Day: December 23, 2007

apple, career, discovery, dreams, innovation

Realism isn’t the road to success

Christa Avampato

This week I spoke to a friend of mine and our conversation turned, as it usually does, to entrepreneurship. Like me, she isn’t part of the corporate cookie cutter mold that defines many people who get their MBAs. I like to think of us as trail blazers, people who carve their own way through the world. We have a hard time in large companies because they prefer us to stay on the sidewalk and we’d prefer to be stomping around in the grass.

Recently my friend told a family member of hers that she didn’t think she was destined to stay in her corporate job for too long, and was very interested in starting her own business. The family member’s response – “well, you have to be realistic.” I would argue that no, you don’t have to be realistic when it comes to career aspirations, and I would argue that if you are ever going to be happy in a career, you had better not settle for anything realistic.

This disdain for realism may come from my days in working in theatre; it may be genetic; I’m a Pisces – that could be the cause. The world of dreaming, imagination, and wild aspirations is really the only world I understand and in which I feel at home. I have to draw from some of the people I most admire and again, must reference Apple’s commercial that salutes “the crazy ones.” http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XUfH-BEBMoY

Einstein, Amelia Earhart, Picasso, Martin Luther King, Jim Henson. They were not the slightest bit realistic, and in the end their defiance is what saved them and inspired us. Here’s to hoping that we all fight the urge to be realists and forge ahead towards dreams.

The photo above can be found at: http://www.stainlesssteeldroppings.com/images/henson.jpg

animals, environment, New York, pets

My Own "Little Chef"

Christa Avampato

Clearly I have been in my apartment for too long. Yesterday I had what my friend, Ken, and I call a pajama day – as in we spend the entire inside never changing out of our pajamas. Now this doesn’t mean I am not being productive – you may be surprised at how much you can get done by never getting properly dressed. I posted to this blog, did some entrepreneurship research, listened to Christmas music, made apple turnovers from scratch, and spent several hours watching episodes of the Gilmore Girls on DVDs.

The trouble with pajama day is that the inertia of it makes it difficult to not have several in a row. I willed myself into the shower this morning. And just as I was making my way to the bathroom door, I spotted Ike – my pet squirrel. I haven’t seen him for a while. He spent most of the summer tapping on my window in the middle of the night, annoying the hell out of me. Until he stopped showing up, and then I missed him. There he was this morning, standing up in a corner of the platform outside my window that is supposed to hold an air conditioner. (I am planning to make it into a plant stand when the weather’s warmer.) And Ike, unbeknownst to me, has taken over ownership. He’s gained a bit of weight – I guess he’s been bulking up for winter.

Now this may be my love of the movie Ratatouille coming through – I started to think that I really should be putting out the ends of my bread loaves, etc. for Ike. I mean, I’m not going to eat them and throwing them away just seems silly. This led me to consider what a balanced diet for a squirrel is. Isn’t it amazing what you can find on Google: http://www.squirrels.org/facts.html. According to this site, Ike’s diet consists of nuts, fruit, seeds, bird eggs, bugs, and animal carcasses. The nuts, fruit, and seeds I can do. He’s on his own for the rest.

I am completely aware that this sounds crazy for me to be thinking of Ike as a pet. He’s a wild animal – I know that. But until I can have a consistent number of regular pajama days and get a dog, he will have to do. And now, it really is time for me to get out of this apartment and into the world. Ike will mind the ranch while I’m gone.