 4.5 million people per year. From that I’ve expanded it into 5 different e-stores with my cartoon products (over 80,000 of them in 23 different categories). I invented and have a patent pending on the world’s first fully-automated medical device.
She drives a new Mercedes. I drive a reliable economy car. She has a big home in the Valley. I have a nice but small apartment on a mountaintop in Arkansas.
Her debate is one I hear often. “You don’t think big. You need to learn to think big. I think it’s an Arkansas thing!” That makes me laugh. I want to say, “Yeah, tell it to Sam Walton.”
This confuses me. I wonder sometimes if it is about income. If it is, well, she’s right. A seasoned
attorney generally makes more money than a seasoned cartoonist and e-tailer no matter how “big we think”.
She wants me to “live the dream”. Ok ok. I don’t like that term. It sounds so MLM-sh and I feel like I’m in Egypt starting a Pyramid scheme. But I digress.
In Carl Jung’s book “Dreams And Reflections”, though a bit of a hard read for me, he explains that we are living the dream by living the reality. The reality is the dream. If we want it to be more dreamlike, our job is to open up to new information (education) and take action. It is that simple.
He purveys the caveat that it will never be utopia no matter how “pristine the dream”. So, what
to do?
I think the thing to do is “do what you like”. For some people, the dream is money. Back when Nelson Rockefeller was one of the richest if not the world’s richest persons, he was asked, “How much money is enough?” He answered, “Just a little bit more.”
I never want to get (back) onto that treadmill of chasing the almighty dollar. Make money? Sure.
Make more money? You bet. But doing it my way, to coin a late great blue-eyed singer.
My dream is to do just what I love to do, and the money will come. Will it come immediately? I don’t think so. Bill Gates money took years to compile as did Warren Buffet. The captains of industry stories are filled with failures and missteps before living the dream.
I have many wealthy friends, many middle class, many upper class, many lower class; I really don’t
find any of that important as a requisite for friendship. I love being around people who are doing things to try to improve themselves and others. If someone is out there just trying to make a lot of money, so be it. They bore me. If they are out there trying to provide the best service, product, or creative endeavor out there, and whether they make a pot of gold, or not, I will hang with them.
So to each his own on living the dream. My dream may not be yours.
But that is okay. We are in the 21st century where live and let live is the name of the game.
I will continue to “live my dream”, even if my better half thinks I’m “not thinking big”. I’ve
seen more big thinkers in bankruptcy court than in The Ritz Carleton.
Thinking big can be a good thing, but measure your waist size first. May sure it is not too
big for your britches, and carry on, never misleading anyone.
You will be happy, rich, or not.
Rick London is a cartoonist and e-tailer. He founded Londons Times Cartoons and two
major award-winning cartoon gift stores http://www.ricklondonwear.com and http://www.LTSuperstore.com . The two stores together carry over 80,000 of his licensed cartoon gifts, clothes and collectbiles. His cartoon
site is one of the most popular on the web luring 4.5 million visitors a year at http://www.londonstimes.us
