Mr. Campbell’s Aunt Sybil is a businesswoman in Montego Bay with several employees and a successful bake shop, but this is a picture of her office chair.
I come from a law firm environment where every attorney must have a view, so it shocked me that Aunt Sybil’s only window is in her bathroom. Her office floor is concrete and the ceiling light fluorescent.
Our visit to her office woke me up. If you’ve been reading my blog for a while, you know that I spend a lot of time thinking about image (here and here, for instance) instead of focusing only on what will make Red Violet a success. Of course there’s a balance. Even Aunt Sybil wears nice clothes, drives a good car and lives in a respectable neighborhood, but she’s very clear on her priorities, and an executive leather chair isn’t one of them.
I had a similar epiphany at the Women on Wall Street conference last month. Several of the high-powered women in the introductory video were overweight, had age spots, wore frumpy clothes or needed to visit the hair salon. They did not conform to media images of successful women. Whatever their priorities, looking perfect wasn’t one of them.
When I’m unclear on my priorities, I’m more likely to waste time and money. If I don’t have a to do list, I’ll use up minutes reading comments to Jezebel postings. If I forget that I’m allocating my funds to Red Violet’s success, I’ll splurge on dessert at an expensive restaurant.
Now I have the image of Aunt Sybil’s office chair to remind me to ask myself what is really important to me.
