The world has turned and left me here .....

I turned twenty-two a couple of days ago.
I don't think it can have much to do with that but I feel older, more grown, more calm and in-tune with where I'm going.
I'll most likely look back at this and laugh at what I've just said, but that would be normal.


Everything seems to be falling in place this time.
It's looking like this new venue is going to go ahead, and I haven't felt any kind of emotional attachment to it like I have in the past. This time it's just business and I'm letting it be.

Six days time I'll be in New York facing what I hope will be a trying month and anticipating whatever lies ahead of that.

Fast Car ......

I'm viewing a possible venue in the city centre on Friday.
I'm quite hopeful for it, though it's likely to require a change-of-use and then there the licensing to get through.
It has a good location and I have a feeling that the place is going to have a lot of potential for what I'm looking for.

All going well on Friday I'll appoint the planning consultancy that I've used previously to get to work on the change-of-use for the building and I'll work out the financial side of it so everyone can get to work while I'm away.

It's less than two weeks now until I leave for America. Starting to really look forward to it!

Evil Dead

So I leave for New York on the 1st of March and the traveling plans are coming along well.
I'm hoping to view a couple of possible venues before I go and I've just got some extra HeartRock Live shows booked in for when I return.

Not a lot else really to report at the moment.
Everything is steady.

Jack

Day Four: Remember that it's all in your head

My disappointment at not getting the music venue that I'd been working on led me to consider traveling.
It's something that I've always wanted to do and would have done before now had it not been for taking the touring musician route a few years ago (which I suppose was a different sort of traveling).

I had to consider a few things before making up my mind on whether or not to do it.
The main thing was how my girlfriend would feel about the situation, secondly was how comfortable I'd be leaving my business in the hands of someone else for any period of time, and the third was whether I could keep my other job open while I was away.

After addressing each of these considerations I've decided to take a month off to travel America, from next month.
If I didn't do it now then when would I do it?

Day Two: It Ain't Me Babe ...

A couple of hours after my post yesterday I received the disappointing news that a higher bid had come in for the property that I wanted to use for my venue. I had to consider not how much that venue would have been worth to me personally in the short term but how much it was worth as a business. Sadly, I couldn't justify raising a higher offer for a place that was only held on a three year lease with no strong indication that there would be a renewal after that period.
Last night was a time for me to reflect on what I'd done over the last year and to plan where I'm going next.
I've got a couple of places that I'm now enquiring about as possible replacements but no firm idea yet as to their level of suitability. I've just got to keep believing that eventually I will get to where I want to be, through hard work and persistence, and when I do get there then it will feel even sweeter for the setbacks.

Day One: Cat Stevens

It's been some-time since I've written a blog on anything, but I'm in the mood for it today and I have nothing else particularly constructive to be getting on with, other than reading the book 'Egonomics' by David Marcum & Steven Smith, which is worth a look if you're into business progression or just improving yourself.

I've always been someone with great interest in ways that I can improve my own being and I think I can safely say that managing 'Ego' is one of the most difficult things I've ever come across. It's really a tricky thing to do, for me anyway. The book seems to state that you can't get to the peak of your personal growth until you can control your ego and look at the big picture instead of just what your aspirations are for your own world. I know that I'm not there yet, and I find it difficult to imagine a future me that can REALLY look at the big picture, I have so many material dreams that I want to accomplish and my ego tells me that before I can even think about what goes on outside of my own world that I need to get to these first, but maybe what I need to be aware of is that unless I work harder on the 'big picture' then I won't have the capability to progress to these material dreams of buying things like super-cars and penthouse apartments.
The book also shows that a balanced ego is a good thing, which is good news .....


A bit over four months ago I decided (or thought) that I was ready to move my business onto the next big step of it's progression. I can't bear to go over the small details and plans but after a hundred issues, complications, location changes and sleepless nights I've submitted my offer to take over the place that I want to open up my first (emphasis on the first) music venue.
I've spent the last three days waiting to find out whether I'm going to get the place, upping bids and pacing so much that I've probably had more exercise than I had all of last year.
I really had to do something to take my mind off of things.
In times like this I always turn back to something that's kept me going in the past, music.
And what better way to do that than to create a list of your top-10 all-time songs ...
For some people this might not take so long, or maybe they wouldn't take it as seriously as I did.
It took a lot of narrowing down but here are my all time top-10,
(If you're reading this feel free to add your own, I'd love to hear them whatever you're into)


1. God Only Knows - The Beach Boys
2. Trouble - Cat Stevens
3. My Back Pages - Byrds (Dylan Cover)
4. Hallelujah - Rufus Wainright (Cohen Cover)
5. Flesh & Blood - Johnny Cash
6. You Get What You Give - New Radicals
7. Tiny Dancer - Elton John
8. Atlantic City - Bruce Springsteen
9. New York Groove - Kiss (cover)
10. Drift Away - Dobie Gray




Maybe next time I'll think about film ...