This year alone I have realized many things about myself and my business. I can honestly say that working for yourself is so played out. The reason I say this is because it bothers me that people that I talk too say I am lucky to work from home or have my own business or never working at a job, etc. The problem I have with that statement is - it sucks working form home.
While other entrepreneurs are either married, have a team to work with, or partners that meetup - I work on my own. I wake up go to the gym and then I go to my pc or now office. The interaction I have after the gym sucks. I talk to no one and this is the flaw of working for yourself. I feel that working on your own just creates social anxiety or depression.
I think this is why I travel so much because I miss the social interaction with people. I rather spend my money to travel to conferences and talk to like minded people than talk to my own friends sometimes. I am getting tired of waking up and just going straight to my PC, I need to do something in between.
I even got an office so I feel like I have to go to work. It definitely gets me focus, but again I am talking to no one - I am missing that social interaction. I even got 2 people to work for me, sometimes are unreliable but it still didn't create the need for interaction.A workplace should be fun, and my house and office isn't a place where you throw nerf balls around. If I did throw a nerf ball in my house, whom am I throwing it too?
Recently I came across a comic by theOatmeal titled "Why working form home is both awesome and horrible." This comic guy puts things into perspective and reality. Obviously it's awesome to work for yourself. The horrible part is lack of social skills and employee baneter, which is the main reason for this post.
For people that know me, I am a very social person and like to have fun and make use of life. Though the co-working environment is good, it still lacks the need for me to talk to someone.
There are 2 other people in the co-working office, but they are always on the road with local meetings - in essence I am still on my own and lack that interaction. I even started local work to satisfy this need...
But that social interaction leads to annoyance because clients are not that smart, local clients anyways. So trying to have an educational conversation about business goals turns into a sour conversation because of the lack of knowledge. I go hang out with friends and that is fine, I enjoy spending the time with them especially when it doesn't have to be about business.
During the day is when I concentrate on my business and just staring at the PC all day kills my mind. Just like Kid Cudi says "Fat in Mind, Body Fat as well" I try to take breaks and read a book or I try to work at my friends house or go to the office - just so I leave my house.
This literally struck me hard the other day and I wasn't even going to post this but it is an experience. It really hit me when a person was leaving his job and I ended up in the same elevator as him and we had a small conversation. It ended up talking about what we both do and why I am at the office building. As I was approaching my floor to leave, he said "at least you get to work from home," I just shook my head and said "I rather be out of my house."
... so there are 2 different sides to this. I like people and I like to socialize/interact, while some do not want to have a job and work for themselves. I enjoy working for myself, but I also have to grow.
If you work for yourself and live on your own, how do you deal with the lack of social interaction?
