On Focus, Confidence and Building a Business

My daughter has been sick with a persistent cough that has kept all of us awake at night. After getting about four hours sleep, she woke us up. After my wife finally got her asleep, I was still awake. Every time I dozed off, I immediately woke up. I kept thinking about my Tai Chi school and what I need to do to get it rolling.



Lately, I've been struggling with what I need to do. When I was laid off over a year ago, my plan was to take on project work because I wanted to be my own boss. It never materialized like I wanted it too. When I got my certification to teach Tai Chi in February, I started to plan my Tai Chi school.



I now have my feet firmly on two paths: Project Work and Tai Chi School. My focus is split.

Recently, I've switched from finding project-based work to finding a full-time job. This decision came about because of the need to provide for my family and that we're struggling right now. Unfortunately, nobody seems to need my specific talents. Yikes, most of the web is written in PHP - and you're telling me you don't need a PHP programmer! If I had more readers, I'd add a donation button. Instead you should check out the ads at the bottom of the main page :-).

I've realized though, that my passion is in opening a Tai Chi school. I teach a couple of days a week for my Sifu and I thoroughly enjoy it. I know it is what I want to do and I get it work for myself. Teaching and talking to people about Tai Chi is not a problem for me. My problem is in forging business relationships, the communications necessary to start a business, especially on a shoe-string budget (or in my case, a no-string budget).

I'm not very good at relationships or communicating. My best relationships are with my wife and daughter, but I certainly can improve those. My wife, on the other hand, is a natural at communicating and forging those relationships. Part of it is the man vs. woman thing. But mostly it is confidence. Or a lack of it.

So, here I am, trying to start a business without 100% focus and a lack of confidence! I think I need to change something ... you think?