My son and I took a walk through the Strip yesterday. Bought a couple of roast beefs at the original Primanti's, crossed Smallman to the newly refurbished Terminal, plopped down on a big plastic couch ... and a passerby was kind enough to snap the pic seen above.
There's no point to the story other than I had the free hour to pull it off.
That hasn't been the case much for seven-plus years. Anyone who's started their own business, as Dali and I did in 2014, can attest that days off don't exist. Heck, time off doesn't exist. She and I go pretty much around the clock, seven days a week, and even the lighter days invariably have a few hours committed to the company.
That's not complaining. We love what's been built. But it's no less true.
In fact, speaking for myself, I'm probably complaining less than ever. And that's partly because we're finally back on our financial feet following the pandemic, but also because we're so very grateful that Jarrod Prugar and Eddie Provident both came aboard full-time recently to take on a lot of the tasks that only Dali and I had been handling. Background-type stuff you don't see -- page management, production, quality control -- but essential to how we operate and the professional face we put forth.
Maybe it's a defect on my part, but I can't go to bed until I feel the site's as close to perfect as it can get. I was staying up till sunrise, both home and road, going over everything. I wouldn't get enough sleep, I'd be a wreck the next day, and the cycle just kept going and going.
But having these two, with their passion for the same, has made a monumental difference. In addition to being able to spend time with Marko and Dara (via FaceTime, since she's at school), Dali and I have both been freed up for more creative work. In her case, that's involved graphic design, promotion, new merchandise and so forth. In mine, it's been, as I hope you've noticed, a lot more writing. I've made it to more events and, in turn, delivered more columns than at any time in years.
And it hasn't just been Jarrod and Eddie. I've been equally uplifted by the addition of all these hyper-enthusiastic podcasters to our platform. Meaning just their presence. They're so excited, so proud to be here that, in a lot of ways, it's felt like 2014 all over again. Feels like the sky's the limit. And with some of the results we've seen already, that just might be true.
All of this comes down to one thing for me now: Have fun. I didn't get into this to get rich, but I sure didn't get into it to be miserable. My happiness, to a large extent, comes from this job, from this company. So that's the goal. Every day, I want to have fun, be happy, enjoy what I do, enjoy who and what's around me.
I'll be at Lambeau Field this weekend, an American treasure, and I'll savor every minute of it. It's a great job. It's a great company. It's a great community we've been blessed to build here. Being too busy to embrace things like that ... not a problem anymore.
