Side-Side-Side Projects
One of the most difficult and annoying questions I’ve ever been asked: “so, what do you do for fun?”. The last I’ve been asked that I was on the phone with my Dad a few months ago. I was going in depth about promoting my book, relaunching my app, options trading, coming up with a graphic novel, dabbling in podcasting. He said, “yeah but Julien, what do you ACTUALLY do for fun?”. I didn’t know how to answer that. These are all things I generally enjoy that I find fulfillment in — well, except when I lose money options trading. That’s a terrible feeling. The WORST feeling.
After those words hit I looked around: I live in a one-bedroom apartment, my only semblance of furniture outside of my bed is a Chicago Bulls rocking chair I had since I was eight. I don’t watch TV. I don’t have cable. Outside of going to the gym, work, or getting food, I never go out. My main form of communication/social life is the four Groupme’s that I’m apart of. I currently don’t have any social media, but at the time I only had it just to manage Like Pages—I eventually found out how to get around that and wipe everything. I swear I’m fun at parties. If I actually go, that is.
I read a lot of these entrepreneurial/career/business-type articles and they talk about focus. Focus more on perfecting one thing rather than spreading yourself thin on multiple things. You appear scatter-brained and unorganized. While I admit that my resume can be described as nothing short of schizophrenic, I tend to disagree with this.
For one I don’t feel like I’m spreading myself too thin. Every ounce of time I have is usually pre-determined and planned to prevent this. When I wasn’t doing Strongth I was doing art, and once that itch has been scratched I go back to it — made perfect sense to me. Around the same time I was doing art I made a system on how I would trade options, typically reinventing new embarrassing ways to lose money.
I also definitely don’t feel unorganized. I have very specific interests, and I make time for all of them. I have a full time job, and Strongth really doesn’t take that much time to manage. I have freelancers I have access to, and my marketing is on its way to being totally outsourced. My book took less than 2 months of nights and weekends. Granted once a new interest pops up I’ll be able to fit into my schedule just fine.
Most importantly, I’m enjoying myself. Strongth is slowly but surely growing, and I’m becoming a better artist. I’m finally putting out my first comic book! Very excited for that. Don’t think I’ll ever get the money I lost from Twitter back, though.
Check me out on my website! I’ll be setting up a Mailchimp next week.
