Freedom is Calling - Page 8 of 22 - Blog about following the call of freedom

When you think you are done …

EW July 14, 2024

… something comes up.

Last week I installed a power station in Big Paul. And – lo and behold – it needed ventilation where I did not plan for it.

So, I had to make some adjustments as you can see on YouTube: https://youtu.be/2kQReQeMISM

Minor Fixes

As the oil change was due, I had the mechanic also change the worn out hinge at the driver side.

Okay, it’s not painted, yet. That’ll be a job for later.

Imagine 14 years of postal service. Every day only a few yards drive, then door open door closed to deliver the mail. I figured the door was used at least half a million times.

With the new hinge, the door fits again smoothly into its frame as you can see at the fuel door.

Well, yes. There is still a lot of rust. I’ll take care of that after our trip.

That’s it for now. More to come.

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A Solopreneur’s Learning from a Soccer Game gone wrong

GEF July 14, 2024

Woohoo – the European Soccer Championship 2024 in our country will end with the great finale in Berlin tonight.

Tomorrow, the jolly and good-tempered international league of fans will pack their bags and we can go back to normal.

Drama, Baby, Drama

Yes, I feel sorry for the German team that didn`t survive the round of 16. They performed great in the group stage of the tournament.

But in the first match of the knock out round they narrowly lost against the Spanish team „at a flip of the coin“, as international commentators said. Tough luck!

A comforting thought for the German team: They lost against one of the finalists – and maybe the next European champion.

Anyway, it was great entertainment all the way through: “There was incredible drama right to the end, you could not take your eyes off it“, another commentator said.

Both teams met on eye level, but the exciting all-or-nothing contest not only created nail-biting suspense. It also revealed strengths as well as weaknesses of the players in a very obvious way.

Business is business, with or without a ball

The dramatic match made the whole stadium vibrate. Watching it all the way through, I realized it was a practical example and an object lesson for what really matters, if you want to successfully run your business and achieve your goals.

In Europe, soccer is big business. It’s all about stardom and money. Tons of money.

The deciding factor for clubs and players is the success curve in important tournaments. You have to be top-notch, make the media and please your audience with spirit, effort and drama not only once, but all the time, if you want to get a substantial piece of the pie.

Losses and defeats are part of the game, but the fans want to see their heros stand up again, dust themselves off and jump into the next competition.
As a famous German soccer coach once said: „After the game is before the game.“

The obvious lesson

As a solopreneur, you may not be known to the broader public and rarely move billions of Euros or Dollars around. But the principle is true for you as well:

Be „famous and loved“ by your target group or in your special little business bubble, be visible and approachable for your clients, create magic moments for them and get paid for your special, valuable impact, not for your working hours.

Another important factor for you as the captain is staying in control. And when you perform, you need the right mix of individual skill and clever, effective and loyal teamwork.

When the German soccer team met the Spanish, it was abvious they had the skill and the will. But they lacked precision. The Spanish, in contrast, had a kind of „somnambulistic“ perfection in their team play.

When passing the ball, no matter what situation, the sender almost always reached the right recipient in the right way, which made their offensive extremely effective and „dangerous“.

Their problem, however, was the finish. A lot of opportunities, most of them clearly missed. But in the end, Lady Luck was on their side. They scored the winning goal literally at the last minute.

Being a solopreneur, you will also depend on luck every once in a while. However, it will shine on you more often, when you got your fundament right.

As the Roman philosopher Seneca put it: Luck is when opportunity meets preparation.

That’s it for now. More to come.

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Leaving the Realm of digital Dinosaurs behind

EW July 7, 2024

Little things that make a difference

My partner needed to do some banking. Sitting in Big Paul I waited at the parking lot of the bank, as a car with an out of town licence plate pulled up. A man got out and knocked on my side window. I lowered the window, expecting him to ask for directions as tourists often do.

“Do you have stamps?”, he asked me.

“No”, I replied somewhat puzzled.

He left muttering to himself and drove off.

Smiling to myself, I realized that the guy confused Big Paul with a vehicle of the German postal services and thought I was a postman.

The realm of apps

Up to now, I refused to install apps on my cell phone.

There was no need.

All I needed a cell phone for was making phone calls.

Call me a dinosaur, if you like.

However, with our trip ahead I needed to establish some basics: mobile internet connection to be able to work while on tour.

So, I connected my cell phone to the app store and dove into the world of apps.

That by itself is an adventure. I found a lot of useful applications: HereWeGo for navigation, Park4Night to find campgrounds to name my favorites. Also a compass app and a currency conversion app made it into my list.

When I tried out the navigation app, I found it mute. It would not talk to me. After some research, I realized that it required a language file. I found four in German. The first I downloaded was a standard voice that sounded quite scratchy. The second voice pronounced the sound of “sh” like a “ch”. Annoying. Voice number four finally met my expectation. Hurrah!

My question to you:

Do you have apps you could recommend that would be useful on our trip? Please tell me in the comments.

That’s it for now. More to come.

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My special “Mono No Aware”

GEF July 7, 2024

Accept change. Better even love it, unconditionally. This was one of the wisdom codes my Eastern teachers passed on to me.

Not so easy for a Western mind that has a tendency to grab and stubbornly hold on to stuff that seems important.

When the time comes

Right now, we are ready to get on the road with Big Paul, but „circumstances“ make us step on the break.

Big Paul once again needs a car mechanic to work on the door. And the school holidays in Germany that have different starting dates in different States make us adapt our schedule, because we want to escape the unavoidable traffic jams on the Autobahn.

A great opportunity to accept change. So, when will we finally set off?
In the old days, tribal communities would have answered: „When the time comes.“
Until then, anything else can happen and you continue with your life.

This means, you’d better be patient and enjoy what comes along, because nothing will persist, not even obstacles and delays. Just trust that you will know when everything is okay and the time is right to start your trip.

Grabbing the moment

The Japanese term „Mono no aware“ translates into something like „the pathos of things“. It’s the philosophy of enjoying the fleetingness of the moment and the Japanese celebrate it every year when the cherry blossoms appear for just a couple of days.

The ability to cherish what you have in the here and now, knowing you cannot have it forever, is an art in itself. And it makes the moment worthwhile, although you might have plans for the future that are even more promising.

Furry friends are great teachers

Animals are doing a great job staying in the here and now.

A little cat reminded me of this when she kindly interrupted my straight walk to the supermarket, where I wanted to buy stuff for the road.

She came purring and nestling up against my legs for a moment. A short exchange of affabilities, we both enjoyed it very much and off she went to something else that caught her attention.

Driving through the countryside the other day, I didn’t have a chance to speed due to cow traffic. It was time for milking and all those cows were strolling along across the entire width of the street.

So the drivers just took their time watching the ballet of heaving cow butts in front of them, until every single cow had found their home barn.

No hectic, please.

Although we are really looking forward to get on the road with Big Paul soon, we still take our daily walks and enjoy what nature offers us at this time of the year.

The lime trees are in full blossom now and fill the air with their mellow honeylike fragrance.

Also, we would not want to miss the „Knabenkraut“ (Dactylorhiza), a little spotted meadow orchid that is coming up right now. Well protected by law, we nowadays can see lots of them in areas rarely used for agriculture.

And for me, the greatest advantage of the delay is that I won’t lose out on my absolute favorite fruit: Gooseberries.

These wonderful juicy berries only appear for three weeks in the month of July in our latitudes.

Others may die for icecream. I die for gooseberries. My very personal Mono no aware.

And I am going to bathe in them. And get fat from them!
Who cares!

That’s it for now. More to come.

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