Looks like a peppercorn tree. Snapped the photo just as the joggers were running past. Haven’t had a good run with taking photos of late. Haven’t found any way to push myself in terms of perspective and viewing things differently. Need to put in the mental effort to take something exotic.

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Heh, always looking into ways for improving oneself. I have to keep reminding myself that nothing is too difficult, and we are not all gifted in everything, but with effort, anything is possible. A few months ago when I got my guitar, one of the things I tried was playing the opening riff for ‘Sweet Child O’ Mine’ by Guns N’ Roses. My fingers had trouble sliding up and down the fret board but I kept at it for a few days. Fast forward a few months today, I tried it again and am surprised that I can actually remember which keys to press and that my fingers don’t get stuck nearly as much.

I want to do a business, to get side income, and I’ve been pecking at it over the last few years, wanting to do stuff but not quite getting there. I’d do my own reading on businesses, and have a view on what may or may not work based on other people’s experiences, but I have not gone off on my own to do stuff.

I recall being more entrepreneurial back in my university days. I had a few gigs doing website design and actually managed to charge more than what I’m earning per hour now. Back then I was spurred by my desire to apply my skills designing interfaces and writing markup. I also had to deal with the realities of clients who had different demands and didn’t have a goal in mine. It’s sort of like work now, where management wants to do certain things but doesn’t have a clear view or process to get it done (and I can put that into an entire topic on its own).

I still haven’t found any easy, sustainable business model yet, but it all comes from the lack of trying more than anything else. You can’t fail if you don’t set out to do something, but then again, you can’t succeed if you don’t set out to do anything. I have put items on sale on eBay and prior to that I was wary of doing it, being afraid of getting scammed and not receiving cash for the item sold, or getting complaints from the person who bought it etc. You overcome that fear and then you wonder if you are putting up the advertisement for your item right, with the right contents, setup at the right time to attract the most bidders. So I finally overcame all that and decided that you can’t progress unless you do something, so just do it.

I’ve made a few hundred dollars on items I no longer had use for and better to get 20% of what I paid for it than ZERO and it taking up space at home. Heh, I’m also not of the view of hoarding stuff just so that I don’t have to move it with me when I find a new place to stay further down the road.

I guess my point is, that to do anything, you need to put in the effort. You are interested in the cash returns, but you also have to do all the administrative work that goes with it. People tend to put more weight on the bad than on the good. As life puts it, there’s no such thing as a free lunch, so I’m writing this now to remind myself that I need to be more motivated and to do what needs to be done.