2022 - All The Change, All At Once
“You might find yourself in a beautiful house, with a beautiful wife and you might ask yourself “how did I get here?” - Once in a Lifetime, Talking Heads
Seriously, How did I get here? I’ve had this feeling all year and it’s wild to write this but this was one of the most exciting years of my life to date! I’ve chronicled the last seven years of my life and I feel like I’ve grown more this year then any previous year (Prior Year-End Reviews: 2021, 2020, 2019, 2018, 2017, 2016). This year had stark differences to past years where I might have felt a frustration of feeling stuck - this year felt like a huge ‘unlock.’ While every year had a margin of experimentation, this year felt like those decisions were finally paying off and it was becoming fun. A lot shifted this year personally, professionally, and mentally and I’m thrilled to be sitting here sharing this with you and my future self.
The year began with two major things in mind - “Where are we going to live and I hope this career bet pays off.” As always, I wrote my 2022 Predictions and this year I was spot on about EV adoption curves, crypto regulations and the memorable nature of this years’ world cup while I missed the mark on capital market risk appetite, COVID proliferation, return to office en-vogue and a few other things.
I spent the first quarter of the year heads down and working on Xeal, an Electric Vehicle Charging Technology company, running back and forth to New York (Xeal’s HQ) and trying to figure out the home situation. Spring and into summer, things really started to line up though and I distinctly remember around mid-June when life felt like it was clicking on all cylinders and a pang of anxiety hit me that something was going to knock me off my high chairs. I couldn’t shake the phrase that Will Smith ominously shared at the Oscars, “When you’re at your highest moment, that’s when the devil comes for you.” That mantra and trepidation persisted throughout the year and I tried to combat that feeling with intense gratitude and the recognition and understanding that nothing good or bad ever lasts forever so be exceptionally grateful for what you have when you have it.
The year continued on in such a positive direction and I rediscovered my disciplined routine to exercise, writing/reading and deep work. Laurelle and I were both running hard in our respective jobs but we always found a way to make it home for dinner and put away our work. We felt grateful that we had each other, our jobs, some silence without kids (for now) and our health. We felt like we had reached a new stage of life, having just left the “waiting room.”
Goodbye Austin, aka “The Waiting Room for the Confused"
We spent the first quarter of the year taking in the last breaths of Austin as we knew the clock was ticking on our time there - it’s a special place but it felt like our time to graduate to something more permanent. Adam came to Austin for a brothers weekend and we had a classic Austin weekend, Pickle ball, pitch and putt golf, southern food, sauna and cold plunge at a quintessential Austin’y wellness center and a walk on the greenbelt & river trail. My parents stopped in, got their quick whiff of the city and then we bid it farewell. We said our goodbyes to Zilker Park and headed north on I-35 to the Big D!
Making a Home - Making a 20 year Decision
After a demoralizing home search looking at broken down shacks selling for $600/sqft in Austin, we ultimately made the most rational decision we could - let’s look in Dallas, buy a beautiful home within reason and set up shop near family. About a month after making that conscious decision, the universe called - oh wait, never-mind, it was my mother-in-law.
My mother in law called and said, “I found your dream home, it’s on a creek, Eric can have his coffee in the morning and listen to the birds and the flowing water.” We were sold. We put our offer in site unseen and then Valentine’s Day we kept up our tradition of pizza making but this time we bought each other a house - offer accepted. We’ll never forget that wide-eyed moment where we were like “despite everything we’d said in the past, I guess we’re moving to Dallas!” 45 days later, a couple of inspections and negotiations and just like that we bought a beautiful home right on a creek and made a 20 year decision.
Having family around the corner proved endlessly helpful as our move was made easy with my in-laws, cousins and everyone helping out. We had a full time familial project management team overseeing the light upgrades in the weeks leading up to the move and this was only the first of many moments we felt the convenience of having family nearby. I‘m so lucky to have such amazing in-laws, Michael & Suzette, who are there for us for anything, are the most caring people and the best grandpawrents to Brody.
We moved into our home in Dallas and it had a cosmic feeling of familiarity - like we had lived there before; the universe is funny. The second we moved in I knew this could be a forever home. We were later informed that our street is known as the ‘Halloween Street’ as one night of the year it’s filled with an endless hoard of kids flooding our street. Come October we decorated, bought Costco jumbo bags of candy and then did what any couple without kids would do…we left and went to Europe for the weekend!
A Home is a Labor of Love
You don’t factor in all the OTHER things that come along with buying a house but you truly are the master of your own domain, no more landlord to fix your leaking pipes or that pesky noise coming from the pool motor. During the move in, Laurelle and I meticulously kept a budget and followed it. I played CFO and she played CEO running all the decisions and my job was to ensure the books were kept and that Lowe’s had all the tools we needed!
I spent more time at Lowes this year than I’d like to admit but working on a home is all encompassing for weeks and months at a time at first. Learning how to do things around the house - registering our water heater, figuring out the car charging installation process and more. My phone now has an entire “home” category that’s pages long - leaning into the smart home lane as I pitifully attempt to make every system talk one another, fail.
Laurelle has helped me appreciate the importance of ‘making a home.’ I had never put extreme value in my physical space but she is very house proud. In turn I’ve learned to become house proud. In Judiasm, moving into a new home is a huge deal and so we put up our mezuzahs and pinned our pride to its molding.
This was the first year that “home” felt different. I spent so many years of my life using home as a weigh station, not as my recharge oasis. This was the first year that my home felt like something special to me - a true nest. Weekends spent sitting outside listening to the running water on our creek, reading outside, taking Brody to the nearby dog park and listening to my Saturday morning favorite, All-In Podcast, with the Dictator Himself, the Sultan of Science, the SaaShole and the greatest moderator ever.
Laurelle and I would pinch ourselves in the house saying, look at where we were just one year ago!! It was one year ago that we swore to ourselves that we would make a change in our careers and lives no matter what - because we didn’t feel like we were reaching our max potential. Fast forward a year and we both have amazing jobs were proud of and living in a beautiful home creating the foundation for our future. What a year can do when you let change happen all at once!
Learning From Your Neighbors
Like Tim Allen in Home Improvement, I built a deep friendship with our neighbor “over the fence”, David. I couldn’t be luckier to have David in my life and when I mean in my life - I truly mean it - our backyards basically bleed into each other’s, privacy isn’t quite our strong suit. David and I couldn’t be more different, yet exactly the same. He grew up in the country, deep Christian roots, hunting and fishing expert, a good ‘shot’, handy and able to build anything — a true Texan. I’m the complete opposite in every sense and yet we bond over the deeper values and beliefs of life. Over the year we built a strong friendship, barbecue’ing together, getting to know each others’ families and spending quality nights out together. David has taught me so much and he’s sparked a flame in me to learn more about building and fixing things that I didn’t have before. Our wives have become close friends, our dogs are best buddies and he’s a wonderful reminder to me that you never judge a book by its cover and at the end of the day we all want the same things in life. He got me into Corey Kent, showed me how to fry fish Texas style and creates his own deer jerky from doe he’s personally taken down. I’ve likely taught him nothing.
Full Cycle in Philly
The day we closed to buy our Dallas house, we also closed on the sale of our Philadelphia investment property. I remember leaving the title office on our Dallas home purchase, keys in hand, and then Docusigning the closing documents for our Philadelphia condo project. I couldn’t be more grateful to my development partner, Cliff, for successfully running the project. We sold the Philly condos at the right time and all in all it was a great project. Cliff and I remain partners in the retail condo in our partnership and I hope one day to do another project with Cliff.
Laurelle is a Global Channel Beast!
Laurelle took off this year professionally in a big way. After a few years of finding her footing in various sales roles, she really locked in on enterprise cloud infrastructure and is carving quite the path. She’s leading her firm’s partnerships with some of the largest technology firms in the world and helping Vultr become a massive player in the cloud infrastructure space. From speaking at global events to single-handedly coordinating the booth for WebSummit, Portugal (largest global cloud conference), she’s quickly becoming a known entity in the cloud computing industry.
I was so proud of her when I got a chance to tag along at Kiawah Islands Ocean Course with her while she was playing from the men’s golf tees and talking shop with a top exec at one of the Fortune 100 companies. She can hold her own and while we both battle imposter syndrome, she amazes me with how well she can jump into a foreign industry and conquer it in a short amount of time. She does all of this while still remaining involved and present in her friends and family’s lives.
Despite our busy schedules, we find a way to remain in sync. My biggest downfall is that sometimes I escape into my own world but when I come out of it, I look up and remind myself I’ve got the perfect partner!
Xeal, My New Chapter
January 1st, I began the next chapter in my career, stop number five of a decade long journey thus far where I’ve tried to maintain the same framework for every opportunity:
Pick your partners wisely
When you’ve learned all you can learn, leave and pick a new challenge
Pick the industry, not the role
Day 1, I headed to New York to start with Xeal, sent off with the Heavenly Father prayers of my Uber driver. (He prayed for me out loud while I was in the car, that was a first!). From that day on, I would head to New York at least once a month to be in person with the Xeal team before retreating back to Texas to go heads down on execution. There is no replacement for in-person team bonding and my trips to NYC re-energize me every time. Building a company together is an amazing thing and it’s hard - all encompassing - but worth it. I’ve never had more fun in my life and the fun’s just getting started. Here’s Why I joined Xeal.
Xeal gave me a chance to reclaim deep focus on one thing. While I had spent the last three years building LPC Ventures, spread a mile wide, I was glad to go deep again and focus. While the growth, tech, crypto world seemed to be imploding around us for much of 2022, I had the chance to stay focused on building and not worry about those things as the team was well positioned to succeed in a blossoming area of the economy.
First thing I had to do was drive electric to validate the problem we were solving. I experienced it day one when my apartment building of 600 units in Austin, Texas didn’t have chargers and yet there were 20 frustrated EV driving tenants. In addition, my office building had one charger but it was broken and wouldn’t turn on due to network connectivity failures. These were symbolic of the work I was setting out to solve with Xeal - our mission was (and is) to provide reliable EV charging to where people need it most.
Q1 we crushed it, blowing away our quarterly goals and coming out the year swinging. Much of this came on the backs of a few sizable agreements that Zander our CEO was able to put together that leveraged the momentum he’d built from 2021. We also signed a host of notable new NMHC Top 50 logos and started to recognize the power of focusing on one vertical and speaking their language.
Q2 came along and off the strength and momentum of the first quarter we upped the ante and the expectations. The capital markets were tumultuous to say the least, the venture market was skiddish and we knew that we had to be self-reliant if we wanted to build the company we dreamed. The team put its head down, shunned distractions and executed with fervor. Despite some noisy early summer months with rising interest rates and market disruption, electric vehicle adoption only ticked higher (Q2 notched the historic milestone that 5% of new car sales were electric) and our stance on reliability was catching steam. Our small and mighty team continued to put up huge results and product was turning heads. When put to the test, our team delivered and they heeded the call; after all, pressure is a privilege. We looked up in early July and saw a set of familiar investor faces who took the time to understand the bigger picture and by mid October we had sealed a deal to welcome Keyframe Capital, Moderne Ventures, Alpaca, Wind Ventures and more as our Series B investors. The $40MM Series B into Xeal was further validation and an accelerant to the business plan to build the most reliable EV charging network in the world focused on where charging is needed most, multi-family & commercial assets.
A fundraise is not a destination as much as its a checkpoint on a long journey. In life, and in business, you want to play long term games with long term people and I feel good knowing that Xeal has built a strong cohort of investors and coworkers who see the bigger picture and want to build something sustainable for the long term.
This team feels like a family. Zander is like a brother to me, our collaboration and battling from the trenches leads to better outcomes for the business and our maturation together has been a fun progression. I’m inspired by how much he’s grown as a leader from when I met him only two years ago. I couldn’t be more thankful for Louis’s partnership as he’s been a huge ‘caboose’ for the business, carrying a heavy load for the team, working through strategies on building the organizational design and helping support the entire company; he’s a special talent. I was also lucky to help recruit one of the most special people I’ve ever worked with to date to Xeal, Dina. She’s been through so much and yet her attitude is remarkable and it’s always great to have mama goose in your corner. Then, my fantastic team of sales professionals has been nothing short of amazing all year. I’ve done my best to employ a servant leadership mentality and there’s literally nothing more satisfying than aiding the individuals on the team to exceed their goals, become leaders, and take on more responsibility. We run a performance-first organization and I love to give the extra time to those that take that challenge and rise up. These are world class sales professionals who put in the work and are in it for the right reason.
One of the most special moments of the year was working with one of my team members to close a multi-million dollar deal at a critical stage of her life. To see the elation on her face when the client signed was pure gold. The timing coincided with a family-planning event that made the deal all the more meaningful for her. I called the client afterward to thank him for his business and he was thrilled to hear about how much that deal impacted her life. It’s moments like these that make you see the bigger picture in life and in the businesses you build.
The culture at Xeal is special and it attracts a certain caliber of human. Our CEO has done a phenomenal job of maintaining that culture as we’ve grown - hosting weekly Headspace gatherings (a chance to go deep) and maintaining our annual retreat, Xeal Heal, which took us to Puerto Rico for a few days of process building and team bonding. I’m a bit more utilitarian when it comes to work at times and he reminds me that culture over all else needs to be the emphasis (You have to have the WHY in mind).
The year certainly did not go off without its challenges. In any startup there are massive highs and massive lows and the rollercoaster is often more fun when you get off the ride then when you’re losing your stomach on the free-falling drop. This year I certainly had to make some tough judgement calls, battle some confrontational disagreements and definitely had a lot of sleepless nights. In the end, it’s all learnings and that’s how you have to center yourself looking at the forest through the trees.
After only one year of helping build at Xeal I can say that this has been the most challenging and intense thing I’ve ever done in my career to date, but it has been the most rewarding and fulfilling yet - thank you Zander & Nikhil for giving me this opportunity to build alongside you and the team - we’re just getting started!
Macro:
I became vocal about the nonsensical nature of the metaverse in late 2021 and how the brightest minds were flowing towards solutions looking for problems and now that we’re at the end of 2022, the correction is in full swing whereby really intelligent people are starting to flow back to productive asset building. The crypto bubble swept me up and spit me out - lost money in the Celsius bankruptcy. FTX has eclipsed Enron for fraud of a generation, the NFT craze has led many to hold on to worthless virtual monkey pictures and rising interest rates have awoken people to the value of cash again. This moment in capital markets and risk tolerance shift is a first for me in my lifetime and it’s been fascinating to watch our generations ‘Tulip Craze’ come full cycle (Matt Levine’s Crypto Story stands out here).
Geopolitically the war in Ukraine broke out in late February, there was pain at the pump as inflation and energy scarcity exacerbated and America put a contradicting message out that we wouldn’t accept tyranny abroad, but secretly we need their resources. I’m scared about America’s future and our standing on a political power paradigm. Like Jim Rogers has been predicting since the late ‘90s, America’s time will come due when a rising debt to GDP ratio will send us shuttering; you can’t borrow from your future forever.
Around May I started to get freaked out about the economy. Rising inflationary costs, seemingly strong companies deploying large layoffs and a tightening monetary policy signaled a belt tightening moment for many. David Sacks tweeting this below really hit me in the face and sent me into hyper-focus and a place of mental scarcity.
On the social front America felt like a pitbull cage with nasty mid-term election campaigns, the disruptive Roe v Wade overturn in June and some excruciatingly difficult to comprehend mass shootings like the elementary school in Uvalde. I was left scratching my head, thinking that harmony feels unobtainable in this country.
On a micro attempt to play the macro card, my leap of faith to Xeal felt like the right step to get ahead of a curve as electrification rhetoric continued to proliferate and the capital flows from major automakers, and G7 countries, continued to support that thesis. 2022 was the year that over 5% of new car sales were electric which has signified the tipping point for EV adoption in every preceding country.
The Practice of Introspection:
I had a lot of time on airplanes this year and I used them as a my temple of solitude. The countless flights afforded me time for introspection and writing (nearly completed my journal). Despite spending 9 months building Emote in 2020, I re-discovered my affinity for writing in a physical journaling, documenting the machinations of life. I would write time and time again about how thankful and how lucky I am that my life is playing out the way it is despite the absurdity and confusion in our world. Gratitude and faith are the only two natural combatants I’ve found to life’s unanswerable questions and struggles. I have everything I could have dreamed of (and more) and I’m truly counting my lucky stars on a regular basis.
Group Journaling continued as a great way to stay connected to close friends as my small group of growth minded individuals would meet up on occasion to cover a writing prompt. Whether it’s a poker night, a book club or a group journaling session, the intentions are all the same - find a venue to share life’s experiences with people going through the same chapter.
Explore Your Backyard:
Another year, another new city. This one though has staying power as we moved our life to Dallas. We explored and ticked items off the Dallas bucket list but this flat landlocked city does three things extremely well - golf, food and drinks.
Texas Summers
As hot as they are, we escaped to our backyard and spent much of the summer hanging by the pool with Brody, friends and family. We felt so lucky that we had our own summer resort oasis with tree canopies on the creek and we could hear the birds singing all morning. I got into a nice Saturday morning routine going out on the early golf tee times with my father-in-law while him and his buddies hit their age and I learned a South African dirty joke or two.
Amidst The Change, The Constant Remains:
Kenny and Julie had twin boys and the kid chapter begins. My friends are becoming parents and the Weds before Thanksgiving is now a bottle fest of a different kind... Mike, Scott and Max all became dads to baby girls and another half dozen of my friends’ wives are pregnant. Step aside weddings, in come the baby showers.
I got a chance to officiate one of my best friends weddings in Cabo, Mexico in one of the most incredible settings. With every passing year, it requires that much more work to make sure we all see each other and find the time to catch up.
My parents and Grandma had another interesting year on this blue marble orbiting the sun. My father finally sold his practice to concierge medicine and began the soul crushing process into privatizing his client base. He battled with this decision but ultimately did what his body told him he had to do - slow down a bit. My mom continued to run his practice like a champion but this new model finally gave them some time to travel a bit more and become the bubbie and grandpa they ought to be. My parents are simple creatures - my dad likes 100 degree days and a good bike ride. My mom likes playing majong with her friends and being with her kids and grandkids. I would say this was another successful year for them both as they were both healthy and well enough to do both!
The Wheels of Responsibilities Turn:
There comes a point in every child’s life where the children start to pay it back to their parents and we really are grateful to accept that challenge. My parents came to Dallas and we were able to get my 93 year old grandma to enjoy herself despite the flying trepidation. They all went swimming in our pool and my dad and I had cigars out back and we just relaxed - it was nice to host them for once. Laurelle and I were then able to host a full mothers day brunch for both of our families - showering the women with the appreciation they deserve.
We then ran it back in November when Laurelle and I hosted Thanksgiving at our house. The tides have officially turned as we carved the (Texas smoked) turkey for the first time at our home.
As my nephews turned five and two, Adam found a way to get down to TX for a brothers weekend and we made sure we filled him up with BBQ, Golf and plenty of Texas iconography!
Take That Trip:
This year I had a healthy diet of exploratory and work travel! This year I made stops in NYC (12x), Mexico (3x), Philly (2x), LA (2x), SD (2x), Chicago (2x), Vegas (3x), DC (2x), Utah, Phoenix, Colorado, South Carolina, Budapest, Hvar, Dubrovnik, Portugal, and Puerto Rico.
Stevie, Max, Storm and I took our second annual boys ski weekend in Beaver Creek and it was incredible. Perfect 3 days of skiing, apres, cooking and plenty of mishaps in Beaver Creek.
Jeremy, Adam and I took a weekend trip to Park City over the summer where we maximized 48 hours of mountain biking, hiking, experiential dining, distillery visits and best of all, Guster alongside the Utah Symphony under the stars in Deer Valley.
In May, Laurelle and I headed down to Cabo for Benji and Clancy’s wedding where I officiated their wedding ceremony and was so happy to be part of their special moment. It was one of the coolest experiences to be in Mexico, with all my friends and their wives, and spend so much quality time together when I live so far away from them. Nearly half of my friend’s wives were pregnant and it felt like the last time we’d all be together before the attack of the babies would invade.
In July, Laurelle and I headed out to Croatia and Budapest for ten days over the summer. Despite the emergency detour after Laurelle broke her front teeth after tripping on a boat in Hvar (and then finding the most amazing German dentist to fix her up), we had a great time! I think I was more frazzled than she was when she looked up at me, toothless and said “Do I still have my front teeth?!” She was a trooper though and the vacation must go on!
We came to recognize the beauty of the Hungarian capital and then marveled at the sheer beauty of the Adriatic coast. I was struck by how beautiful Dubrovnik was and was saddened to learn about the history of the Yugoslavian war - reminded yet again that war is often cruel, faceless and a game played by those who have let their power overtake their rationale.
In August, my entire family took to a cabin in the Poconos of PA. The trip took a turn for the worst when my mother fell and broke her nose, concussing her and sending us to the ER for a long night. Despite yet another fall, we made sure to find some chill time around the fire while the boys scorched some marshmellows.
While the year sounded like a globe trot, there was most certainly very little idle time as work was a 24/7 job this year and slack, email and deals never sleep at a company of our stage. Whether it was running off to Chicago to see our investors, heading to Vegas for a conference or going to DC to meet with clients, we made sure to honor the personal touch to our work.
To celebrate a great year, Laurelle and I headed down to Playa Mujeres for a few days to get some sun and call in the new year.
Giving Back:
One of my goals going into 2022 was to be more involved and give back. While new to Dallas, I was inspired by a pamphlet under my seat at the high holiday services this fall and I teamed up with the former mayor of Dallas, Laura Miller, to mentor and help a formerly homeless couple improve their life through a program she started called the Ladder Project. Benito & Monica were recently in a homeless shelter until Laura and her organization was able to get them out and into subsidized housing. Now their only goal is to afford a car and I’m working with Benito to budget and plan accordingly so that they can achieve their goals, keep their jobs and stay out of the homeless shelter for good. This is just the beginning of my community involvement and next year I want to continue and increase my activity in the community. My belief has always been that giving back is personal - meaning time spent face to face with those you want to help. It’s a pay it forward mentality and writing a check to me doesn’t cut the same way as giving your more valuable resource - time and attention.
Drink from the well of inspiration:
Every year I find new sticky notes and people to tack onto the metaphorical ever-building wall of inspiration. To name a few, this year I was inspired by Chris P, for his immense curiosity and asking the right questions. Jordan M, for his commitment to success in all aspects of life (family, business and giving back). Dina L, for when you’re down, there’s no other options but to get back up and fight. Eric B, for recognizing the importance of moving to Israel so his kids can learn Hebrew and be raised Jewish. Adina L, for continually inspiring me from afar to give back and help at the ground level to improve the lives of the disenfranchised. Zander for his gumption and ability to roll with the punches. David C for his neighborly care and his willingness to lend a hand. My cousin, David C, for his focus on family amidst mid-career prime. There are so many more people that inspired me this year and our job’s as humans is to learn something from everyone so pay attention to everyone you meet.
Books That Inspired Me This Year:
“A man is shaped by the books he reads” - I made this up but sounds like something Ayn Rand would say
When A Crocodile Eats The Sun - A further exploration of the degradation of Africa
Investment Biker, another armchair adventure as Jim traversed the world in the early 2000s
A gentleman in Moscow (Amor Towles all summer) - a well written novel with a contrite plot is better than a good plot that’s poorly written
Don’t Tell Me I Can’t - Cole Summers miraculous but sadly too short life
The Lion Trackers Guide to Life - “The tracker finds a path where there isn’t one, and we need that more than ever.” (Wrote this post about it here)
The Razor’s Edge - follows the same guidance as A Gentleman in Moscow about well written literature
Manifest Your Dreams and Reinvent Yourself:
This year felt like a personal reinvention and I never want to stop reinventing myself for the sake of learning. Just when you think you’re in a great place, I have to remind myself that the comfort is the pitfall and I have to keep going.
I know myself not to be materialistic but my dreams are to build a family in our Texas home and one day own a home in the mountains of Colorado or Utah. I will never retire but one day I will run a book shop / coffee shop on the banks of the Colorado River and create a place that I can think, write, read, relax and inspire people to learn. That dream is about a third of the way there and I’m patient with the mountainous stage. As I’ve gotten older I’ve learned to slow down time rather than rush forward. As a wise one said, “why worry about tomorrow, it’ll be here soon enough.”
This year validated my joy for building things - whether it’s companies, products, tables or bookshelves. The idea of going from nothing (or small) to something bigger is my idea of meaningful and impactful. This year I got my hands dirty a bit helping build up our backyard and this upcoming year I really want to spend more time landscaping our house and learning how to build / fix more things around the house. One day I’d love to build a small ADU, A-Frame or something to that effect but I’ll start small and work my way up with a couple light home improvements. While my writing is one form of creation, I’m seeking more of a calloused hands on approach this year with some of my weekend time.
Professionally, the thing that excites me most going into 2023 is building up people and the team we’ve put together at Xeal. We’ve got ‘athletes’ of all stripes and colors and it’s been such a great experience working with varying personality types and trying to call plays, run routes and hand the ball off to the right person in the right position. With a few recent additions to the team, I feel like we’re really maturing our approach. One in particular feels like the Peter Brant to my Billy Beane (money ball reference) - the statistical wizard who saw the game clearly in the numbers which optimized the best decision making. I’ve historically seen myself as a strong, lead by example, individual type player and an aspirational coach at best but in order for us to get to the next level, I know that I need to continue to hone my leadership skills but also stay involved in the ground attack. I’m motivated to be the best team contributor I can by while coaching the team to succeed. This year I was so honored to get to work with stellar sales people like Regan, Hailey, Kirsten, Kim, Chris, Mike, Patrick, Stevie, Tyler, Marilyn, Allie, Mallory and we’re about to welcome a cast of new sales professionals who will only pour more fuel on our organized fire.
This year I also started to pay attention to my golf game and began to really appreciate the beauty of the game. One experience that really hammered it home for me was the chance to play the ocean course at Kiawah island and ticking off a famous course from the list. I now have the desire to marry travel aspirations with golf destinations to go explore the links of the world (10pm tee time in the Lofoten Islands is now officially on my bucket list). I enjoy golf for the sport but it’s a gateway to a mentality to life - appreciate the surroundings even if you find yourself in the dregs OR figure out the calculated risk of a shot in the perspective of the broader 18-hole score. Best of all, it’s a passion I can share with my wife.
Speaking of my wife, 2023 will be another year of “us” instead of “me” and with that I’m eager to see what awaits for us in the year ahead. Our worlds continue to change around us and I can promise you it’s not all perfection but our outlook remains positive and optimistic and we reflect what our minds project - and it helps to do that as a duo. I was told by a mentor of mine: “You only have to make one important decision in life and everything else is secondary.” Well, I know I made the right decision with her and life continues to be wonderful.
So glad I saw this post. Thanks for sharing and bringing inspiration in to this world.
Loved these two quotes:
“Gratitude and faith are the only two natural combatants I’ve found to life’s unanswerable questions and struggles.”
“My belief has always been that giving back is personal - meaning time spent face to face with those you want to help. It’s a pay it forward mentality and writing a check to me doesn’t cut the same way as giving your more valuable resource - time and attention.”
Really awesome read! Great perspective on life and what is important!