rodney says

May 13, 2002 was a sunny Monday morning in California just like most others except for one HUGE detail: I was officially working for MYSELF full time.

Instead of fighting traffic on a half hour commute to a 9-5 job where I’d do mind numbing tasks for 8 hours, I casually ate my breakfast and sauntered over to my in home office where I began my amazing new life of getting paid for my own creative work and ideas.

I was so excited, I logged into my computer and went my Yahoo calendar to mark the date (it’s a bit crazy to think that Google Calendar and Gmail didn’t even exist back then!)

Last week on May 13, 2010, I was able to fly to Texas with my family of 5 to watch my niece graduate from college. I don’t say this to brag by any means, but just to highlight an example of some of the freedoms that scary decision I made 8+ years ago has given me.

It’s not always rainbows and butterflies of course. Working for yourself can be stressfull at times. No “guaranteed” paycheck each week, no “sick days”, your work life often spills into your home life time, vacations usually mean bringing along some type of mobile device so you can still get work done so you don’t have *too much* catchup to do when you get back to work.

Let me say this loud and clear though: The benefits FAR outweigh any challenges that I’ve come across.

In that 8 year span of time, my wife and I have had 3 beautiful kids (now 7, 5, and 2) and I’ve had the privilege of watching grow up each day. I’ve been able to take them to school, pick them up, be at home with them during the day (which includes changing more than my fair share of diapers :). I’ve been ablet to witness many firsts, new discoveries, bumps, smiles, tears, and laughter over these wonderful 8 years.

I’m not the same guy I was 8 years ago, and by no means am I a perfect example of keeping everything balanced, but I like who I’ve become and I’m loving the journey as a continue to grow to be a better father, husband, friend, small business owner and entrepreneur.

I hereby proclaim May 13th to be Rindependence (R.odney’s I.ndependence) day :)

Today I went to the local UPS Store near my house. I needed to ship a check payment overnight to a vendor in Southern California using their UPS account (per the vendor’s instructions). The man behind the counter asked “How can I help you”.

“I need to ship this check and letter to this address overnight on this account” I accentuated the “thises” by pointing at the appropriate spots on paperwork in front of me.

“Sorry, we don’t have any waybills here so we can’t ship on the other persons account”

“Ummm…thanks.”

I know I’ve shipped on someone else’s UPS account before at the UPS store, but the guy behind the counter didn’t offer any other explanation and just moved on to the next customer.

Were they just out of the forms? Is this a new policy? Can a store down the street do it? What are my other options to get it shipped?

Sure, those are questions I could have asked. They are also answers that the employee (he actually looked like the manager/owner) could have proactively offered in an effort to offer outstanding service instead of just meh.

After picking up my daughter from school, I drove to the next closest UPS Store, determined to get the item shipped.

“How can I help you?” asked the newish looking employee behind the counter.

“I need to ship this check and letter to this address overnight on this account” Again, I accentuated the “thises” by pointing at the appropriate spots on paperwork in front of me :)

“We no longer carry the waybills in the store that allow us to ship on 3rd party accounts.  UPS doesn’t allow us at UPS Stores to ship on 3rd party accounts anymore.  As an alternative, you could login to the UPS.com website and ship under their account.  We have a computer you can use right there to login if you have their info.  If not, you could print it at home and bring it back. Our Next Day Air delivery pickup time is about 4:30, so if you can bring it back by 4:00, you should be good to go”

“Thanks!” this time I meant it.

Now that’s customer service.

Granted,he seemed to be a new employee who was just getting trained…but here’s hoping that he remembers that level of interaction after he’s been doing the job for awhile.

I ended up shipping the check and letter out via USPS Priority Mail for $4.75 from my own home using Endicia and slipping it in the mailbox for my mail carrier to pick it up :)

This post was made from my iphone.

It’s basically just a test because I can :)

This is the first post in my blog. That makes it more special than the others.