A few weeks ago I was listening to an NPR piece. I listen to NPR a lot. Great stories, great conversations, great news coverage. It is pretty much on every morning and whenever I am in my car. But, I digress.
This particular NPR piece was a roundtable discussion about whether or not to reopen offices in India amid a continuing pandemic. There was one moment that just stuck with me. One gentleman was speaking about shifting the way you think about the business of business. He was saying that just because you are not able to do business as usual does not mean you cannot do business. And he said this phrase which I really took to heart, “When a fisherman cannot gather fish, he mends his nets.”
It seems really simple, as most adages do, but it struck me as something I needed to hear. I stress a lot about not being able to be at conventions and festivals, because those venues are how I conceptualised how my business would operate and how I would grow.
But, while I am not able to do those things and I am perhaps not growing at the rate I originally mapped out, I have time to “mend nets”. I have worked on redesigning my website, finding networking avenues, learning about SEOs, making new social media plans, etc. And, while all of these things are not directly bringing in the fish, my hope is that it is time well spent improving the tools I use for that metaphorical fishing.
It can be very hard to keep focus in a business landscape that changed so rapidly. I thank my fans so much for sticking with me and being the smiling faces that make every day worth it. Even if that day is spent mending nets.