Carolyn Jack

Editor and CEO, Geniocity.com
A project of The Genius Group LLC

Creative Nerve: What It’s Really Like to Start a Business

Could we go faster, please?  I’m an act-now person in a wait-a-minute world. And I have to say that the amount of time it takes to get other people moving just about kills me.

Because starting this business of mine requires input, decisions and actions from so many, I frequently end up on the strategic equivalent of hold while those guys get around to getting around to getting back to me.

Take yesterday. I had messages and questions in with at least a dozen people: writers I’m trying to recruit, artists whose work I’d like to have submitted to our shop, advertising folks, tech experts. I need to hear from them so I can take my next steps, resolve issues, keep things going.  Not one of them got in touch.

Of course,  I know they’re probably being held up by dozens of other not-getting-to-it people – or chores or other problems – in their own lives, so it’s not as if I blame them, exactly. But I do constantly feel as if my feet have been encased in lead weights.

I can clearly see where I need to go and what I have to accomplish and I can’t budge. It’s agonizing. 

The only way I’ve found to deal with that is to find other tasks to start. By the time those stall out, there’s likely to be some movement in one of the earlier situations I was hoping to deal with the week before.

And so things creep forward. I take deep breaths and try to lower my heart rate.  But there are plenty of days when I think the answer to our national energy problems is to replace oil with the steam generated by my frustration.  

That would solve my capitalization problems, too.