Workaholic Anonymum

Workaholic Anonymum

I love having my own business. I love the fact that I develop my own products and I meet people who are really good at their jobs who are generous with their advice and can help me with aspects I haven’t got specialist knowledge on - for example, testing my products in a lab for shelf life or designing a website. I love the opportunities, the dream that I can bring a new product to market and that people will love it.

I also like the feeling that I can contribute to helping improve other people’s lives through generating jobs and purchasing goods at fair prices, and be a positive role model to my children.

There is no denying that this keeps me busy. I sometimes have to be away from home a lot and work very long hours. Yesterday, my husband and I were stuck at the Belfast Airport as our flight back from our friends’ wedding was delayed. We set up camp on at comfy sofa in a coffee shop and started planning our next steps for 2010.

We talked business strategy, learning needs, project management tools and the fact that it looks like I’ll have to work away from home a lot. "Do you think the children feel that I am not around enough?" I asked him. Conflicting thoughts. I have heard them speaking about the fact that their mum is an entrepreneur and has a business and that I sometimes appear in the paper and on websites. But they are growing up really quickly and I say to them that although I may not be physically at home, they can contact me and I am always available to talk to them.

"Can you work really hard, be away from home sometimes and still be a good mum?", I ask my children. They both say “yes” and I sigh with relief. They tell me that they know that I care for them and that is, I think, the bottom line. I ask them what they are learning, if anything, about the fact that I have to put a lot of time into my work. “It’s a lot of time, but hopefully if I try really hard at something I really want to do, I can be successful” my daughter says, and I think this is a good lesson.

You can find out more about Marcela on the new interactive business website www.inafishbowl.com

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