Of course…Flight of the Conchords’s meaning of “business” isn’t the kind I’m writing about. Actually, it’s a very serious matter to me that I hope to sort out someday.

Though I work in the digital media business with a small, yet well-to-do firm, it’s not everyday I get to talk to someone who has tasted lucrative success. Though, from time to time, a client of ours that the firm is very friendly with comes in to talk business – his own, as well as helping his daughter’s online business get off the ground. Joe is very cool and knows a lot about what his business was, is, and should be doing. However, he has reached a peculiar point in his success: He has come to the stark realization that he now has tons of competition in an industry that he played a major role in shaping when no one else was doing what he was doing.

“Sometimes you get tired of making money,” Joe said to me. We were chatting a bit while my boss was taking what seemed to be an important call. “I wouldn’t know anything about that,” I said, chuckling a bit as I added, “I’m still trying to figure out a reasonable way TO make money.”

Then Joe said something that I haven’t been able to get off my mind for the past two days.

“You gotta be in the mood to make money…I used to sit at home, receive the checks in the mail, and say to myself, ‘Man, I can’t believe I can live like this.’ Nowadays, I’m not getting as many checks and have to convince my clients to use my service when I was the only one out there doing this kind of thing back in the day.”

Talking to someone like that makes me a little crazy. All I have ever known my entire life is isshoukenmei (hard work), but now Joe has to work to distance himself from the many competing forces out there. He now has to ‘be in the mood to make money.’ I’ve been making my own money since I was fifteen, working part-time. So I guess you can say I’ve been in the mood to make money ever since I legally could. And I’m still in the mood…

…but I don’t want to work for someone else for the rest of my life. That much is certain. Looking over all the skills I have, I still deem all of them too weak to bring in money. So I ask myself a few questions:

+ What can I do to change that?
+ What should I focus on more?
+ What do I have to become?

Answering these questions is difficult. I see everything as a possible avenue, though I am aware that success won’t just fall into my lap. The moment my work becomes copy/paste grunt work, that itch to do my own thing comes back full swing.

Where I am is not where I shall stay. I pray for the day when I can carve out my own place. For now, I need to continue obtaining wisdom from people like Joe and my boss, while surrounding myself with like-minded people who will support me so I can support their endeavors, financial or otherwise.