Surround yourself with other successful people.

Last weekend, I was in a luxury suite at Circuit of the Americas watching the American Le Mans Race and this topic came up.  Actually, let me rephrase that.  I originally went to watch the race -- I love racing -- and ended up spending the entire time making connections and networking.   Toward the end of the day, a conversation came up between an old friend and I concerning the fact that the only reason we were in that suite is because we were actively working to surround ourselves with people who were more successful than we were.  We both agreed that you should surround yourself with people that are where you want to be, not where you are.

Why?  It opens doors.  It creates opportunity.  It enables you to do better.  It encourages you to do better.  You won't settle just because everyone else has.  Let me share a few anecdotes.

Years ago, I lived in a high rise in downtown Austin.  I was actually living far above my pay grade, while I had a Porsche, I was subsidizing my rent with a roommate.  My neighbor down the hall had his own personal Lear Jet.  And an Aston Martin.  And all the other trappings of success.  We're still good friends, and he's shown me a lot about how to do business that I would otherwise never have learned and we're both working to create opportunities for the other.

My girlfriend did not understand.  She lived in a small bungalow in a trendy and exclusive part of town.  But she was really surrounded by teachers and students and old Austin hippies.  Not that these aren't nice people.  They are.  I love them.  I love being around them, they are eclectic and unique and interesting and dynamic.  But successful?  Hrm.  Perhaps not, even if their houses have increased in value to the point of absurdity. 

She felt that the people I lived around were fake and pretending to be something they weren't and that the people she lived among were more "genuine".  These are not necessarily untrue statements.   Since moving in with her, I have enjoyed the company of our new neighbors more than I did the company of my old neighbors.  That said, they really haven't helped me improve.  They don't have opportunities.  They can't open doors for me. 

This all sounds kind of ugly, and it's the kind of thing my girlfriend and I argue about all the time.  Your friends shouldn't be about what they can do for you or what they can offer you and it certainly sounds like that's what I'm saying.  It's not.  What am I saying is that if you surround yourself with people doing about the same or worse than you, you will continue to be in the same place you're in unless some miraculous circumstance happens.  They don't know what the next step is, they may even be perfectly happy where they are, and you will have no real incentive to improve.

And that's not necessarily a bad thing.  Look, there's a number I can hit financially where you'll find me parked on a beach drinking margaritas and literally not giving a fuck for the rest of my life.   Enjoying life is its own reward and you'd be foolish not to sit back and do that every once in a while -- or realize when you've hit your mark.  But I'm not there yet, and if you're reading this blog, you probably aren't either.

Let me talk about what happened in that suite.  First, I ended up there because I'd made a few connections over the years as the track was being built.  I had made sure to rub elbows with the guys behind it, and I'd helped them every place I could.  That was the first opportunity -- it got me in the door with some very powerful guys I never would have met otherwise.   I met a finance guy there and we exchanged information.  That might turn into me hanging out in a suite I otherwise could never afford during Formula 1 weekend.  It might turn into some financing for a couple of businesses I'm trying to get off the ground.  It might turn into sponsorship for my race team.  It might turn into nothing.  I don't know, but the fact is, without making those connections, without surrounding myself with those kinds of people, I'd have never been in that suite and not one of those things would even have a chance to come to fruition. 

This kind of situation is how one of my other race buddies set up sponsorship with Rebel Rock and how yet another got to be a test driver for Cadillac.  It's how I ended up being a track instructor for the Lamborghini Club of Texas.  It's how I've met many millionaires and a couple billionaires.  Now, nothing is a guarantee, but those guys might pitch me a slow ball right down the middle just because they'd rather see me get it than someone they don't know.  Of course, I've still got to swing for it and make it count, but it's a lot easier than trying to hit a fastball or trying to knock one out of the park off a pitcher who can't even get it over the plate. 

Breaking down

The other day I noticed that my father wasn't climbing stairs as well as he used to.  At some point in the past, his knee stopped working as well as it did.  I know it's always been a weak knee, he injured it playing football a lifetime ago and it's never been the same.  He's favored it ever since and it would occasionally cause him some problems.  

However, this was new.  He was climbing stairs one step at a time, like a child.  He would use the leg with the good knee to step up to the next step, then he'd use that and his arm to pull the other leg up to the same step.  Then he'd repeat the same process all the way up.  Going down was the reverse.  I'm probably not explaining it well, but it's the slow way of climbing stairs and you rarely see anyone do it other than the very young and the very old.

It struck me that somewhere in the past, he had stopped trusting the knee.  Maybe it gave out on him on one step and he nearly fell.  Or maybe it was painful.  It could have been anything, the cause doesn't matter.  What does matter was at that moment he had a choice.

He could either work hard at overcoming it or he could accept that his future included a knee that didn't really work.

Unfortunately, he chose the latter, as many of us do.  The work was hard, the risk was high, and the inconvenience of failure wasn't so bad.  After all, he'd still get up and down those stairs, he'd just be a little slower than before.   So he accepted defeat, resigned himself to it, and started taking the stairs one at a time.  Prior to this, he had lots of options.  He could keep trying.  He could try to build up the strength in that knee and rehab it.  He could have gone for another surgery -- it's been many decades since a doctor has seriously looked at it, and there's been tons of advancement in rebuilding knees.  He could have lost some weight -- something my father has always struggled with -- and helped his diabetes in the process, but his love of food won that battle too.

Now, his knee is far weaker than it ever was before, and it will continue to get weaker the more he uses its weakness as an excuse for "can't do".   This is similar to the hole we all dig for ourselves.  I should have gone to law school, I just talked myself out of it at the right time in my life.  I could still do it, but it will require severe sacrifices that I may not be willing to make.  Then again, I looked at it four years ago and said, "can't do".   Looking back, I realize that not much would have changed about my life if I had done it, except for the fact that I'd have the law degree I wanted.   Now I look it at with the same eyes and say, "yeah?  Now?  Can't do, man.  Too old.  Too far along.  Can't make the sacrifice."   All excuses.  Will I go for it?   Probably not, because I've got other irons in the fire that I want to make happen more and that I believe will have a better and faster payoff in the end.  But if I didn't have those prospects?  Damn straight.  Nut up and make something of your life.  Swing for the fence.


Postscript:  I feel the need to state that while my father gave up on getting up and down those stairs gracefully, he didn't give up on getting up and down them.  He still goes out there and makes things happen -- he even trucked his ass all around The Circuit of the Americas at the Grand Prix last year, probably just to show everyone he can still do it.  He probably doesn't even see where he gave up on his knee, and it's only one small failure in a life full of success stories big and small.  It's just a small thing that I noticed and felt it was a good subject to blog about.

See, I have a similar problem.  Through an accident in college, I also acquired my own trick knee.  I think there's some torn cartilage in there, but I've never had it scoped.  It's just that some times it wants to dislocate again and sometimes it's just painful -- usually just after I've taken a prolonged absence from working out.  I've been tempted to use it as an excuse many times.  I can't finish this run because my knee hurts.  I can't finish this run because my knee wants to give out.  I can't squat this weight because my knee might do something funky.  Every time I fight through it, I find my knee emerges stronger than before and it doesn't do it the next time.  Now I work at it.  I wear a brace when I have to and I do special exercises to strengthen the muscles around the joint.

As a result, I'm running 5ks now at a pace I thought was impossible before.  But I could have used it to say "too hard, can't do" and cheated myself.   I don't know what your obstacles will be, but I promise you'll see them every day.  Every day there will be an excuse to quit, to cheat yourself, to do less than you can.  Don't give in.  Look the pitcher in the eye, tell him to give you his best shot, and swing. 

X-Games. Detroit's bid versus Austin's bid.

This doesn't quite fit this blog, but I wrote about this a bit yesterday and it's still on my mind.  Both cities swung for the fences, looking to land the X-Games.  Both made fantastic presentations, and Detroit really went for it like a drowning man going for a life preserver -- because they really needed it. Austin was barely even concerned with it, most of the big push was done by corporate interests while the citizens were mostly of the opinion "if it happens, it happens."  I know, because I live in Austin.

So why did Austin get it?  And what can we take away from it?

Let's start with the videos.  Here's Detroit's.

It's actually really good.  It reminds me of Chrysler's "Imported from Detroit" Super Bowl commercial featuring Eminem.  I can understand drawing inspiration from that, it was the first time in a long time that Detroit could really celebrate being Detroit and it was immensely empowering.   This video really shows off Detroit and its beautiful ruins and shows how the X-Games could really rock this gritty, urban feel.  It shows the enthusiasm the people who live there have for the city and how they really want this and how they'll work their ass off to make it work.  It's a video from the heart and it really connects and it's great and wonderful.

If this had been the only video I watched, I'd wonder why they didn't get it.

The only problem is that Austin's is better.  Seriously, watch this.

Yeah.

The intro to the Detroit video is grit and gloom and beautiful ruins. It's a full minute and 40 seconds before anything exciting happens. It's got a cold sepia look to it that feels like winter is never going to be over and summer may never arrive. It certainly fits Detroit, but I wouldn't say it fits the X-Games.

The X-Games is all about flash and style and being hip and trendy and cool.

Oh by the way, guess what city is currently gaining a huge reputation for being hip and trendy and cool?  That's right, it's practically Red Bull Ground Zero around here. Guess what city really captured that feeling in their video? It starts off with trendy dubstep backing music and an edgy little intro. 10 seconds in, we're already seeing skateboarders and BMXers. People out in the sunshine having fun. It doesn't look like we're outside making the best of a bad situation, it looks like we're outside because that's where all the goddamn fun is. These aren't furry monsters in coats, these are fit, tan, toned, and beautiful people. We didn't make a makeshift BMX track out of garbage, that shit already existed (incidentally, I always forget about our downtown BMX park and apparently, it's really, really good). Wakeboarding? Shit, we do that year 'round. A minute in and it feels like I've already seen more action in the Austin video than I saw in the entire Detroit one.

Let's be honest, the Detroit video shows me an X-Games that I want to see on television. I really do want to see those ruins and watch people tearing it up. However, when I watch the Austin video, all I can think of is, why am I not out there doing that? I want to be there. I want to be those people. I want them to be my friends and come over to their house and drink their beer. Best of all, living here, I know that's my town. That's what it's really like here. Bring your shit here, because here in Austin, there's always a party and summer never ends.

So, what can we take away from this?  I'm not entirely sure.  The decision came down to a couple of things, primarily the character and attitude of the city.  It's not like Detroit could have been someone different.  It's not like Austin sold itself as something it's not.  However, there's a few things here. 

One, a big reason that the X-Games are coming here is because of that big nice racetrack east of town.  Without them, this literally would not have happened.  I say that because they're the ones who put this video together, and they're the ones who put in the long hours on the Austin campaign.  I'm also sure that some small part of the decision came down to the fact that the X-Games really wants to go play at premier facility not just in the United States, but the world.

Again, I'm not sure what Detroit could have done, it's not like they aren't trying to attract new businesses and new opportunities, it's just that so many of them -- like the X-Games -- are going to other cities.  Changing their image and their fate isn't going to be easy or cheap.  But at the end of the day, all the passion in the world isn't going to change anything if you don't offer someone a compelling reason to come and make an investment.  Maybe you're getting turned down for every job you apply for.  Is it because you're not trying hard enough and you don't have enough passion for the job?  Maybe.  But it could be that you just haven't put together a compelling enough package.   You can swing for the fences all day, and you can want it more than anything, but if you don't put in the time to build those muscles, your effort will be for naught. 

Let's talk about that package.  Detroit had a tough sell and they didn't get it done.  Why not?  I think it's because they looked at the image they want people to see when they think of Detroit -- a gritty place that's down on its luck but always comes out swinging -- and not what the X-Games wanted for a host city.  That image worked in the Chrysler campaign because you aren't trying convince people to move to your city, you're trying to convince them to buy a product after decades of substandard effort and economic adversity.  You're trying to say, "we've had our hard times.  We've made mistakes and we've paid for those mistakes.  But you should give us another shot, because we were great once and we know how to be great again.  We're gritty and not pretty, but damn it, we are some hard ass motherfuckers who know how to get shit done -- and we've done exactly that."   

That statement may or may not be true, but it damn sure sells a product.  I almost want a Chrysler after that commercial and I can tell you that their product isn't that good yet.  But that doesn't sell a city.  Nothing in that commercial makes me want to visit Detroit.   It makes me feel hopeful and proud for Detroit, but I'm not booking any plane tickets or packing any bags.  Copying from that commercial seems to make sense until you realize that you're selling a completely different product to a completely different crowd. 

The message in the Detroit bid video isn't even remotely the same message that the X-Games, and in particular, the Summer X-Games is trying to sell.  Detroit never thought about what the X-Games wanted, only what they wanted.   Next time you swing for the fences, think about what you're hoping to achieve and think about how you can show others how it's a benefit for them.   Austin never talked about how much they needed this, or how much they wanted it, or how it was going to benefit Austin.  No, they simply said, "here's how we can make your X-Games look awesome.  Come party with us."  As always, that's a message that sells.  

Is Someone Getting the Best of You?

Let me start this off by saying I've had a bad week with lots of setbacks.  I won't get into it, other than to say that we all have times like these.  Everything was coming up roses a week ago, now it's all coming up shit.

As a result, I've been slacking off on just about everything.  Today, this song popped up in my playlist. It happens to be one of my favorites, but I never really heard it before today.  I think there's a double entendre in the title.   The question is a good one, and on the surface, it sounds like the classical definition of "getting the best of someone" -- outdoing, overcoming, outwitting.

However, there's another meaning in there.  Is someone getting the best of you?  Are they getting the best you they can possibly expect?  Today, I realized that question was very relevant -- my friends and my family and my job and my passions and my future plans were getting anything but the best I could give.  They were not getting the best of me.

Why not?  Even when things aren't going right, why can't I still go out there and give the best of me?  Shouldn't that be exactly the time I give the best of me, so that I have the best chance of turning it all around?   It's hard, but if improvement were easy, we'd all do it.  I think it's time I embrace this song and continually think: "Is someone getting the best of me?"  If nothing is getting my best effort and attention, then I'm doing something wrong.

Not commiting

I hate to do another gym-related post, but every time I'm there, I see it as a microcosm of life.

I see so many people who go to the gym and "play" at being there.  This isn't their intent, of course, but it's exactly the overall effect.

They go there with no real goals.  They say, "I want to be in shape" without defining what that means.   This means that it's much easier to quit later.  They don't know what success looks like, so they never get there, never make any real steps to get there, and quit because they aren't seeing any results for their hard work.  Or, they move the goalposts, redefine success, and declare a false victory and move on.

They go there and never push themselves.   I watch so many people pick up 5 pound weights or work out on the machines with the lowest weight setting.  They walk instead of running.  They do three exercises and walk out.   There's a time and place for this kind of thing and it's when you're horribly out of shape and have just started working out -- but if you've been in the gym five days, you're no longer at that point.

They bitch about how hard it is.  Of course it's hard.  That's why there's all those pithy sayings.  My gym used to have one from Lance Armstrong that said, "Everybody wants to know what I am on. What am I on? I am on my bike busting my ass six hours a day; what are you on?"  While he got busted for doping, the quote still holds true.   Even though he used performance enhancing drugs, he was still on his bike, busting his ass, six hours a day, every day.

What I'm saying here is that if you're going to swing for the fences, you've got to commit.  No more half-assing your way though things and trying to make something work without actually working.   You need a game plan.  What does success look like to you?  A million dollars?   A Ferrari in your garage and a vacation house on some tropical island?  The girl you've been pining for the past 10 years?  What is it?  When can you say "Mission Accomplished" and have it mean something?

How are you going to get there?  It's nice to say "I want to be rich" and even define that as "rich means $10 million in my bank account and no debt", but you can wish for that all day long and never get there.  You need to break it down into steps.   Stop thinking about the whole and think about the smallest manageable step.   For instance, I once had to report to a job in San Diego -- where I'd never been, knew no one, and only had the address of the business and the name of my boss.  My mother wondered how I could ever do such a thing, there was so much that could go wrong and so much I didn't know and I had to be there literally tomorrow.

I knew I had to be in San Diego.  Too far to drive, so that's a plane ticket.  Luckily, there's an airport in Austin.  A few minutes online and I had one.  That only got me to the airport.  I'd need to be in Mira Mesa.  Luckily, airports have car rentals, so I'll do that.  How do I get there?  I have an address, I'll use Google Maps to plot a course.   And so on, right down to finding a hotel until I could find an apartment (I need a place to stay) and taking a few days off to come back and pack my stuff and terminate my lease (need my stuff, don't need the apartment in Austin).

You can apply this to anything.  If you want to run a mile, you can start by running two minutes.  Once you can do that, run two, walk two, then run two more.   The next day, try running for three minutes.  Keep building on that plan and you'll eventually get there.  Want to start a business?  Break it down.  There are always steps you can take each day that get you closer to your goal without being impossible.

Once you've started, keep pushing yourself to do more.   If it's easy, you're not working hard enough.  If it's hard, remember that nothing good was ever built without some serious hard work.

Get out there and swing.

5K -- are you sandbagging?

I ran a 5K today.   Not a sanctioned one, but one in my gym, on the treadmill.

I've never run that far before.  Getting there wasn't easy.   But it wasn't as hard as I thought it would be.

A few months ago, I decided I wanted to run a 5K.  Or at least, be able to run a 5K.  I've never been much of a runner, and I hate the gym.  But I'm not as young as I was, and cardio is more important than it used to be.

I used the Couch to 5K program as a barometer to make sure I was pushing myself.  It was hard.  I gave up a few times.  I started over.  Tried again. Failed.   Mainly, I failed because I didn't keep up with it.  Something always got in the way.  Something more fun than running.

This month, I made the real push to finish it.  I watched and was amazed as I started breaking through walls that I previously thought were unbreakable. I could run a full mile, then two.  For once, it was my legs failing me and not my lungs. It felt good.  I knew I was succeeding and I knew I was pushing my body as hard as I could.

Then came yesterday.  It was a 25 minute run, the longest I'd ever run in my life.  I really wasn't sure I could do it.  After about 10 minutes of running, I backed the treadmill down a bit and run at a slower pace.  I was exhausted and there was still so much running to do.  I needed to conserve myself.  I wasn't mistaken, the workout was brutal.  I was positive I was pushing myself.  I was fucking tired.  Toward the end, a particularly inspiring song came on the iPod and I decided to pick up the pace.  I decided, for no good reason, to match the guy next to me.  He wasn't running super fast, but he was running faster than I'd run in a long time.

I don't know what I thought.  I really was beyond thinking at that point.  But I can tell you what I found.  Not only could I run at that pace -- after 20 minutes of running -- but it wasn't hard.  At least, no harder than I'd already been working.

Well, shit.

Today I went to the gym, cranked it up past the speed I'd finished my run at yesterday ... and banged out my 5K.  Faster than I've ever run before.  Further than I've run in a long time.  I was beat, but after a few minutes, fully recovered.  All this time I'd been sandbagging myself and couldn't even see it.  

Wednesday will be further and faster.  Friday will be even further and faster than that.  How fast can I be?  How far can I go?   I don't know, but I'm going to find out.

Fear is the Mind Killer

I am reminded of this time and time again.  How many times have we not done something out of fear?  Fear of the uncertain?  Fear of failure?  Fear of pain?  Rejection?  Fear itself?

I must not fear.  Fear is the mind-killer.
Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration.
I will face my fear.
I will permit it to pass over me and through me.
And when it has gone past I will turn the inner eye to see its path.
Where the fear has gone there will be nothing.
Only I will remain -- Dune


The greatest weapon we have is our mind.   Human beings have evolved to be the most dominant force on the planet.  We fight, fuck, and kill better than anything nature has ever seen.   Yet, we are not the strongest force in nature.  Truth be told, we are fairly fragile little creatures.  We drown.  We dehydrate.  We freeze.  We heatstroke.  A single peanut can kill some of us.  On an even playing field, even a dog is easily capable of killing a grown man.   A lion or a tiger isn't even a contest.   We are not particularly fast, we are not particularly strong, we don't have razor sharp teeth or claws.   Our sense of sight is strong, but it isn't the strongest, and our other senses are almost laughable when compared to the nose or ears of a dog.

Yet, here we are.  The ultimate apex predator.   Nothing else even stands a chance.   If we were determined to eradicate every other living species off the planet, nothing could stop us except maybe one of our own.  What makes such a fragile species such a force to be reckoned with?  One thing: the mind.

It is the source of our greatest strength.  Greater than the tiger's claws or the rhino's skin.  Greater than the plants' ability to make their own food from sunshine.  Greater than the rattlesnake's bite.   It is so much greater than anything else on the planet that man even considers himself elevated to a place much higher than any other species.  The apes are smart, as are the cephalopods, as are the dolphins, but no one realistically considers that they might be smarter than mankind.

And yet, inside this powerful organism lurks its most dangerous weapon: fear.   It is the one thing that can stop the mighty human dead in his tracks.  It is a relic of a time long past, when man had to be careful.  A time when death was a more constant friend and visited often.  It is nearly useless today, when the modern world has grown sterile and safe and the visitations of death are more the result of bad luck than they are anything planned.

--The Marine Corps does not want robots.  The Marine Corps wants killers.  The Marine Corps wants to build indestructible men, men without fear. -- Full Metal Jacket. 

To advance in your life, you must remove this fear.  It serves you no good in today's world.

Let me stop and prove this to you.  Think about something you really wanted, that you passed up because you were afraid to go for it.  I don't care if it was a job, a girl, or an opportunity.   For me, it was a business I wanted to start back during the dotcom boom.  What it was doesn't really matter, what matters is that I didn't do it.

I could give you the dozen reasons I didn't do it, but they all boil down to one thing: fear.   Primarily, I was worried about leaving my paying job to start the business I knew would have been a success.  It would have required great sacrifice.  I might have lost everything.  I couldn't do it.

Why?  Looking back over a decade later, I can't figure it out.  How would my life had been substantially changed if I had just gone for it?   It might have failed.  I might have lost everything.  At most, that would have set me back about a year, maybe two.  I would have known within a year if the business would succeed or if I should just fold.   I had maybe $50k in assets if I'm being generous.  But I also had a six figure job.  How long would it really take me to replace those assets?  Six months?  Seriously?  That's what I was afraid of losing?

Sure, my wife might have left ... but she eventually left anyway, for other reasons.  Even that ended up not being as big of a deal as it seemed at the time.   Someone eventually came along and replaced her and I have a better relationship with them than I ever had with her.

I would have lost my job.  ...but I didn't stay at that job either.   If the business had failed, I could have gone back in a year and picked up right where I left off.   I know, because I've been the manager hiring that guy.   Sure, he'd taken a year off, but he showed initiative and risk taking, showed that he was more concerned about what could be done than what couldn't be done.  He learned some valuable experience that isn't possible to attain any other way.  He failed, but that doesn't mean he's a failure.  I want those guys on my team, as does everyone else.   You will pick up right where you left off.

If it had succeeded, I wouldn't be working today.  I'd be traveling the world and enjoying a lifestyle.  But I didn't do that.  I succumbed to fear, gained little, and lost a lot.

I won't do that again.

Keep swinging for the fences.  Get that one home run.  That's all you need.

The first post. Swing away.

A few months ago, I got this idea in my head.  I was going to stop trying to get to the next stop in life and try for something bigger.  To use a baseball analogy, I was going to quit playing small ball.  I was going to swing for the fences.

Too many people live their life playing small ball.  Make hits, get your runners on base, and slowly advance them home.  It's the safe play.  It's what we're all encouraged to do from the time we're little kids: do well in school, go to college, get a "good job", get married, buy a house, have kids -- the complete American dream.  If that's all you want, small ball is a good play.  Never reach for a ball that might be out, just wait for the right pitch.  Get a good hit on it, but don't swing too hard and miss your mark.  Hit it out toward the shortstop for a single, maybe a double if you're lucky.

I've never been that guy, but I've been trying to play that game.  And it's not working.  Well, it is, in the sense that I'm got all the trappings of what people would call a successful life.  I've got a nice home in one of the trendiest neighborhoods in Austin, I drive a Porsche, I have a beautiful girlfriend.  I'm a race car driver.

But this still hasn't turned out quite the way I've wanted it to be.  I don't have the Ferrari I always wanted.  I don't have the million dollar house in the hills.  I'm a race car driver, but I can't afford to go play in the "real series" like Grand-Am.  I don't have the freedom to travel the way I'd like and buy the things I really want.  I don't have the financial cushion I'd like.  Disaster could strike tomorrow and leave me ruined.

The idea started to form.  If I wanted to get where I wanted to go, I needed to go big.  I needed to step out there and take some chances and possibly get ruined.  But here's the secret: life isn't baseball.  You are not going to strike out.  You're going to get a pitch, and you can swing at it.  Or not.  Your choice.  But whether you swing or not, life is going to give you another one.  And another.  And another.  Right up until you die, whenever that is.  All you need is one home run.

That's it.  One home run.  Sure, you can keep swinging after that if you want, but you can also go sit on a beach and drink margaritas the rest of your life.  How many of those have I missed in my life?  How many times have a taken a half-assed swing at an opportunity that could have easily been a home run?  How many times did I pass because I thought it might end up being an out instead?

I'm almost 40.  I'm not too old yet, but I've missed a lot of swings.  I don't plan on doing it any longer. This is my blog and my journey.  What will I do?  I don't know, but you're welcome to join me on the journey.  Maybe you'll even be inspired to do it yourself.

One home run.  That's all I need.