Page 124 - 597 Business Ideas You can Start from Home - doing what you LOVE! (Beginner Internet Marketing Series)

Secret #7: Sharpen the Knife 93

I play the harmonica. Though I’m not Charlie Musslewhite
or Howard Levy, I’m not bad, either. I play in a band from
time to time, and I practice with friends.

Sounds innocent enough, doesn’t it?
But I’ve noticed some problems.
Trying to devote my life to being an author and to
being a musician is nearly impossible. Both careers
require time and commitment. And neither allow for
sideline activities. If I try to do both, I do neither very
well.
On the days I try to write after staying up the night
before playing music, I’m a flop. I can’t get anything
done. My head is too fuzzy. And on the evenings when
I try to blow my harp after writing and seeing clients all
day, I’m too tired to hit the right note.
Hobbies and relaxing pastimes are fine. But trying to
chase two massive dreams isn’t smart. Bruce Barton was
the first to help me realize I had to sharpen my deci-
sions. In 1920 he wrote an essay called “Slide Lines,”
which ended as follows:

“J.C. Penney told me the other day about a young man
who might have been one of his first partners. The young
man played the trombone and was compelled to leave the
store early every night because he made five dollars a week
by tooting his horn in an orchestra. He is still tending store
in the daytime and tooting at night. Mr. Penney is the head
of more than eight hundred stores.

“There are men who have made fortunes by running boot-
black stands, by buying junk from automobile factories,
and even by contracting with a city to collect its garbage.