A TedX style talk for Impact Hub Oakland in Oakland CA, February 2014. Self-care, entrepreneurship, co-working, assholes, work/life balance

1. Don’t
work
with
assholes
—and
other
lessons
from
my
trip
to
Spain
Susan
Mernit
Oakland
Local/Hack
the
Hood/LiveWork
Oakland
February
2014

2. July 2013, Oakland, CA: !
I use my last frequent flier miles!
to buy a ticket to Barcelona in January 2014.!

3. My
goal
is
to
have
a
mini-­‐sabbaHcal
and
spend
3
weeks
in
Spain

4. By December, I really
need a break—
fundraising is grueling
—and we don’t really
make our goal

5. By January 14,
I am so ready
to go:!
Not only am I
leaving the
country for 3
weeks—I am
not even
bringing my
laptop.!

6. Spain is amazing

7. We eat, !
we drink, !
we talk, !
we read, !
we sleep, !
we look….!
It is so relaxing!

8. We go everywhere….

9. And I decide I love what I am doing!
in Oakland!
--I just need way better self-care

10. And then I come home

11. I have a full day of work,!
a bunch of meetings….!

12. And I am in a !
terrible mood!
when I go home.!

13. What’s with that?

14. And
then
I
realize…I
am
in
a
bad
mood
because
some
of
the
people
I
had
to
deal
with
were
complete
assholes.

15. It’s the scarcity mentality
.

16. .
Or,
to
put
it
another
way,
if
I
was
a
fruit
tree,
they’d
pick
the
fruit,
chop
the
tree
down
for
firewood,
and
then
complain
that
the
tree
DIED.

17. And what would we have left then?

18. So I have a profound insight !
3 days after I come back !
from this amazing,!
restorative trip---:

19. I need better language to !
ward off the assholes

20. “So how are you going to support!
my organization?”
“My consulting rate for that work is….”
“No.”

21. And with those words---!
I should be feeling !
A LOT better….

22. Thanks
!