I’ve just returned from a wonderful vacation in Mexico. The closer you get to the equator in February, the more clothing becomes optional. So, at a Mexican beach resort you see some interesting things. There are middle aged guys like me wearing trunks pulled up past our navel (except when we go out to eat at night, then we wear leather dress shoes and white socks); middle aged European guys over 30 years beyond the expiration date on their Speedo; and their European wives/girlfriends/consorts who…..well, the girls at my southern Missouri swimming pool weren’t allowed to do that when I was a kid. Oh, and then there are the thongs. You’ve gotta love butt floss.

Whatever.

The most interesting things I saw on the beach were the tattoos (and, that tattoos were the most interesting thing may actually be a bit telling about my advancing age, but I digress). Wow! People are painted up. Alot. And, it’s not pretty. Usually.

I saw one guy who had a huge tattoo across his back—-literally looked like a billboard. It said “Only God will judge me, and he doesn’t exist.”

If he’s right, then he’s right. But if I’m right, then he’s gonna have some ‘splainin’ to do.

Wouldn’t that be a cool talking piece if that guy became a follower? The amazing thing is that Jesus can forgive idiots who paint stuff like that on their body in permanent ink, and idiots like me too, of course.

A few years ago my mentor Dan Sullivan taught me about the No Office Solution. It sounded so foreign at the time.

Dan’s concept is that an entrepreneur (or executive) really doesn’t need an office. “But where will I put my stuff?” you ask. “What stuff?” Is Dan’s reply. His point is that you shouldn’t have stuff. Your people should have stuff. You don’t have files. The people who work for you have files. Your entire “office” should fit into one bag and probably contains little more than a laptop.

If you follow Dan’s concept you’ll get to where your only time at the office is time spent in the area of your unique ability. In most cases that involves meeting people—in a conference room. If you are doing something else and need some space to spread out you can do so in that conference room, or at another workstation you’ve borrowed, but you really don’t need an office.

I’m almost there.

I’ve got an office. But I haven’t sat in it for weeks. It does have my “stuff” in it, just because we haven’t bothered yet to get organized in such a way that someone else has all my stuff. But we are SO close. In fact, if I had to, I could be officeless within an hour. And that is my success—-if you can be implemented in an hour, you’re there!

So, I’ve still got a corner. It’s outfitted in a duck theme…..(I’m no duck hunter but the paper looked cool). There are little ducks sitting around amid the nic naks and pictures of my family. There’s a cabinet full of files, and a desk top covered in papers people have handed me. But I’ve not touched it in a month, and pretty much won’t need to for another month.

It feels weird and wonderful to essentially not have an office. Everything I do is in my laptop (for the most part). And I only go in to the office when I am meeting with people.

It’s a good life. I like it.

I still have a job, but I am awfully close to owning a company instead.

Within your heart, keep one still secret spot where dreams may go, and sheltered so, may thrive and grow, where doubt and fear are not. Oh, keep a place within your heart for little dreams to go. –Louise Driscoll