Yesterday was a very strange day...In one single albeit elongated day, I was able to:
- priortize projects at work so I knew what to focus on when this week
- put my foot completely down and make a case for why I thought we shouldnt do project X
- bid on eBay for the object of my affection Kawasaki Ninja 250 cc motorcycle
- spend 3 freaking hours at the hospital getting some basic tests done (what is even the point of an appointment! American healthcare had put on its worst show...ahem sarcasm intended)
- attend a talk on Kiva.org
- do some work while struggling with a headache all thanks to the California heat and 1 beer at a going away party for a colleague....For someone who has never been drunk, such a reaction from my body leaves me shocked...
- do 2 hours of research on micro-finance in Eritrea
- rescue a friend with a flat tire late in the night
- come back and attend while meaningfully contributing (*rare*) to a late night conference call with our India team
- eat cereal for dinner at midnight
After all this, I expected to fall asleep and enjoy the pleasure of deep slumber as soon as my body hit the bed at 3 am. Instead, my brain experienced an occurence - one of those manic/frenzied/unexpected surge of energy moments. All of a sudden the atoms started colliding if you will and despite all attempts I kept thinking of new ideas for Janar on building Magis and site improvement ideas for Kiva.
Of course I had provided enough context to my mind during the day for these discussions to arise. I had a nice long conversation with Janar while waiting for my appointment at the hospital. Despite cash flow problems, Janar is very upbeat these days, has new plans, is back to his daily marathon workouts and an ever-increasing opportunity log. I think our new plan to tag team and make presentations at popular CA Jesuit high schools on all kinds of green and do-good topics is a step in the right direction. While selflessly talking about other non-profit ideas we can use the networking opportunities to increase assets under managemet with Magis. I am hoping that by the end of this year Magis will be close to if not net-positive!
Coming back to mania/fever: I had hibernated the laptop and was all tucked in when these ideas started popping in my brain - suggestions for Kiva. Of course laziness/procrastination won plus I didn't really want the guys at Kiva to think I was some crazy person trying to overwhelm them with 10 emails in one day. So I did the bad thing - after tossing and turning while drumming up things for 1.5 hours I finally dozed off. The first chance I got this morning at work I sat down to write all the things I had thought of. Lo and behold I had forgotten half of the ideas. This is bad, v. bad and its not the first time - since I like to write I have been in such situations before in the car, shower, meeting, lunch and even lounging on the couch at home; when random but cool ideas have struck me but just out of laziness I havent noted them down which means all those thoughts somehow evaporate and are gone forever. Never penned or typed down they are lost in some hidden cavities in my brain.
With continued nights of low sleep intake, I am hoping the brain tsunami will stike me more often AND this time I will be all gungho post-it note and pen all handy to write these babies down as soon as they occur to me!
Read these words on kivachronicles which struck a chord in me!
"If you're an entrepreneur, you should sound more confident than you are. If you're a social entrepreneur, you should be more inspirational than you feel. If you are an introverted social entrepreneur, you will face even more problems.
I struggled with depression for much of my young adult life. Sitting close behind a great optimism for other people lied a cloud of pessimism directed inward. In my short career in the corporate world, this pessimism would hang over me for weeks at a time. I would come home from work just wondering how I was going to escape the meaningless cycle I seemed to have fallen into. "
Further down on the same page one of the commenters Kevin Jones said...
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im convinced that normal people don't become successful entrepreneurs. only people who really really need to succeed to make a statement or learn something or transform something through the crucible of business. each of my businesses was a step along a journey to become who i needed to become. my pilgrimage has been through business.