Tonight I Just Need My Guitar

Doesn’t everyone have dreams of strumming a guitar and playing to a legion of fans across the globe?  Or hitting the game winning shot in game 7?  Or the bases loaded walk off home run?

We all grow up with those dreams, don’t we?  And eventually reality sets it and you realize that you just don’t quite have what it takes.  Then what?  I guess most of the time we settle.  We settle for some shitty cubicle job that we never ever truly enjoy and waste a few years away before jumping to a new job and maybe a few more…and before you know it, it’s all in the rearview.  And you’re pissed.  At yourself.  Not for failing to make it to the NBA or as a rockstar (hell, you never even learned to play the guitar so what do you expect?!).  You’re pissed because you never took that leap of faith and gave that business idea a try, went back to school, completely switched industries…any kind of change from what you spent your career doing…and hating.

I think about this stuff.  ALOT.  Too much.

I do feel feel very fortunate that my ‘career life’ is made up of Snoloha, Unsalted Sailing, Bay Breeze and a couple other things that I’m involved in.  Have I bitten off more than I can chew?  Somedays it feels that way…that’s when I have to practice what I preach and find a dose of escapism myself.

I’ve been very deliberate in my attempt to surround myself with a work life that I enjoy and want to be a part of.  Yes, it’s stressful…only because I give a damn.  There’s no ‘working for the weekend’, punching out at 5:00 or one week of vacation time.  There can’t be.

But that’s OK.  Because sometimes the lines between work and play are very blurred — sailing, snowboarding, trips to the Caribbean, a cold one on the docks, getting lost in the woods…it’s all brand related.  You really do have to practice what you preach if anyone is going to believe you as a brand owner.

Remember:

“Need is a relative thing these days
It borders on desire
The high tech world is full of bright shiny things
We think that we really require

Sometimes more than others
You see who and what and where You are
I’m a one-man band with no Immediate plans
Tonight I just need my guitar

Don’t need to feel important or famous
No limos or my little Nash car
One lucky man
With my feet in the sand
Tonight I just need my guitar” – Jimmy Buffett, Tonight I Just Need My Guitar