Jen Butson

She’s been found safe and sound! Thanks to everyone who RT’d

One of my good friends has a cat, Spaz, who went missing Sunday (May 23rd) in the Bells Corners area. She was wearin a blue collar (safety collar, so it may have fallen off) with a small bell on it. She has been microchipped as well. She is about 18 months old, is white with grey/black markings. Here’s a pic:

If you see her, please comment on this blog post, or tweet myself @JenButson or the cat’s owner @berenikakovac

Thanks in advance!

Area: Bells Corners

Age: 18 months

Name: Spaz

Has been microchipped – had a safety collar on (blue) – might have fallen

This is my theory as to why I’m an entrepreneur…and maybe why I’d make a good one? Weigh in in the comments below.

1) Stubborn. I am one of the most stubborn people I know (when it comes to most things). I try not to be, but my theory is that I’m too stubborn to listen to authority when I want to do things my way. Don’t get me wrong, I love having input…but I also want the final decision. So, now I get the final say. If I don’t want to cold call, I’m not going to cold call!

2) Lazy. I like the idea of the 9-5…but I don’t actually like the 9-5. I wanted flexibility in my schedule in case I wanted to sleep in the odd morning. Of course it’s a tradeoff because I end up working all of my “free” time, but that was my lazy tradeoff.

3) Selfish. Growing up, people seemed to have faith that I would “be successful in whatever [I] did.” Well why would I want someone else to be able to capitalize on my success for my entire life? I want to be able to control who gets to benefit from my help…and that makes me incredibly selfish.

4) Impatient. I like money. I don’t like fixed income. I don’t want to climb the corporate ladder…takes too long. I wanted results on my terms, not when somebody else deemed me ready for a promotion. My impatience is a flaw most of the time, but maybe this time it did me some good?

Sometimes I laugh when people call me ambitious and driven for starting my own company…because these four traits stick out in my mind.

Tonight, sort of spontaneously but at the mention from my friend Andrew, I attended the Capital Slam Poetry semi-finals. I haven’t been immersed in an artistic culture in as long as I can remember…business is more about thinking logically and through academia. I didn’t really know what to expect going to this competition, but it sounded like fun so my friend Steph and I went.

I ended up being a judge, as the Slammaster pawned off whiteboards to who was willing…naturally, I was willing. Confessed I had never been to one of these before, but apparently that’s a non-issue. Phew. We saw 26 poems performed by 14 poets (only 12 were competitors). I have never had so many goosebumps in my life.

Being in business I have been taught to say exactly what I’m trying to say without using ‘fluffy’ words or for lack of a better phrase, ‘beating around the bush.’ Then, through all the crafty words and unmistakable imagery, it hit me: this needs to apply to advertising. My favourite ads are the ones that give me goosebumps…clearly this is an overlap from crafty poetry into the world of marketing and advertising. I can’t wait to go to my next slam poetry event because, for an artsy event, I have never been so inspired to do advertising…with the type of imagery and empathetic thought that these poems were slammed with.

So thank you, Capital Slam, for reminding me what creativity is.