The Un-Importance of Parking Spaces

 I'm pushing a flatbed cart along a parking lot. It's loaded, piled high with goodies for my business. This is my second such trip today but will not be the last one I make this week. I visit warehouse clubs several times a week to buy product for my business. I run school cafeterias as well as a couple of ghost kitchen concepts, a bakery, and a catering operation. This is in addition to the deliveries I have made once or twice a week.

I buy a lot of stuff.

I buy this stuff so I can sell it. I work a lot of hours. I am typically up before five and I am at work before 6:30. Oftentimes I store supplies in my garage at home. I have an upright refrigerator/freezer and a deep-freeze in my garage for this reason. Dry items and paper goods will often spend the night in my van. 

I wake up early because I walk my dogs and I like to take a little time in the morning to think about the day ahead. Nothing formal, just visualizing. Sometimes my thoughts wander. This lasts about ten minutes. After that, it's off to the races answering emails, checking electronic deposits, walking dogs, loading stuff, waking my wife and getting my kid up for school. I am busy from ten minutes after I wake up until I go to sleep.

This is why I don't wait or even look for a good parking space. It's a waste of my time. People will spend ten minutes looking for and waiting on a "good" parking spot when they could park just down the way and walk an extra two minutes.

This doesn't make sense to me. I don't have the patience or the time to wait for parking spaces. I spend so much of my day walking and carrying things that I don't need a gym. I could still stand to lose a couple of pounds. (Maybe a couple dozen but who's counting?)

I treat my time like the precious, limited commodity it is. I am not going to spend an extra moment of it waiting for a parking space. I don't have that kind of time or patience. I would be embarrassed to be the kind of person who does that.

If you are one of those people who searches and waits for the perfect parking space, examine your life. Think about how many hours you have in a day that are truly yours. Think of how many years you have left to live. Then think of how many of those you want to spend waiting for a parking space. Time waits for no one. No one should wait for a parking space.

Adolfo Jimenez is an entrepreneur, author, poet, and blogger. He lives in Hollywood, Florida. He has published ten books, which you can find here. Adolfo is the co-owner of The Cafeteria Company, a commissary outsourcing firm. He also co-owns Soup -n- Sam, Le Velo Macaron, and Starlight Catering.

Why Dreams Matter More Than Reality

I am a business owner. I enjoy what I do. I enjoy making decisions. I like the fact that people depend on the services I provide and the paychecks I sign. It's one of the most rewarding things I've ever done. One of the most rewarding. Not the most rewarding. 

I am, behind the entrepreneur/business owner facade, an artist. I am a writer. I am a performer. I enjoy getting up in front of a crowd and presenting whatever it is I'm presenting. I've been a corporate trainer. I taught a comedy class. I've done improvisational comedy. I've made corporate presentations. I've given political speeches and invocations.

If I had my druthers, I would write all morning and dazzle audiences all night. I haven't my druthers. I have... priorities. I have responsibilities and I have commitments. My dreams must continue to be on hold. This is a situation of my own making. I took a seat on this runaway train. I must remain seated until it runs out of steam or goes off the rails.

It's a sad feeling to know that you made the wrong turns. It's sad to know that you zigged when you should have zagged. There's no choice like no choice. I can't blame anyone else. I allowed it to happen. I was not just a passenger on the train. Oftentimes, I was the conductor. Make the decision now, before you're painted into a corner. Make the decision while the decision is still yours to make. If you allow the world to make it for you, it will probably be a decision you won't like.

The world is a screwy place. We don't know what tomorrow brings and we don't know if we'll be here to see it. We only know where we've been and where we are at the moment... sometimes. It's important to pursue your goals and keep dreaming your dreams. Pursue them, too. Make your dreams your goals. Or, at least, make your goals rest stops on the way to your dreams. Do it and you may get there. If you make it, that's great. If you don't, at least you'll have the satisfaction of knowing you did your best and that your life was spent in pursuit of attaining your highest purpose, not something as common as money. The pursuit of happiness is all that matters.

Adolfo Jimenez is an author, poet, and blogger. He lives in Hollywood, Florida. He has published ten books, which you can find here.

What If I Don't Like Cake?

Today is my 50th Birthday! Holy crap, when you say it like that. All the cliches apply. I don't feel any different. I look the same as I did yesterday. Everything still works the same, for the most part.

I used to refer to my birthday as inventory day. I would take the day to reflect on the previous 365 days and determine if my life was moving in the right direction. Some people call it a Cake Day. I don't think that's fair to people who don't like cake. I love cake. Don't believe me? I can take my shirt off to prove it. We re-brand everything. This is nothing new, it's just that our re-branding, like everything else, happens faster than it used to. You hardly get used to the new word for something before it becomes the old world for something.

My wife and I have been together 21 years. We realized a couple of days ago, as we were signing documents for work to be done on our house, that it was the 18th anniversary of the day we moved in. It's nice to know that the more things change, the more they stay the same. Being married to the same woman and living in the same house for so long may sound unexciting to some, but I am happy and grateful, and while there have been some low points, we really manage to keep it exciting, fresh, and interesting. We never had a honeymoon, so we decided our life now will be one very long honeymoon with breaks for work and family, etc. Life gave us lemons. We froze them for a while and now we're making margaritas!

Now that I'm at the half-century mark, I am supposed to have new perspectives and wisdom. I don't. My philosophy and worldview did not change overnight. From this point of view, age is really just a number. My knees may disagree.

I got my convertible a few years ago. This year, I got a motorcycle. Who knows what sixty will bring?

Adolfo Jimenez is an author, poet, and blogger. He lives in Hollywood, Florida. He has published ten books, which you can find here.