You feel really alive

Michael Kelly
Jul 23, 2017 · 1 min read

when you’re working your own business. I used to have my own herd of cows, 66 mother cows . . . anywhere north of that up to 130 depending on the season.

Each cow represents 1200+ meals, a large steer calf can go above 1500. In addition to that, each cow is a couple dozen pairs of shoes, plus 600 to 1,000 of dog and cat food. Every part of a cow gets used. How do you feel when you know you’re providing 90k meals a year?

But the feeling I’d get on a beautiful spring day, the big calves are jumping around, the moms are pregnant and healthy . . . When I had my own enterprise. Some days I’d come home late, cold, wet, hungry, been kicked, spit upon, pissed upon, shat upon, knocked down and rubbed into the ground, but I always felt really alive.

And that was just my side gig. I still had a 40 hour job with a computer manufacturer 3 to midnight. In the morning, I’d take the kids to school, spend the day with my cows, take a shower in the gym, then work on some really cutting edge stuff til 12. I’d put a paragraph or two of my cattle report in my weekly report, and it’d go around the plant. People I didn’t know would tell me I should be a writer. When you have a real life, you also have a lot to write about.

    Michael Kelly

    Written by

    Retired from electronics and working on a geology degree. I want to be an Explorationist when I grow up.

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