Q&A #3

It’s been a while and I don't really have the heart for a proper blog post....

Q1: What does Wentworth do? How does he have so much free time?

Wentworth is an entrepreneur, although that word seems inadequate for what he really does. He has great ideas and makes profitable companies out of them. I can’t get specific without giving away identities - but he’s started a few small companies, all very different, all filling an unmet need. But it’s more than that - they are companies that do things differently…. he manages to be successful without appealing to the lowest common denominator - the usual path to success. His companies all have a social enterprise or community building aspect to them as well - creating training opportunities for under-skilled workers, or employing chronically unemployed people. His companies prove that a business can be successful while contributing to the community rather than just being a black hole of resource sucking.

The free time thing is because he’s taken time off to recharge. He’s basically been working like a maniac since he and I parted ways eight years ago and he was about to burn out, so he handed over the reins of his latest venture to a partner and is spending time enjoying life (and, one assumes, getting his next great idea). He sold his first company for enough money to set him up for a long time, so a year off is easily done financially. Based on conversations I've overheard - I think he’s having a hard time relaxing and getting into the slow pace of normal life; being a workaholic. He seems happy here because he can go hiking or biking every morning, which I guess makes it easier to be idle and socialize in the afternoons and evenings.


Q2: Why do you call Wentworth by his surname?

Like the others I blog about, I've made up a name for him to preserve anonymity, so Wentworth isn't actually his name. It is paralleling what people call him in a way though - he got a nickname in university that sounds like a surname and it stuck. It's actually really weird to hear people call him by his real first name. (Everyone here has switched to his nickname already.)  So 'Wentworth' is a pseudonym for a nickname really.


Q3: Can I post I picture of Wentworth?

I really can't, sorry! This is an anonymous blog, remember and Wentworth is kind of well known.


Q4: What does Wentworth look like?

What can I say that isn't too much of a giveaway? He is tall and commands attention when he enters a room, but somehow does so modestly. When you talk, he focuses on you and really listens – that is the secret to his charm, he listens so intently and genuinely cares about what you're saying. He’s friendly but not a pushover. He has dark hair that he lets get too long so that it’s always causing him grief. When he smiles, which is often, he gets one set of very obvious dimples and when he is trying to suppress a smile he gets an entirely different set.


Q5: How long have I played piano for?

As long as I can remember. My mom put each of us in lessons of various sorts and music stuck for me. (Elizabeth quit piano a few years in and moved on to dance for a while, then riding lessons, then tennis and so on until Mom died and she was free to focus on her real passion: shopping. Mary quit piano quickly, tried dance for a year, and I remember one hilarious day when Mom suggested she join Girl Scouts. She did not join Girl Scouts.)

I love piano. I had to be bribed to practice as a kid, like all kids, but around, oh, twelve or so, I embraced it. When I’m at the piano puzzling out a piece or playing something I know well, my mind clears and it is just music. I can’t play piano and think about other things. It’s kind of meditative that way – an escape from the hamster-wheel chatter of my brain. When I need to escape something my brain is doing, I sit down and work on a complicated piano piece. Sometimes I don’t have the patience for the complicated or technical stuff and I will sit and play whatever matches my mood – which can be dangerous, the piano can amplify what you are feeling very powerfully.