Inspiration

In 1997, a dear friend, Jean Frankenberger Nottingham, took me to lunch and handed me a new magazine called Fast Company. On the magazine’s cover in bold type were three words: FREE AGENT NATION. “I think you should start your own business,” she said. “You’re ready.” Little did Jean know how those three words and that lunch changed my life. I had been dreaming of starting my own PR firm for several years but was too fearful to leap blindly off the cliff. In his article, “Free Agent Nation,” author Dan Pink highlighted the growing number of “free agents” or independent workers who left big corporate America behind to pursue their own visions of what a real work-life balance ought to be. “Jump and the net will appear,” he wrote. I cut that statement out of the magazine, taped it to my bedroom mirror, and for three months stared at it every day. Soon after, I did jump. It’s now been 12 years and that ole net, well, has always been there. Ironically, a couple of years later, Dan Pink asked me to particiate in an entrepreneur time-tracking experiment for his book of the same title. Free Agent Nation (the book) came out in 2001. http://tiny.cc/euW2z

This week Mr. Pink’s newest book hits the shelves…Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us. You can read the Wall Street Journal review here: http://tiny.cc/zyks7 . Anyway, like many of you, Mike and I are still trying to figure it all out…how to live a purposeful life while facing the realities of raising kids, providing for a family, and pursuing work that matters. That’s part of the reason we took another leap and bought our farm. To have a place of peace and nature away from a big city where we could go to think and play and breathe more easily. And this little blog is my humble attempt to share part of that life with friends and family, and thus keep the conversations going about what truly motivates us and brings deeper meaning to our lives. Thanks, Dan, for helping me and many others get on the way to this journey. www.danpink.com/drive