Quitter

   Back from the Quitter Conference!  We got to Nashville Friday afternoon.  We drove through downtown and then walked around the Grand Ol Opry Hotel- very cool.  We got dinner at a restaurant downtown and then went a little south to Franklin.  As Jon Acuff pointed out, the town of Franklin is unaware that we are in a recession right now.  Personally, I think the town is the southern version of Stepford.  It's too adorable!  We were easily able to find free-parking and everything!
   The next morning (if you can call it that) we woke up super early and headed over to LAMPO, Dave Ramsey's building to help welcome/register guests for the conference.  I WAS able to shake Jon Acuff's hand and thank him for inadvertently introducing me to SafeWorldNexus.  We helped with different behind-the-scenes things all day.  The coolest part of the day was our private tour of LAMPO.  I sat at Jon Acuff's desk, I sat at Dave Ramsey's desk... JUST KIDDING.  I did sit at Acuff's desk, but none of us dared to take more than a step into Ramsey's office.  Then we saw a lot of cubicles with the desk's up high because people prefer standing all day.  Who knew that was a thing?  There were also the cubicles with workout balls instead of chairs.  All these things are the least interesting of the company however.  The most interesting is learning how it is run.  Dave Ramsey's new book EntreLeadership talks about this- things like, if you're caught gossiping once, maybe you'll get a warning, but on the second infraction you're fired.  Our "guide" (his actual job was heading live events) had to go through 9 interviews!!!  He had to do different personality tests to see if he would match who he'd be working with; he had to submit a budget (as in, personal budget) to his future "team leader".  It was all very interesting.
   But when we weren't breaking in to millionaire's offices we listened to Jon Acuff speak.  He was very entertaining and informative.  It wasn't a pep talk to give you the courage to follow your dreams.  I mean, it was an ALL DAY event of practical advice.  I am very inspired now to just sell art as my part-time job.  I'm going to go for it.  In a perfect world without poverty and the need for organizations like SafeWorldNexus, I would say my dream job has always been to be an artist.  Another amazing blessing in disguise: I don't get payed at my job.  Because of this I have a boss who understands if I need to take a week off to make some money painting murals or drawing a portrait for someone.  I've been saying I wanted to do this on the side since graduation, but I never had any pressure on me to get it going.  I am just SO thankful to God that I do not make any money right now!  How AWESOME is it that I can even say that?!?!!!!!!!  I have the pressure and HAVE to do it now.  AND I finally have a number of examples from the slate paintings I did to raise support.  So here I go! I am starting a personal portfolio website right after I hit "ENTER". 


Humor is a gift from God and when we refuse to accept it, it makes him want to take it back, like the unicorns.
-Jon Acuff