I used to commute. In a car, not on a bike. If I commuted on a bike I’d be really in shape, I guess, but instead of maintaining my muscles, I took care of my car. It may not be the cleanest one on the lot, but the oil was always fresh, and the tires rotated on schedule. I didn’t want any surprises on my commute. No breakdowns, no crashes, no pulled muscles.
At first glance, my car’s service record may appear to be perfectly normal. But one of my non-commuting friends remarked that I must have an unnatural fondness for hanging out at my dealership’s waiting room while my precious wheels are up in the air.
At first the comment seemed funny, Busby SEO Test but two weeks later after all the fluids were checked, I heard it again. Have you ever noticed that non-commuters can slightly annoying? I slowly began to realize that even though I was getting scheduled maintenance, the frequency of it was more rapid than anyone else I knew.
I asked around, this time consulting with bona fide commuters. My worst fears were confirmed. I was seeing my mechanic way too much.
So, what was the culprit? My commute! I drove in to Chicago every day from my home in Southwest Michigan. I was racking up one hundred forty eight miles a day, and if I stopped on the way home for take-out, the total commute would hit one hundred fifty. (and six-tenths, but who’s counting?)
Then I started adding up the time. Almost three hours commuting in the car every day. Then I totaled the expense, with gas, tolls and parking and my beloved scheduled maintenance. And then just for fun I added in a few parking tickets and the deductable amount on my insurance that I had to pay after getting sideswiped by a runaway dumpster (but that’s another story.)
The total wasn’t pretty. It made me re-think my entire commute and work scenario. Was it really worth the long commute every day, driving to a job I was getting tired of ? (Did I mention that I had stopped looking forward to work quite a while before this?)
The answer lay at the bottom of my makeshift commuting-cost ledger.
I started to examine my options. That wasn’t a pretty picture, either. The jobs I was qualified for were scarce, and all were centered in Chicago. The commute would not go away.
I decided that I wanted to work from home, for myself. That meant starting a business, and I really didn’t have a clue what it would be. But I believed that I’d find the right thing if I just kept my eyes and ears open and searched for it every day.
I had a few criteria: It had to be in a respectable industry; have the potential of providing a better income than my job, and the start up costs had to be less than the cost of my car when it was new. And of course, no commute!
After a few months I found it: an internet based top-tier direct sales company. It had all the qualities I was looking for. It took about two months to get it set up the way I wanted, but it was worth the effort.
Now my car rests quietly in the driveway. Aside from trips to the grocery store and my favorite restaurants, it isn’t getting much exercise. I keep waiting for my mechanic to call, wondering what happened.
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