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For years I’ve felt “weird” and “wrong” for working this way.

I still feel guilty when telling people that I am only open for meetings from 11 am to 5 pm. The only exceptions are people in distant time zones.

It can also feel wrong if your SO is on a regular 9 to 5 and you are getting up without an alarm clock, going shopping and making appointments in the middle of the day, and generally setting your own work habits according to your own preferences. Last night I was working at 1 am because I couldn't sleep and there was something I wanted to get done.

OTOH, she never has to go food shopping and I have always been there for the kids in ways that are not possible for her - helped my adult child load and unload a moving truck last Wednesday afternoon, and over the years took both kids to school activities, driving lessons, and other events that my spouse couldn't attend.




“Tiny unicorn” is what I call this kind of business. I’ve been working like that for 30+ years. Avoid failure to the left of you, greed to the right. It’s a strait, narrow, rocky and easy-to-lose path. A constant onslaught of people and chaos trying to push, pull, trick, trip, invest and otherwise knock you off it. Stay on target and you get to be… yourself.


Love the tiny unicorn nomenclature!


In that case this passage is for you:

We don’t need to explain ourselves to them.

We don’t need to prove our success through conventional means.

We don’t need to measure against a scale that others have invented.

We don’t need to feel guilty for refusing to take on unnecessary responsibilities.




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