Over the last few days I’ve been re-reading Scott Adams’s How to Fail at Almost Everything and Still Win Big.

You might know Scott Adams as the creator of the comic strip Dilbert.

The book has a fair smattering of Dilbert cartoons, but it’s mostly an autobiographical/personal development mash up.

And it’s brilliant.

It’s refreshing to read about someone who started in a bog standard 9 to 5 job, followed his nose, got good at his craft and took baby steps while shuffling through office life to carve out a niche in something very niche indeed (corporate comics!).

Scott doesn’t hold back on how he balanced being an up-and-coming cartoonist with his day job.

In the book, he writes about how he’d wake up to draw at 4am each morning, then head into his office cubicle (what he called his “cubicle prison”) and then later tootle back home to draw all night.

But the real gold is how he USED his job to support his cartoonish ambitions.

Not just for creative fodder (although he did – clearly there’s no end of Dilbert ideas if you’re in the thick of corporate clownery).

But in other weird and wacky ways too.

Take the time Scott got diagnosed with focal dystonia (basically muscle cramps in his hand). Not what you want when you rely on your hands for your craft.

When he saw a doctor and asked about the cure, the answer was blunt:

There’s no known treatment.

In Scott’s words:

“My dream of being a cartoonist for the rest of my life was over unless I found a way to be the first person in the world to beat focal dystonia”

So what did he do?

Back to Scott:

“At my day job, as I sat through endless boring meetings, I started practicing my drawing motion by touching my pen to paper for a full second before feeling the onset of a pinkie spasm. Eventually it was two seconds, then five.

One day, after I trained myself to hold pen to paper for several seconds without a spasm, my brain suddenly and unexpectedly rewired itself and removed the dystonia altogether.

My hand doctor said I’m part of the literature on this topic now”

I found this story reassuring.

Not because I’m suffering from Coaching Carpal Tunnel or Daily Email Elbow.

But because I like the idea of my day job being a quiet enabler.

Right now, I’m holding down my 9 to 5 banking job while trying to be a good dad, partner, brother, son and friend. And I’m doing all this while writing daily emails and growing my coaching business.

Part of me wishes I didn’t have a 9 to 5 job at all. That way, I could put more time and attention into everything else.

But there’s another part of me that knows it’s a huge advantage working a 9 to 5 while growing a biz like this too.

So the question I’m asking is:

How can I leverage my job for my business?

The 34 Mindset Workshops I’ve run over the last 12 months are clearly one way. In fact, they’re almost a perfect way. I can genuinely help my banking colleagues find less stress and more clarity while building my coaching chops and snagging a few testimonials in the process. 

So everyone’s a winner.

But what I’m wondering is:

What else?

Could I start a newsletter at work?

Could I find a way to get my new book into the hands of all my colleagues? (won’t be long until it’s published now, although I’ve been saying that for a while…)

Could I even start adhoc watercooler coaching sessions?

I don’t have the answers to these questions, but it is something I’m thinking about.  

One thing's for sure though:

Whatever I come up with, you can bet your bottom dollar I'll be writing about it in these daily emails.