The Dog Under My Desk...

Today I am working on the submision of a group of 73ideas logo designs for a book on logo design. As I sit here during my workday, sipping a Gordon Biersch Hefeweizen, working on my own work, I think about how thankful I am. This year has been a complicated one. I have a client that has promised and promised, but is enough months behind that I stopped working for them two months ago... that's 5 months behind in their bills... I feel that. But despite that, and anything else - I can't help but think about how good I have it.

My dog Mindy was the reminder. An hour or so ago, she was pushing up against my leg for me to let her under my desk. It's something that happens many times in a day, but somehow took me back this time. Back to when I was a founding partner in a new company called Avizia - about to land the Safeway account - just not knowing it yet.

I was working 16-18 hours a day, and most weekends. Because of this, our parent company -- PPC Retail Design, the one that had put up the venture capital -- made the special exception of letting me have Mindy in the office. I remember there being some people that were pretty upset by this. The kinds of people that only see that you are getting something they are not - but not thinking about what it is costing you. I was there before any of them, and there for an entire workday after them. I worked over 30 hours straight once. I worked all but a half day of Thanksgiving weekend - alone - on a made-up project, created to set me up to fail - to create grounds to force me out of a company in which I was a founding partner... but that's another story...

The point is, I'm blessed. Here I sit with the same dog trying to get under my desk that was sitting under my desk then - but under such completely different circumstances. I have an amazing, loving, suportive wife, a beautiful home, mountains and palm trees all around, a reasonable boss (me)... It's a long list. Literally every focus, priority and detail of my life is different now.

I bet she knows. We've got a happy house. She gets up with me at 6 every morning and lies under my desk. I'm thankful it's a different desk.

What a difference 5 years makes. I feel like I was young then.