When To Abandon The Wife And Kids

When To Abandon The Wife And Kids. And The Dog.

There comes a time in every businessman's life when he has to get away from his cosy cottage in the shires. Or his back bedroom in East London. He must forsake wife, family and canine companions.

They're terribly distracting, you see. And you may go, just a bit ... loopy.

Speaking as one who dueled, from home, with the Google algorithm for many a year, the advantages are obvious: the hours, the excellent facilities, the peer approval and a relaxed atmosphere.

Want to goof off and watch Stargate at 3pm? In your jammies? No problemo!
Want to code straight on to break of dawn, heedless of the urban vandalism occurring outside? Rock on!

But, there's a problem. Man was not made to live thus.

If the only feedback you're getting are from your own thoughts and the odd "That's nice, dear" from the missus, you are missing out on something important. Something that can't be put in a box, flogged as 'MarketingWheeze100' and downloaded from a thin affiliate site at 7am.

It is Culture, my friend.

Culture is the corrective to solipsism.

The world may not be as you see it. Or as your forum buddies see it (who, let’s face it, could pass you in the street, slap your heinie and call you Gerald and you wouldn't know them from a pygmy baboon.)

Culture is what percolates into your animal brain by commuting on the 7.03am to Liverpool St.
Culture is what you get picking up City Am at 8.45am.
Culture is what you get side-stepping talicyclists to get to:

The Office.

It's what soaks into your subconscious when trying to drown out your colleagues brittle sales calls, their personal crises and their their medical woes.

It's what oozes over you as you wade through an inbox full of offers social media bilge, complaints from kamikaze clients and offers love and larceny from 'Yulia' in Nizhny Novgorod.

(Ah, lovely Yulia. Why have you not replied to my offer of marriage and sharing the rent on a damp flat in Leyton?)

It's what you learn when you finally get on top of your game and your stratagems reap gold.

A client once gave me loan of an unusual comic book: "Influence; Science & Practice" by Robert Cialdini. It was about 'the science of persuasion'.

In itself, it looked like a clever way to get complex ideas across quickly.

And the most interesting thing is that in 9 years of working from home no one ever gave me anything remotely as pertinent to what I'm doing.

Many people want to quit the rat race to kick back at the ol' homestead in Epping Forest. They don't realise that the some of the rats are racing towards the cheese.