"Lay Off My Blue Suede Shoes": What Chickens, Elvis, and Entrepreneurship Taught Me About Human Nature
Finding entrepreneurial freedom while honoring your responsibilities and redefining what security truly means.
“Lay Off My Blue Suede Shoes”: What Chickens, Elvis, and Entrepreneurship Taught Me About Human Nature
By Susan Lyn Sykes
This morning started with chickens.
My husband suddenly backed the truck up near the coop after discovering a white possum feeding on the feed intended for our young chicks. We have had to keep our chickens locked up because predators have been getting into the eggs, and with feed costs rising, every animal matters.
In the middle of the moment, he made a comment that unexpectedly brought me back to an old Elvis Presley song:
“You can do anything, but lay off my chickens.”
Immediately, I thought of the lyric:
“You can burn my house, steal my car, drink my liquor from an old fruit jar… but lay off my blue suede shoes.”
For the first time in my life, I truly thought about what that meant.
You can take shelter.
You can threaten transportation.
You can even challenge someone’s livelihood.
But people fiercely protect the thing that emotionally represents security.
Today, for many people, that “blue suede shoe” is their W-2 job.
And I understand why, because I lived that life for 32 years.
I know what it feels like to refinance a home just to survive. I know what it feels like to roll the mortgage clock backward and realize that most of the payment is going toward interest instead of ownership. I know what it feels like to work hard, remain responsible, and still feel financially stuck.
Many people are not lazy.
They are simply conditioned.
Conditioned to believe that surviving is the same thing as building.
What changed my perspective was understanding the difference between earning income and creating distribution.
I often use Amazon as an example. If someone buys a $20 eyeshadow palette, the vendor may make five dollars, while Amazon makes cents on the transaction. Initially, many people would rather make the larger one-time amount.
But eventually, the bigger lesson becomes clear:
Distribution creates scale.
That principle changed the way I viewed business, leadership, and opportunity.
Today, I work with individuals who are often balancing two or three jobs while trying to create something additional for themselves.
Some succeed.
Some never take action at all.
One of the greatest lessons I have learned is that enthusiasm alone means very little without movement.
It takes action to study.
It takes action to pass an exam.
It takes action to build a business after work hours before it produces income.
Most people want change, but few are prepared for the temporary discomfort that meaningful change requires.
That is why I encourage people not to abandon stability recklessly.
Keep the W-2 while building.
Learn while earning.
Grow while protecting your family responsibilities.
Entrepreneurship is not about gambling everything.
It is about creating options.
And for many women especially, options matter.
We are often the planners, caregivers, budget managers, encouragers, and problem-solvers within our households. We understand pressure in a very personal way. We understand what it means to hold everything together quietly while still trying to envision something larger for ourselves and our families.
That is why leadership today is not simply about titles or income.
It is about helping people see possibilities beyond what they were taught to accept.
Sometimes the biggest challenge is not building a business.
Sometimes the biggest challenge is convincing people they deserve the opportunity to build one at all.
