Intuitive Plan » Special Projects

Wonder Woman Seeks the Truth about Play and Work

Rosemary Senjem — Mon, 04 Aug 2008 01:25:36 +0000

Wonder Woman was spotted in Oakland, CA, on August 2, waving, smiling and spreading love and joy while helping people cross the street at a farmer's market and street festival. She was on a quest to find the Truth about Play and Work with her trusty Golden Lasso of Truth. She let us to follow her around while she interviewed willing and eager citizens, sharing some of their answers with us. Wonder Woman asked each participant, "Do you want speak your Truth about Play and Work?" Each person in turn, purposefully took the Golden Lasso in hand, knowing full well that they could now only tell the Truth. Wonder Woman: How do you play at work? What do you do for fun? Sample Participant Responses:

Practical Jokes! I love using big black rubber spiders under things
Doing the hoola hoop and tossing balls in the air, we have a stressful job
Go on the Internet when I'm not supposed to
Being outside and gardening
Have fun with people and eat lunch together
Design shoes with my kids
Laughing at people
Tell jokes
Go to farmer's market
Eat, play with and design chocolate
Wander around the forest watching primates
Dance
Play with the kids I work with
Play with how to make a space more livable
Draw and build models

Wonder Woman: What are ways you've thought about playing at work and haven't done yet? Sample Participant Responses:

blowing bubbles
playing harmonica
swear at my boss
stationery bike
get freaky with one of my co-workers
play catch with baseball gloves

Although Wonder Woman is still on her search for the Truth about Play and Work, a pattern is already emerging. It appears that most of the people who are employed by someone else, use diversions to play at work, while people who are self-employed have fun actually doing the work. Wonder Woman also noted that all of the handful of employees interviewed who played by doing their work, had been doing their jobs 1-2 years and appeared passionate and grateful for the opportunity. We wish her well on the quest and hope to catch up with her again soon! Thanks Wonder Woman!

The Orange Car Story

Rosemary Senjem — Sat, 23 Feb 2008 22:26:46 +0000

One morning, April 2006, a voice inside me said, "I need an orange car." Until that moment, my vehicle color had never mattered. It felt like some kind of spiritual clue from the beyond... This inspiration tickled me and my husband into many hilarious test drives. We played with WHEN to tell the salesperson my number one criteria: orange! New and used. Even drove 90 miles with high hopes, only to discover a car was the WRONG orange. Suddenly Happy Orange was the new standard. I invited some friends to our house to watch the movie called The Secret and told them how I was running an experiment to manifest an orange car. They all laughed and gave me funny looks as if I'd lost my marbles. By Independence Day, I lustily ordered a new orange car on sale. When the dealer called, I was thrilled and ran to tell my husband. He said, "It's your decision." As I walked back to the phone, my whole body chemistry changed from the adrenalin rush of victory, through the heaviness of additional debt, into murky frustration. I took the phone and said, "No, thanks." After all these months, in 30 seconds I realized I would not buy the orange car until I could truly pay for it. I thought, "Perhaps this is why the orange car idea came to me..." Two months later, I eliminated $3000 of stale business debt and was back in the black. Was this the lesson of the orange car: get out of debt? I wondered. February 6, 2007, I had a surreal, snowstorm hood-cruncher car accident, miraculously leaving no one injured and the other two cars unmarked. Online I found another miracle: a 3 month old ad for my orange dream car was still there for sale, 1000 miles away, only 2 hours from my parents house. By now, I was really clear about my vision. The car must be:

fuel efficient, as in at least 30 miles/gallon
roomy enough so my husband did not hit his head getting in and out
happy orange
a FUN car
a bit quirky
in my price range
in great condition

We prepared to fly 1100 miles to get a great deal on my limited edition, orange "Happy Car." The funniest part is that after all the test drives, jokes and research, here we were ready to buy and everyone around us, including the owner thought the sale was impossible. I kept laughing out loud as another bit of resistance popped up like a carnival target in a shooting range. (You can skip to the end if you just want to see how it all turned out.)

First, it was how can we possibly buy tickets to fly when we don't know if we're flying or driving home? Frankly, I just went ahead and bought one-way tickets and figured, I'd take the train or buy more cheap one-ways. Of course, I needed to save my negotiations over the car until I got to actually test drive it. This meant making sure that the owner knew I was not dependent upon the car to get home. Then, the owner called, after we bought our plane tickets, to say that there was a problem with the bank that held his loan. They were not willing to process our title the same day we bought it. I did my own research and found that in Pennsylvania, it is not so easy to sell a car as it is in Minnesota. Still, I was undeterred. I just kept reassuring him that there had to be a way, that we were indeed coming, and that we would need to be able to drive away with the vehicle on the day we handed over the money. When we arrived in Pennsylvania, my father was incredulous, "An orange car! You can't buy an orange car. You'll be pulled over by the police all the time." He just shook his head when we told him over breakfast where we were headed and why it was such a short trip. We giggled quietly. Of course we brought our own resistance on the 2 hour trek to test drive the car. Despite the fact that my husband reads maps for a living and we had excellent directions, we missed our exit on the PA turnpike and took ourselves on a detour. If that wasn't enough, my mum decides, after we've all done a test drive with the owner, that she's highly suspicious of him and the minute we are alone with her, she starts rattling off every imaginable (and unimaginable) way he could be cheating us or even turn into a psycho path! I finally just had to take a deep breath and let it out with some noise. Then I asked my mother to PLEASE just try to imagine that this could all work out wonderfully. She stopped in mid-thought as if startled and said, "Well, I guess you could be right. You always do think positively."

It had been babied by its owner, and he had it decked out with fancy wheels. I negotiated a price that felt good to us and the owner.

Then we dealt with a bit more resistance as he was still unsure how we could drive away with his car, with his license plates still on it, despite the fact that we had paid him in full. Seem perfectly possible to us. We explained that where we came from people trust each other in car deals every day and we alerted our insurance company that we'd bought this car. And then, he changed his mind. He decided he could just trust us to send his license plates back when the title cleared.

With the car, came the whole set of original, brand new wheels that had no miles on them! Perfect for driving home through the biggest blizzard to hit the Midwest in 2007. We drove home with ease because we were always ready to pull into a hotel for the night, just as the next wave of the blizzard would roll across our path. Today, a year later, I'm still in the black. Yes, I'm making my payments with ease. No kidding. Want a ride?

Resolution for Small Business

Rosemary Senjem — Thu, 07 Feb 2008 12:51:03 +0000

Over the years, I have voted for people from Democratic, Independent and Republican parties, considering myself an independent thinker, even though I am technically currently registered as a Democrat. In the house where I grew up, each parent registered with a different party, just to be sure to get the scoop from both sides.

I attended my first Minnesota primary caucus two days ago and I sure wasn't alone! I want to share a resolution I proposed to the DFL. I want to share the experience with you for consideration as an Inspired Entrepreneur.

Be it resolved that the DFL party will support businesses with less than 100 employees whenever there is an opportunity to do so, because small business is the foundation of a free-thinking society, which supports its own community.

There was one question, "What do you mean by support?" My response went something like this:

What party do you think of when I say the word business? (long pause) I work for myself, as do many of the people who showed up here tonight. How can I be so sure of that? Because if you add up all of us who work for ourselves, we are the largest employer in the United States. This is sometimes touted as the party of the people. We are the people. Because we work for ourselves and run our own lives, we can make time for our communities to volunteer for all kinds of things. It doesn't stop there. Small business people are connected to you. We are your neighbors. We greet you like a friend when you enter our stores. We pay taxes here. We care about our communities. Many of us work from home. We are a rarely noticed, watchful, caring presence in our neighborhoods. And we don't have lobbyists in Washington or the state capital for that matter. You hear talk about a global village. What is that? A butcher, a baker, a candle-stick maker. These are global village jobs. These are Inspired Entrepreneurs who followed their hearts into business. These are small business people with less than 100 employees.

There was a loud round of applause and more than a few winks, thumbs up and big grins. The resolution passed unanimously in our local ward. It may not go much further, yet I wonder how often do we seize the opportunity to speak up about Inspired Entrepreneurs? We are a proud group with big hearts and capable hands. Salud!