“Sorry I’m late, some plane hit a building in New York. Don’t worry, it will be a made-for-TV-movie by the holidays.” said Coach Lance Lowry as he arrived for my 8am handball class at Texas A&M. Little did we know how different the world would look when class ended 40 minutes later.

Coach Lowry arrived at 8:10 (CST) for class. I remember this exactly because for an 8am class, everyone pays a lot of attention to the 10 minute rule. If the professor doesn’t show after 10 minutes, everyone walks. But he did and we had a full class on the technic one should use to strengthen their weak hand returns. When class was over, I walked up to the gym’s juice bar and grabbed a banana and a smoothie. I sat down in the lounge area with the intention of finishing some homework. But, there in the front of the room was of a big screen TV tuned into CNN.

As I sat down, the first tower fell.

It was not going to be a normal day.

I walked over to the Memorial Student Center and used a land line (I didn’t have a cell at that point) there to call my family and talk briefly about what was going on. As I walked through the halls, TV from classrooms on rolling stands were being positioned for people to gather around.

Then the second tower fell.

I logged into to the main webpage for the school to see if there were any announcements about changes in schedules, or the all important, classes being canceled announcement. Nothing yet. I checked a couple more times throughout the morning, but ended up going to my 2:10 Economics class.

I did not want to be there.

“I know you don’t want to be here,” began my frequently rather grumpy professor. “But you know what, those evil people that took down the towers today, they didn’t want you to be here either. They wanted to mess with the life that you have as an American and change what it means to have the freedoms that we have. Don’t let them. Live the life with the freedom that you’ve been given as an American and don’t give those terrorists an inch. Now, onto the ways in which a demand curve indication of marginal utility…”

I knew a couple people that were in the Towers when they got hit, but they were on the 16th floor and made it out with no problem. I filled up my truck with gas because I was worried about the prices increasing the next day.  I went over to a friends house and had burgers that night by the pool.

Now, a decade later, I live in New York. I live just over a mile away from where the Towers stood. I can see One World Trade rising from the still gapping hole in the ground when I walk out my front door. I wasn’t a New Yorker when the Towers fell, but I am now. And this morning, I took full advantage of my proximity and the gorgeous sunrise to reflect on what has changed and what has stayed the same in the 10 years since the world stopped turning.

Early morning walk on the Brooklyn Bridge. Prefect way to start this monumental day.

Morning sun on downtown Manhattan and the empty sky where the Towers once stood

Tight security to get anywhere close to the 9/11 Memorial and Service

Big screen broadcast of the entire 9/11 Memorial Service

The FDNY and NYPD were decked out in their dress uniforms and brought a somber reminder of those that lost their lives in an effort to save the victims in the Towers

President Obama didn’t have any remarks this morning. He felt, and I agree with him, that the Psalmist summed up what needed to be said perfectly in the 46th Psalm:

¹ God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble.
² Therefore we will not fear, though the earth give way and the mountains fall into the heart of the sea,
³ though its waters roar and foam and the mountains quake with their surging.

⁴ There is a river whose streams make glad the city of God, the holy place where the Most High dwells.
⁵ God is within her, she will not fall; God will help her at break of day.
⁶ Nations are in uproar, kingdoms fall; he lifts his voice, the earth melts.

⁷ The LORD Almighty is with us; the God of Jacob is our fortress.

⁸ Come and see what the LORD has done, the desolations he has brought on the earth.
⁹ He makes wars cease to the ends of the earth. He breaks the bow and shatters the spear; he burns the shields with fire.
¹⁰ He says, “Be still, and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth.”

¹¹ The LORD Almighty is with us; the God of Jacob is our fortress.Tweet

“If you didn’t believe it before, and it easy to understand how you might have been skeptical on this point. If you didn’t believe it before you can absolutely believe it now, New York City is the greatest city in the world.” – David Letterman (opening monologue on first show back after 9/11/01)

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This has been the kind of Saturday that makes me smile.

Besides waking up at 6:30am to a beautiful sunrise, reading a new book on a park bench in the East Village with my venti coffee, doing a 32 mile bike ride, and eating Breakfast Tacos, I also got ahead on a couple of projects that have been sitting on my desk for longer than I care to admit. I just hadn’t been able to push aside some of the “half-tos” long enough to get to some of these “want-tos.” But it wasn’t just the Breakfast Tacos that got me in the right frame of mind to get these projects tackled. I got a new perspective.

I’ve been in my office in the East Village for almost two years now. I am on the second floor and have a pretty great set up. But, today, I packed up my laptop and trusty Mole Skin and headed up a couple floors. I locked myself in a conference room with a whiteboard and a large Fiji water bottle and started cranking. As the evening cooled off I opened the windows and just kept pushing and had a couple of brainstorms worthy of the root idea.

And, even though I was only a couple flights up from my normal spot in the office, there was just enough new perspective to get them thinking just a little bit bigger than I probably would’ve if I’d been in my office. I’d never seen the view captured in this picture before.

Some times some ideas just need a little new perspective.Tweet

The minutes keep passing and turning to hours

The emails keep racing, unrelenting electronic powers

The calls keep ringing and voices are singing

The text messages cry out, new ideas need to sprout

Inside the noise and outside the lines

My face, my pace combusts and combines

Just today, just this next very breath

Holds the keys to successes fragile life or death

Priorities I make and then ponder and debate

Urgency rushes and then runs and then waits

In this next moment, the have-tos scream louder

At the end of the day, “did this make you prouder?”

Right now is all I have and all I’ve got is what I need

But then I stop, hit pause, breathe…and I’m freed

It’s not that important, I’m not a brain surgeon

This ain’t my first rodeo, I’m not a priorities virgin

One, Two, Three… seconds as I close my eyes

Four, Five, Six, … clarity unfurl and arise

Seven, then Eight… confidence returned, restored

Nine, then Ten… simple successes, my rewardTweet

Since moving to New York, my timid declaration that I am an aspiring foodie has been exposed and I’ve seen I’m a foodie novice at best. But, there is one culinary delicacy that I’d be willing to go toe to toe with anyone in New York on: Breakfast Tacos.

The simplistic beauty of a perfectly prepared Breakfast Taco has yet to spread far beyond the borders of Texas. Some folks have asked if I mean a breakfast burrito (as they try and refer me to McDonalds) and others have suggested I get with the local culture and just start eating bagels with a variety of flavored cream cheeses.

But, with as much determination as I can muster, I’ve fought on. In the past two years, after sharing my quest with friends, family, and (perhaps most importantly) the internet, I’ve only found three Breakfast Tacos options in all of New York City.

Lobo – Cobble Hill (218 Court Street Brooklyn, NY – http://lobonyc.com/)

This was my latest find (yesterday) when Annie and I were finishing a 30+ mile bike ride. She suggested Lobo as a good Mexican food lunch since we were close by in Brooklyn. When I walked in, much to my delight, there was a huge Lone Star Beer sign hanging above the bar. That was the first hint that I might find a glorious surprise waiting for me on the menu. I flipped it over and line item number three on the breakfast menu: Breakfast Tacos! (pictured above)

I ordered one with chorizo (spicy sausage) and one without to gauge the difference. Both were wonderful, especially when dressed up with the pico de gallo, guac, black beans, and the house salsa. It is safe to say that I inhaled them.

Thus far these are by far the closest thing to a true Breakfast Taco that I’ve encountered in NYC.

Tacombi (at Fonda Nolita – 267 Elizabeth Street New York, NY – http://www.tacombi.com/)

This was the first Breakfast Taco that I found in New York. The restaurant is a fun open warehouse with metal folding chairs, plastic tables, and a couple different options as far as ordering. To get the Breakfast Tacos, go to the cashier on your righthand side when you walk in and purchase some tickets (like you’re going to the State Fair) and take them to the back chef’s hut.

There are three options for your Breakfast Tacos and I’ve had them all. And they are all good.  But, being a connoisseur, I would say that they’re not great. Being the first Breakfast Tacos that I’d found in the city, I was overly excited the first time I had them as they were like an oasis of goodness to my deprived taste buds. But, upon a second and third visit, the adjective that I find myself say in describing them: frou-frou.

Definitely better than not eating a Breakfast Taco, but not quite the awesomeness I think a city of this culinary achievement should be treating their palettes too.

La Esquina Taqueria (114 Kenmare New York, NY – http://esquinanyc.com/)

La Esquina, the much talked about restaurant, might be one of the more fun dinning experiences in the city if you can get a reservation. You walk into the unassuming and small Taqueria and, should the hostess find you name on the list, you are escorted downstairs through the kitchen to the best ambience you’ve ever seen in what feels like a cave.

But that is not the experience I had in attempting to try out their Breakfast Tacos. I walked to the Taqueria on three different occasions to attempt to partake, each time finding out that they either weren’t serving Breakfast Tacos because it was the weekend (strange but true) or that they wouldn’t be serving them until 10am because if was a weekday (really?). So when I finally made it on a day when they felt like serving me Breakfast Tacos, my biases against their offering were already pronounced.

And unfortunately, they green sauce smothered presentation didn’t restore enough moistness to the dried out corn tortilla for it to make me smile. But, I needed a third Breakfast Taco to make this blog post complete, so there you go.  Very disappointed by this one.

So all told, Lobo in Cobble Hill Brooklyn is the far away winner of the Breakfast Tacos in NYC culinary exploration SO FAR. But, the search continues and I am taking all suggestions and input that I can get. I am tired of having to fly to Austin to get my fix once a month, let’s remedy this situation here in NYC!Tweet

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I have an obsession. One that was cultivated at a very early age and one that I’m even more intentional about now. It is an obsession with learning from others who are the best at what they do. In my mind, it doesn’t matter what industry they’re in or what kind of work they do. There are parallels that can be drawn and ways of thinking that cut across generations, industries,  and creeds.  Watching someone who is the best at what they do talk about how they do it is an incredible thing to behold.

But when you get two people who are the best at what the do, arguably the best at what they do in the history of their professions, sitting in the same room and talking about it together, that is pure mind stimulation gold. Being born in Omaha and having worked for a company associated with Berkshire Hathaway, I have been a Warren Buffett fan for a long time. Now living in NYC and being true fan of the perfection that is possible in word-smithing and lyrical story telling, there is no one better than Jay-Z.

In this interview with Steve Forbes, they are both incredibly open and candid about the challenges and the factors that played a role in the success that they’ve had respectively and what they see for themselves going forward. It is worth the 52:39 to watch the whole thing (watch it here) but here are the quick hits that I took away the first time I watched it

“I was lucky, I got started early. I knew what I wanted at a young age. I’d read every book on investing in the Omaha Public Library by the time I was 12.” - WB

“You don’t have to be smart in this business (investing), you have to have emotional stability and not care about what people think once you’ve made your decision. “ – WB

“I love Tom Watson’s quote, ‘I’m smart in spots and I tend to stay around those spots.’” – WB

“Success doesn’t come from making a ton of brilliant decisions as much as it comes from making sure to never make terrible ones.” - WB

“Being an artist is similar to being an investor. Both professions are a constant battle to find and act on the truth. To explain your truth.” – JZ

“Music is like stocks. There are always things that are hot and the foolish jump for the popular. I’ve stay true to what I know and that is how I’ve been consistently successful.” -JZ

“I get to do what I love everday. It doesn’t get any luckier than that.” – WB

“Knowing what to leave out is just as important as knowing what to focus on.” – WB

“I was once asked. “How do you beat Bobby Ficsher?” The answer is simple, play him in something other than chess.” – WB

“When the landscape of business changes, you don’t have to change who you are you just have to change how you go about communicating that.” – JZ

“The best moat that you can have is your own talent. The markets can’t take that away from you. Neither can competitors or inflation.” - WB

“I tell students all the time, you have the brain power and the energy, develop the habits of success now, early in your career.” - WB

“Charitable Foundations are not tested by the markets. It makes it a lot easier for them to lose focus when they don’t have to stand up to a market test.” – WB

“Philanthropy is a much tougher task than business. In business you’re looking for the easy thing to put money towards that will lead to quick results and the bottom line. In philanthropy, you’re looking for the hardest things in the world and endeavoring to make them right.” - WB

“If you succeed 100% of the time (in philanthropy) your projects are too easy.” – WB

“If at the end of my life I was known as one thing, it would be as a teacher. There is no higher calling than that.” – WBTweet

On one of my favorite trips so far this year, I headed down under to Sydney and had the incredibly unique experience to speak at the Sydney Opera House as a part of XMediaLab Global Ideas conference. It was a wonderful experience and some of the most fun I’ve ever had giving a speech. Afterwards, I sat down with author Brad Howarth to talk creativity, success, and Gowalla.

I cover a lot of different ways that Gowalla has worked with brands and where we see the location based world going. Would love to hear your thoughts our conversation.

Part One (8:04)

Part Two (5:22)

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