Yesterday I came into the office at 7:30 am and outside of a two hour nap I didn’t leave until 11pm. I walked to work in the rain, walked home in the freezing San Francisco “summer” and ate twice, maybe.

When I got home to my indescribably tiny loft I passed out – clothes intact – but with a smile on my face.

Why was I so happy? Because we launched the new design of Zirtual yesterday and I saw months of sweat, tears and dreams come to life in a 12 hour period.

It’s only the first iteration of my business – my baby – but damn does it feel good.

My business, my baby

When the new site went live last night I seriously could have cried from happiness, the only feeling I can relate it to is seeing your newborn baby take it’s first breath.

Now I don’t have a point of comparison to work with here and probably many of you who have given birth will think this crass – but I don’t see a whole hell of a lot of difference between a brain child and a physical one.

Examples:

1. I’ve be pregnant with this bad boy for about 9 months now.
2. I’ve thought about him (it’s a boy by the way) with a sense of maternal love since day one and as it’s gotten closer and closer to the due date my feelings towards my baby have only deepened.
3. I’m as selfless towards my business as I’ve ever been towards anything. Yep, I’m making sacrifices like crazy to make sure that the overall health of my baby is the number one priority.
4. I have huge goals for him, I think he has a great shot at making the world a better place and I think in the end he’ll make his mother very proud.

So this is just the beginning, we’ve “given birth” but the real work and real fun comes in the next few years – when a blob of ideas  becomes a walking, talking entity with a personality and distinct character traits.

I’m not sure how Zirtual will grow and change in the next 3 years, but I know it’ll be wonderful and unlike a real mother – I know the end game. I have a very specific set of goals that I want my baby to accomplish in 3 short years and come hell or high water, I’ll get him there.

Crawl, walk, run

Now that Zirtual’s born and in the world it’s time to start growing. He’ll have to learn to crawl – which will come up much faster than a real infant – businesses don’t have time to lie around and look cute.

Crawling is the stage I connect with the “launch” and press coverage and that first real push of sales. Then he’ll learn to walk and finally he’ll have to run if he’s going to make his mother proud.

Some people are just different

I think most people will read this and think “What a nutcase” or hope that I never have “real” children, but to a few of you this will click. A select few feel this way about their music, their business, their art and that’s perfectly fine.

There’s nothing wrong with taken the less beaten path instead of the traditional: school, job, marriage, family, rinse and repeat with your kids route.

I had an interesting conversation with a very smart friend the other day. We were talking about children and we both had similar views on the little rug rats. We thought they were cute, in small doses and when they weren’t drooling on stuff – but neither of us felt pangs of desire to have a little human ourselves.

But when we talked about our goals, our dreams the over the top plans we had for our lives – those things just felt different.

Not everyone starts businesses for the right reason and not everyone starts families for the right reasons – often it’s to plug a hole deep inside or because you simply don’t know what to do next. It’s not a good reason to start a family and it’s not a good reason to start a business.

If you’re like me and your business, project, art makes you ridiculously, maternally proud and happy – don’t think you’re alone. Maybe we’re not weirdos… maybe we just have a very different calling.