The perfect job

Over the years various people have taken stock of my more obvious talents & interests & have expressed opinions on what the perfect vocation for me would be.

At primary school I was known as a very good artist. This must have been some aberrational talent I displayed as the notion has never, ever been expressed since I was 6 or so.

In my early teens, I thought being a marine biologist might be pretty cool, after reading all the Willard Price books, and avidly watching the Rod Serling narrated Jaques Cousteau series. Later, the movie Jaws soured this idea, and my only diving experience left me pretty much deaf for the next two weeks, so I decided maybe marine biology wasn't for me after all...

At college, it was mostly suggested I become a writer of some sort, or a mathematician, as I enjoyed some academic success with both maths & English. I did in fact, apply for a journalism course at age 17, but I wasn't accepted (ignoramuses - look what they ended up with instead!), and so I whiled away the next (embarrassing number of years) studying English at university.

It still seems to me that I probably should have persevered with journalism, but sundry vicissitudes took my career elsewhere. Meanwhile, people still do now & then express their judgement, and I've had it suggested that I'd be: a natural salesman (following one awful night when I attempted unsuccessfully to sell - someone else's - artwork door to door); gigolo (er... a response to my rigorous customer satisfaction techniques :); project manager (I'd be terrible); event manager; property developer; small business owner; and whaddya know... writer (you may be reading this & disagreeing & that's your privilege).

Mrs Llew, a successful business owner, and avid practitioner of motivational techniques, often asks me "Where do you see yourself in 5 years time?" And I find questions like this very hard to answer... "What would you enjoy doing?" Easy, getting paid for loafing around watching obscure films most likely.

However, now & then I do get some glimpse into a working life that appeals far more then the 9-5 corporate grind I've trod for the last 20 or so years...

For instance, my perfect job would involve no staff management. Staff suck. Even, eventually, the good ones. The working hours would be flexible (I think I'd rather be paid for outcomes than time spent on the job). Of course, if I could find something that I really enjoyed, then hours on the job wouldn't be such an issue. I'd cheerfully run a small business if I could think of something that not only I'd enjoy, but people would pay me for doing. Something I could do from home at least part of the time would be good.

Then last week, an idea finally sprung into mind. Just a germ of an idea at the moment, I have no idea if there's a market for these services, nor exactly what such a venture would entail.

Mrs Llew came up with a neato name for my new company though. I'll have to check the companies' register to see if its already taken.

No details will be shared at the moment, maybe at a later date, if anything comes of my enquiries.