Albino Kangaroo: Pleasure and Pain

Thank God I enjoy what I do. Although life is always full of Sticks and Carrots, a new business is the ultimate case study.

Let’s take these current couple of days as an example:

I am currently in Durban for the Tourism Indaba, which is a big deal for young fledgling Mobiguide. Now, I am not sure if you know Durban, but it as a balmy beachy tropical place with amazing lush greenery and awesome diving.

There are a scary amount of stunning beaches and the ocean, especially in summer, is almost the temperature of bath water! The weather is lovely, a lot of people have flown in from overseas and are in a pretty good mood, and finally, most of the business is meant to be conducted at ‘beach parties’ and cocktail evenings at local swish hotels and restaurants.

Sounds fun, it is I suppose. However, Indaba is the biggest trade fair in Africa and the concentration of wealth available for my new little company in the form of deals, barters, relationships, and promotions is staggering. So, pleasure and pain, fun and work, here comes the hard part.

Every time I am having ‘fun’ I am not talking to someone about ‘business’. Who knows if the next person I speak to will be mobiguide’s angel in waiting. If I make the effort of visiting one more stand although my feet are about to fall off, is that going to be the one?

What’s worse at an exhibition is that it lasts four whole days! And you need to be able to speak to someone on the afternoon of day 4 with the same amount of passion, excitement, and energy that you did at the start of day 1 or you might as well have gone home. They should do courses on advanced extreme smiling techniques.

So, thank God I enjoy what I do, cause the line between ‘fun’ and ‘business’ blurs a bit. I am having fun when I am doing business, I love talking about my products and ideas to people, and seeing others interact with my product puts a smile on my anyways. It also means that it is slightly easier to maintain some kind of balance in life, cause all work and no play makes Danny a very dull Kangaroo.