National Fun at Work Day

What do we do for Fun?

One Fun thing about being an entrepreneur is being in charge of the office. Our employees often have the option of working from home, and they often do that. So, I’m always excited about days that make it fun to be in the office.

We’re kind of in the midst of the winter blues here so something fun is definitely needed.

National Fun at Work Day is today and I couldn’t be more excited. I’ve brought in some of my favorite cookies and we’re encouraging employees to have some fun. Even if that’s just one extra foos ball break.

Wait, what is a foos ball break, you ask? Well, we have a foos table in the office. And when employees need a break, they are encouraged to bring along another employee – who may or may not need a break – to join them in a little fun competition.

It’s kind of like a water cooler, just louder.

For today, we’ll even break out the scoreboard and see who we can crown foos champion at the end of the day!

What is National Fun at Work Day?

Well, it’s a day for having fun at work. Not that you don’t already. At least I hope you do. But it’s a special day for having more fun that usual. And this year, it falls on a Friday, which makes it even more fun. Let’s just see how many more times I can say fun in this paragraph, because its, well…fun!

Did you know that 1963 was when the first cubicles were introduced? Can’t say that I find that fun. But, you can find this and other fun facts about having fun at the office at the official National Fun At Work Day page.

Also check out top global if you’re needing some help marketing your fun day at work.

*this is a sponsored post

Entrepreneur – Constantly Connected

One thing I find that people are surprised about when it comes to Entrepreneurship is that you’re always connected to work. It doesn’t matter how much you try to separate life from work, work is life.

First of all, it’s essential to be connected because there’s no one else to take that late night customer call, and someone needs to answer.

Next, because you’re so connected and on call, all of life literally revolves around work. Luckily, we’re doing what we love, most of the time, so this isn’t a big deal. But that advice to go out to dinner with your spouse and don’t talk about work or kids is totally hopeless when you’re an Entrepreneur. Because, everything connects back to our business.

Want to plan a vacation? What’s the business calendar look like? Is there wi-fi at this destination? How about we pick a destination where we can be on site with a client – work AND play at the same time? Just try planning around work travel and kid’s activities…

Planning a child’s birthday party? What’s the travel schedule? Is anyone out of town for work? Any late night product launches scheduled?

We’re going out of town for a wedding in a few months and hubby is even trying to set up some networking while we’re there. It’s a new city, so why not? It brings back memories of our “ski” trip several years ago where we spent 1/2 day skiing and 3 days networking. I did warn him that we do have to actually be on time for the wedding… We’ve also check on wi-fi, teathering for the drive, and the most efficient travel schedule.

Honestly, I’ve come to accept that as a business owner, you take advantage of opportunities wherever they are. So, no matter where you’re at, or what you’re doing, you’re constantly connected to your company.

Being an Entrepreneur is About Being All In

Owning your own business requires that you be all in. You want to be successful? You have to commit. It’s not for the faint of heart. And early on you realize that it’s a whole family affair. From accommodating non-traditional work schedules to hosting clients for dinner, everyone is involved.

It’s things like running some forgotten papers to the office on the way to the kid’s science classes. Taking calls while we’re on a family outing. Planning vacation around work deadlines. And lots of late nights.

Since we love football, and football is on my mind, with the superbowl coming up – which btw, is a great time to have friends and business associates over – it’s easy for me to come up with a football illustration. The beginning of the football season I was listening to an interview on tv and the player had a quote that I wrote on my kid’s marker board. “The Success is in the Struggle”. It’s something I remind my kids of when they’re having a tough day in school. And it’s something I’ve had to apply to being an entrepreneur. When things get hard, I remind myself that we’re in this for the long haul, it’s not about everything being smooth, it’s about learning what can be learned from the struggles and coming out successful in the end.

Or like Thomas Edison said – he’s also on my mind because my 4th grader is studying him this week – “I have not failed. I’ve just found 10000 ways that won’t work”. It’s learning to look at “failures” not as failures but as something learned and an opportunity to use that experience and improve on it next try.

So, we do our best work and if it doesn’t work out, we learn from it and try again because truly success doesn’t happen when it’s easy, success comes from trying again when it’s hard.