Tamara and I just love the Shane and Peter blog, so when they posted some introspective interview questions, we totally wanted to get involved. Basically, they’re asking entrepreneurs to answer the following questions, and they’re offering some recognition and maybe even a free book to some of the respondents. That’s cool and all, but Tamara and I just really enjoyed taking the time to answer these questions together at our bi-weekly meeting. It was neat to see how many answers we had in common. Ah, I love my business partner!

What’s your personal mission statement?
L – To leave the world a better place than it was when I got here.
T – To behave honorably to everyone I meet, both professionally and personally.

What’s the biggest mess you’ve dealt with this year?
L & T – (We’re still dealing with it.) The working relationship with our previous employer was difficult even before it ended. We’re still trying to pick up the pieces (and a few paychecks) and move on.

What current entrepreneurial efforts consume your time?
L & T – Learning what we need to do to be successful. In fact, sometimes we impede our own progress by wanting to learn everything first, rather than just jumping in and doing what needs to be done.

Why do you do what you do? What inspires you? When do you get the most excited?
a) We are huge fans of balance, and working for ourselves seems like the most logical way to have control over the balance in our own lives.
b) After a quick consultation, we both came up with the same answer: We’re inspired by the success of others.
c) While it’s not the most noble answer, we’re going to be honest and say that we get the most excited when our work or ideas are validated by others.

Boxers, Briefs, Bikini, or Thong?
L – On the opposite sex, I prefer boxer-briefs. For myself, it has to be bikini or “boy shorts.” No thongs for this lady, pregnant or not!
T – Depends on what I’m wearing or the state of my laundry.

What do you do when you’re not designing/programming/managing/writing/toiling for the wo/man?
L – Reading blogs, watching t.v., reading childbirth books, hanging out with my husband and my mom.
T – Reading books and playing with my daughter.

What one thing made the biggest difference when getting started?
L & T – Having a partner was the biggest motivator for us both. Being unemployed didn’t hurt, either.

What’s your exit strategy?
L & T – In our business plan we determined that our exit strategy was for the business to become self-sustainable so that we could either walk away or sell it and have it continue to support those working for the company.

What’s the last thing that made you belly laugh?
L & T – Our answer to question #2. Seriously, we laugh a lot when we’re together.

Have you ever been in business before?
L – Oh, yeah. I’m the daughter of entrepreneurs. Mom had the first video store in a small town in the late ‘80s, and Dad had the first take-and-bake pizza place. In college I got talked into doing an MLM thing with my boyfriend, and it was a fiasco. We also started a second-hand clothing store for a while. Later on, I sold Tupperware and eventually tried freelance writing on my own. This is, by far, the best entrepreneurial experience I’ve had.
T – Unless you count selling my textbooks on Half.com, no.

At what point do you consider yourself successful?
T & L – We will be successful when we can work the amount of time that we want to work.

What was your first experience with a computer?
L – Game-wise, it was playing “Pong” on Coleco. Otherwise, it was taking a basic computer class in high school on the Apple IIe.
T – Playing the original “Hugo’s House of Horrors” on my dad’s enormous green-screen laptop.

Steve Jobs vs. Bill Gates in a Jello wresting match – where’s your money?
L – I’ve heard that Bill Gates has a giant indoor trampoline to help him deal with his autistic tendencies, so he’s probably got the moves to take Steve down. (I said I’d “heard” it, not that I “believed” it.)
T – The Jello.

Where do you do your best thinking?
L – I do most of my best thinking in front of the computer. That might be cheating, though, as I’m pretty much always in front of the computer.
T – The car.

What does your average daily work/life balance look like? How much time do you you work/play/sleep?
L – I sleep a lot. I probably go to bed around midnight and get up around 9:30. My work and play time is sort of intermingled throughout the day, so it’s hard to separate. If I’m reading blogs about writing, for example, that is both work and entertainment. The same applies for researching projects.
T – Each day is different depending on my mood, my daughter’s mood, my husband’s mood, what needs to be done, and how tired I am. I am working on setting up a schedule, though.

If I could introduce you to anyone, who would it be?
L & T – We want you to introduce us to someone who will consistently add $2,000 worth of income to our business each month. (You asked!)

What stops you from giving up when you’re frustrated?
L – An intense dislike of failure.
T – Lorna.

If Chuck Norris and Steven Hawking had a baby (hey, it’s my damn interview), would you vote for her for president?
L & T – With Steven’s soothing voice and the fact that Chuck Norris can lead a horse to water and make it drink, there’s no doubting that their daughter would be presidential material.

Our additional question (everyone’s supposed to add one question that they’d like to ask other entrepreneurs):
How scared are you . . . Really.

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