Ten years ago I left corporate because climbing the corporate ladder where promotions are based on merit didn’t seem like it was “fair”. This post is not about how I visualized bossing people around when I was a 13 year old summer (then every weekend) intern at my grandpapa’s store stapling receipts to their respective invoices and highlighting numbers on cash flow statements.

It’s about how I run my day to day business and STILL highlight numbers from grandpapa’s store – for reasons they don’t teach you at Ivy League schools (yes I went to one), and you can only learn through the real classroom called life and the demons you thought only existed on tv.

A day in my life goes down like this as I continuously measure my heart rate on the Garmin watch I’m wearing and refreshing emails

5:30am – Head to beach track and do a run workout – humidity at its peak, so 35 degrees feeling like lava, heart rate at 170 bpm. Wave hello at the regulars, walkin 60 year olds. Pretend I don’t notice the runners I troll on social media.

6:30am – Order juice from cafe on beach. Snark at staff for mistaking almond milk with coconut and exorbitant prices. “Wasn’t this juice cheaper last week?” pointing at glossy menu board that looked like it just arrived from the printers.

7:00am – Back home, park car while my “two garden” cats are shrieking. Feed Mousy and Frendy.

8:00am – After eating a bowl of porridge mixed with banana, chia seeds and a dab of Nutella, I say bye to cats and head to Starbucks down the road for a tall daily brew  because it’s cheaper than the Americanos at speciality coffee shops where I find difficult to choose beans from Venezuella or St Martins.

8:30am – Surprise staff for coming in before them. Friendly hello while I sneak a look at my watch and fill in the employee attendance report. I ask how their evening was. Compare my run workouts with the ones I’ve done over the past 6 years to check if I am still running as fast as I did when I was in my 30s. Feeling anxious the interval times today were slower than 4 years ago, so I hit the panic button and start worrying about my hemoglobin levels.

9:00am – Check if staff updated their call reports on shared drive. Yell out to the one who didn’t update hers and ask her to stop everything she’s doing until she completes the update. I keep the sheet open on the shared drive and watch her type from my screen.

10:00 am – It’s quiet, why aren’t they making calls? I stop browsing “Life and Arts” on the FT and ask what they are working on. Cross check their emails with call reports and fuss about why the font on the excel sheet don’t match.

10:30am – Received an email from client to my staff, immediately ask staff if she read the email.

11:00am – Chase clients for payment and feedback via email, remind employees not to send emails until I check for grammar, spacing and font style.

11:30am – Call people and network, give them a market update and potential options while they mistaken the call for another therapy session. I tell them to be positive and stay calm while their manager didn’t nominate them for a promotion and the new guy with less experience is making more money. During the call, I browse lunch discounts on Deliveroo.

12:00pm – Check personal bank account balance. I can’t decide which strength and conditioning workout I want to do later in the day. I receive a notification on my phone that a 15% voucher at the nail salon I frequent will expire soon. I book a manicure appointment.

1:00pm – Shabby looking salesman walks into office. I tell him apologetically that I have a driver’s license and I am not interested in the driving school promotion he has on offer.

1:30pm – Cold email clients about a new product we launched. It’s the third email spam I am sending them this month.

2:00pm – Telephone clients to chase for payment and feedback. 

3:00pm – Keeping my cool. Focusing on the process as I’m anxious nothing eventful happens during the day. No money, no progress and I may have an illness because of my slow workout. I read affirmations I saved on my phone and tell myself to find joy and relish the moments of running a business.

Perhaps….stop with the sarcasm.