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Loving Your Work, Working With Your Lover
"Congratulations, Ms London. It's a Realtor, I used to joke in a bittersweet fashion, that the nurses had told my dear late mother after giving birth to me. I was the oldest male child in a third generation thriving real estate business in the Deep South. As it turned out, after trying it several years in my twenties, real estate was not my thing and I later learned after indulging in big market media and public relations in New York City and Washington D.C. The dog-eat-dog environment of any type was not my thing. It took a major heart attack to figure it out, but as they say it takes what it takes'. I was put on the sidelines and forced not to work, and on Social Security.
I never thought in a million years i would nearly die at age 44 (that was in 2001). the medical community was not so sure either (whether I might make it or not). I pinched my skin to discover I was still alive and having been the active person I perceived myself to be, started "making waves" by getting into action But if I were to work, human services said it was would be to "start over" in a stress-less/brainless job. I decided to try retirement after all. Everyone else in town, it seemed, golfed, so I tried. That lasted about a month. One might since Tiger Wood lived near me growing up, some of of his golfing ability might have rubbed off on me. Didn't happen. I spent more time in sand traps, pin-tree filled woods and shallow lakes than on the actual golf course. Twain was right on target with his golfing quote about golf. It was a chance for a very good walk, but turned out not to be.
I struggled seventeen years in the corporate world, and the longer I was there, the more I realized it was creating a sort of imbalance between who I really was, and what I was truly becoming. I did not like who or what I was becoming, that is, a person willing to give up my real friends in pursuit of keeping the bottom line black, and basically sell my soul all the while, growing tired of even the highest paying positions; some of them others would have run over me to sit in my corner office chair.
On one of (many sick days; I took them all), I sat down sadly with pen and paper, hashing out what an ideal life would be for me. I had read in a self-help book that the process of writing a dream or goal onto paper was/is actually the first step of action; that is bringing it from the subconscious into the universe. It sounded a little dubious at best to me but I was willing to do anything to have a life that made sense to me with at least some way out of the terrible trappings and into something that might seem like some kind of normalcy. I knew what I was doing, might be pleasing society, but it was killing me.
The change was not a neon light egad experience; in fact totally the opposite. Within twelve years one thing led to another. Today I work at home, sometimes in my jammies if I wish. I work next to the one I love, my finance' Lee. We run an SEO (search engine optimization) firm that is unique in that it offers not only organic SEO, but Twitter custom designed backgrounds and branded products as well as Internet optimization.
Google suddenly ranked my offbeat cartoon number one where it has stayed since 2005. I have launched at least ten E-stores full of funny gifts and collectibles bearing my cartoon images from tees to mugs and more. I closed a few that weren't making money. About half stayed open, but that was okay as I considered them an experiment anyway. I founded, design and create the world's only famous love quote shoes that Keds manufacture for me. I have become the designer for Mariel Hemingway licensed image gifts and collectibles and she is a pleasure with which to work. All of these things have happened from the comfort of my own living room. Not a bad deal for a guy who thought he might spend the rest of a short life chasing golf balls in the woods.
Through Twitter, Lee and I have met many wonderful people. I became officially adopted by someone I had always admired greatly, Kathy Ireland as her brother, and it is a closer kinship than any I've had with any real sibling. She has another adopted brother Jon, and Jon and I are the brothers Kathy never had and Kathy is surely the sister I never had and always wanted. To have a brother-sister dynamic like that, at my age, (55) or any age, is worth more than money, worth more than anything material, it feels almost spiritual. In my memory, I am hard pressed to think of anyone as selfless as Kathy Ireland; not just with me, but with whom all she comes in contact. Even her employees agree; she does not even call them "employees"; they "work with her". She is very very humble and special.
My most unique and important experience that ever happened on Twitter, or any social network is that I met my soul mate there. I was not looking. I was told by peers this was a good place to network and meet people to get word out about products. I met Lee of whom I had waited 54 years to meet. I had had several opportunities for marriage, and both did not pan out, I am sure now for a reason. If either of them had, I would never have met Lee, and nothing and nobody in the world means more to me than Lee and my love relationship with her. We work together. We love our work and we work hard at it. We wear many hats. Graphic designers don't come any better than Lee, and she is multi-talented.She is also the love advice columnist at the Herald de Paris. She did not know SEO when we started our SEO firm, but now knows it as well as any guru (we don't use that word as we don't believe it exists) of whom I've read their writings. Working with Lee is always a pleasure and feels more like fun than play. It reconfirms a lot of business principles and work ethics of keeping things simple and knowing that ones word is as good as a contract (even though we use contracts for professional reasons), Lee and I agree, if we say we are going to do something, it is as good as done. Though we work in a very complex business and world, we keep things very simple, and treat each other (and our clients) the way we wish to be treated. Our love grows stronger every day. As my friends remind me, Loving ones work while working with ones lover makes one a very lucky person. I have finally become that very lucky person. I feel like if it can happen to me, it can happen to anybody.
About the Author Rick London is a writer, cartoonist, and e-entrepreneur. He is co-founder of PenAndInkInc a professional SEO Firm and partners with his fiance Lee Hiller. Rick London also founded Londons Times Offbeat Cartoons and numerous cartoon collectible gift shops which are Google's #1 ranked.
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