Let me tell you about my weekend....

[pmbguy]

Ahh… to be an architect… it’s the perfect gig. I envy these lads. You achieve semi-immortality, not quite Achilles, but perhaps your children’s children and even their children get to see your work. It is art and practicality in perfect proportions. Adrian, let us know how their prac went. Your weekend went a bit like mine, work, eat, shit, sleep, work.

Hell I made the decision to return to my business full time, apparently I like the stress. My time in corporate convinced me that I can do it. It opened my eyes and I learned what I should have been doing all along. I changed the settings because it turned out that Mohammed was the mountain. Now I hunt the big whales better. Now I see the market for what it will bear and not running some damn special all year long - I still can’t charge very old people, but the rest must pay their pound.

Some happiness has been achieved just doing these stupid little things I should have been doing all along. Thinking back about myself I can only think of this expression I heard some time back: “As jy dom is moet jy bloei”.

[adrianh]

Ahh… to be an architect… it’s the perfect gig. I envy these lads. You achieve semi-immortality, not quite Achilles, but perhaps your children’s children and even their children get to see your work. It is art and practicality in perfect proportions. Adrian, let us know how their prac went. Your weekend went a bit like mine, work, eat, shit, sleep, work.

Hell I made the decision to return to my business full time, apparently I like the stress. My time in corporate convinced me that I can do it. It opened my eyes and I learned what I should have been doing all along. I changed the settings because it turned out that Mohammed was the mountain. Now I hunt the big whales better. Now I see the market for what it will bear and not running some damn special all year long - I still can’t charge very old people, but the rest must pay their pound.

Some happiness has been achieved just doing these stupid little things I should have been doing all along. Thinking back about myself I can only think of this expression I heard some time back: “As jy dom is moet jy bloei”.

Today is his big day. He has to do a presentation to a number of national and international architects. I also hope that it goes well for him. He has invited me to a viewing of all the architectural models. I can't wait...It is nice to know that I did all the laser cutting and CNC work to make it possible for him. There are so many talented people out there and I must admit that I love seeing their work and also being part of their creations.

The corporate world....I can't do it...I don't mind the work per se, hell, I work 12-18 hours a day already, it is the politics, chain of command and general stupidity. I love orking in a creative environment where I can express myself. The choice is generally to work in a corporate, (be caged into a box, make good money but be mostly unhappy) or work for yourself (be free to do as you choose, make shit money and be mostly happy). It's not an easy decision for most but my, and your nature dictates that we have to do our own thing. I think that if we keep at it we could make decent money.

Let me teach you about stress. Stress is not a function of of too much work or too many deadlines, it is a function of frustration. I don't think that humans were designed to be frustrated and we handle it very badly. The best thing for stress seems to be sport. I think that frustration acts on your stomach and produces some or other chemical in the brain that causes a cross between anger and depression. I think that if we are unable to dump the chemicals then we start to feel stress. I found that I couldn't cope with it because I didn't know how to dump the chemicals. I would feel terrible in the morning when I had to go to work and I would feel like bashing everybody at work's brains in. It was all because I couldn't go up to the people who were getting on my nerves and tell them to f*ck off.

Let me tell you something, those "stupid things" that you do all day long; the most important thing in life is that you are content, I didn't say happy, I said content. If you are able to spend hours on end doing whatever it is that frees your mind and put you in a state of flow then that is great. If doing that earns you good money then you don't work for a living. So if people ask you what you do for a living you just say "Oh, I don't need to work because I free"

How's the wife and young madam?

[CLIVE-TRIANGLE]

Adrian, it looks like you identify with this article, as do most of us I guess
http://www.iol.co.za/business/compan...4#.VlSPML8TW3Y

[adrianh]

Adrian, it looks like you identify with this article, as do most of us I guess
http://www.iol.co.za/business/compan...4#.VlSPML8TW3Y

I can so relate to everything written in that article.

[pmbguy]

The wife is good and we pretty happy at the mo thanks. The madam is 4 years old, beautiful with long blonde hair and exactly 1 meter tall - way too clever and extremely independent. She already works for me on the weekends earning R15. She receives clients (greeting in Zulu sometimes), cleans out the dustbins, cleans the smaller machines and passes me tools. At the end of the day we have a meeting were we discuss things she did well and perhaps certain things that went wrong. I am teaching her the right skills so that while she is still a kid, perhaps 11 or 12, she is wholly proficient at selling and admin.

This is basically how I deal with stress, doesn't always work though. In the stressful moment I take a step back to reflect. Often a second take diminishes the intensity and sometimes doing this even solves the problem. I fish when I can and get out there in the bush. I read at night, especially conflict because it is complex and I really get into it - fiction does nothing for me. I exercise trampoline'ing and let’s face it, we are all adults here, sex if possible.

Adrian, I agree. I know my happiness is inextricably linked too running my own show. It is not that I am unhappy working for somebody else … it’s that… Why would I want to spend my life and energy and soul on somebody else’s dreams?

“They may take our lives, but they will never take our freedom!”