I have been working on this post for a week now!

I’m good at financial analysis.  I don’t see how anyone can’t be though.  It’s simple and easy math.  Let me give you an example.  If you are working for a catalog company and your role is to perform analysis and report on the monthly expenses….and you notice that the expenses related to returns have increased by 30% since last quarter, you can find out why and explain it.  Anyone can do it.  Look at your sales.  Have sales increased by the same variance as returns?  If not, investigate why the returns have increased.  Are you using a new shipping method?  Are goods becoming more damaged?  Is it only one specific product?  Ask questions and find answers and their relative costs.

I’m good at that.

Does it make me happy?  Nope.  I remember the days when I used to enjoy digging into the numbers and understanding what they meant.  I used to look forward to special projects calculating risks of new products, negotiating vendor contracts, evaluating contracts, forecasting and planning and budget cycles.  I have never enjoyed working until midnight, putting in 8-10 hours on Saturdays, office politics, not being in command of my own time and progress, and being put in a position to kiss ass for an already well deserved raise or promotion.  I’m good at finance, but I don’t like it.

I LIKE designing events.  I like stepping into a blank room and envisioning a fantasy.  I’M GOOD AT designing events.  Color combinations, sensory explosion, uniqueness, setting new trends.  I once built a structure that would fill the entire ballroom so that Cirque de Soleil type performers could perform….without risking the integrity of the room’s foundation.  I was hired to design a birthday party in Dallas about 5 years ago.  The client wanted the pool to glow.  This was before various sized glow balls were a big commodity.  So Original Diva bought clear beach balls, put LED lights in them and floated them through the entire pool.  At the time, that was ingenuity and innovation.  I was featured on the cover of a worlwide magazine with the headline “TOP DOLLAR DIVA”.  It came from one of my peers.  During his general session workshop at our convention, he pointed me out and said that Original Diva doesn’t say no to any crazy request…..I just add it to your bill. LOL.  You want flying monkeys?  No problem…..it’ll cost.  You want a real yellow brick road?  No problem….it’ll cost.  I can drop a house on your mother in law and have her feet curl up into her shoes……if you’re willing to pay for it.  And I enjoy it! I was a guest on the local morning television show back at home during the holiday season.  I was the expert on hosting the perfect holiday soiree’.  I’m trying to figure out what to do with that now.

I’m a kick ass pastry chef.  I can count the number of baked goods I’ve screwed up on one hand in my entire life…..and the last one was TJ’s fault.

When I attend a family gathering I am EXPECTED to bring something sweet.  I have been put out of houses and told to come back with a cake before. LOL  When I decide to make a butter pecan cake, it involved butter, whole pecans, a baking sheet, and some sugar….no box mixes for me.  I made my sister in law a box cake once…cause I was tired and it was late.  LOL  EVEN THAT was better than the usual box cake.  There are a few people in my life who think I could make a business out of pastries.  I don’t have enough faith or confidence in myself to market myself.  I’d feel comfortable if people would just knock on my door and say they want to buy something.  Let me tell you what I found out this week.  A food safety and sanitation handler’s license in Tulsa is $15….it’s $170 in Chicago.  So, if one gets that mundane detail out of the way and gets the proper liability insurance coverage, they could rent time at a commercial kitchen and bake to their heart’s content….assuming that their home kitchen isn’t up to par.  I’ve gotten some good suggestions on marketing myself……not sure how to convince myself to follow through.

You see….it’s easy to get up every day and commute to a big box that makes you quite miserable.  Because if you get up and go and repress your misery for 8-10 hours each day….at the end you’ll get a check.  That’s it.  But when you rely on YOURSELF to get money…..it’s easy to get scared.  Fear over Misery….ain’t that a helluva choice to make?

This is my post….what I’m good at versus what I like to do.