An Entrepreneur's Guide to Napping 1

Money never sleeps, but it does take naps

Could not be more excited to feature this post from Barry “First Time/Long Time” McBride, the creator of the Orange and Brown Report, your extremely well written guide to all things Cleveland Browns. As you may recall, we’ve dedicated previous posts to his reporting and to the man himself — we’re thrilled that he’s being so generous with his time and creativity and hope you enjoy today’s post, his first and definitely not his last!

At sixty, I could finally dispense with the annoyance of having to endure a boss and become an independent businessman. I answer only to my customers and employees now.  

I wish I could have done it earlier, especially given some of the bosses I had to put up with along the way. Still, better late than never, the key benefit being a vice-like grip over my schedule. A key item on this schedule ties to this newsletter: adherence to an iron-clad regimen of napping whenever I feel my productivity waning. 

Benjamin Franklin publicly took an anti-napping posture, once saying, “The sleeping fox catches no poultry.” Then again, he was widely criticized as a hypocrite and, not unrelatedly, was said to enjoy naps behind closed doors. And that, kids, is why he’s on the hundred dollar bill.

Before becoming my own boss, I couldn’t afford this much-needed respite. Despite working remotely, bosses would call or Slack me when I needed to rest or, worse when I hit REM sleep. At that point, I had to instantly seem alert lest they fear I was shirking my duties despite working far more than the required hours. 

A long time in the working world has taught me one thing: One is much better off getting rest when needed than trying to “tough it out” and sitting inert at a computer or some sort of fast-moving machinery. 

Only once I left the corporate universe did I truly discover the restorative powers of the nap, and bless this newsletter for bringing this much-needed truth to the world. In future entries, I will try to instruct blind corporate leaders about the Power of the Nap and its impact on financial success.