This past week, I was fortunate enough to be invited to a private scotch tasting.  Blueprint Summit, a new New York community for successful business and philanthropic leaders, hosted the event at Alton Lane’s New York showroom.  Surrounded by Good People and amazing custom mens clothing, sipping scotch from Balvenie just seemed perfect.

Balvenie brand ambassador, Andrew Weir (previously know for his role as ‘Young Hamish’ in Braveheart) walked the group through the stories and subtleties of four different scotches.  It was incredible to learn what a difference a couple of years can make.  The 12 year old, which typically is my go to, was about what I expected.  But, jump up to the 14 and the notes were even more pronounced.  The 21 year old was our last sip of the night, but well worth it.   The 21 year old scotch is finished in barrels that previously held port wine. The result there were some new depth added to an already great scotch. The warmth of one sip lasted longer than any scotch I’ve tasted before

As the evening wound down and there was a bit of Q&A, I asked, “Was it the intention of the Malt Master to make a 21 year old scotch when they first put the barley, yeast, and water in the oak barrels in 1989?” Andrew shared the extremely unlikelihood of a barrel making it to 21 years.  Every year barrels are taken away and no one knows which ones will make it to the next year.  All they know when they begin the process and combine their ingredients needed to make a good barrel of scotch, is that out of the thousands of barrels started each year, only a few of them will last long enough and mature correctly to make the perfection otherwise known as the 21 year old.

I could help but ponder that thought this week.  In the rapid and fast paced world I live in, am I thinking about 2031? Am I building things that will grow and mature in 21 years? I am I working with the best ingredients right now to produce amazingness more than two decades from now? Will the final product of my labor today be worthy of the effort then? Am I thinking about a vision that is that big? Am I working toward a defined End Game?

These seem like good questions to ask over a glass of scotch.Tweet

I am busier than you. I have more meetings, more phone calls, more emails, and more people that want my attention. I am so busy taking over the world, I just wanted to take a second to tell you about it….  Or at least that seems to be the story we are all portraying to our friends, family, and fans.

This morning in spin class, Shaina again throttled any illusions that I may have had of being in shape. The focus of this class was the concept of Active Recovery.  She explained it as more of a test of our mental resolve than our physical.  The art of knowing how to restore smooth breathing and lower your heart rate with the resistance on. For real cyclists this practice is used to conserve energy while climbing a hill so they have enough energy to make a big push when they see an opportunity.  It isn’t about getting to the top first, it is about knowing when to sprint and when to keep an aggressive pace while maintaining control of your energy.

That is very different than resting.  Active recovery keeps the body engaged and ready at a moments notice to seize the opportunity to gain that edge.

This past weekend, Labor Day weekend, Annie and I had 3 days of active recovery and they were amazing.  It was a full weekend where we hadn’t made any intense or travel commitments and could enjoy being in NYC together.  But in doing so, we were actively recovering.  We caught up on things that had been left undone, put finishing touches on a couple projects, and, perhaps most rewardingly, caught up on some professional reading.  All things that could be considered work tasks but things that contributed to the recovery we felt as the long weekend came to an end.

There is a story told of a legendary lumber jack that was often sought after to lead the biggest clearings.  A cocky young lumber jack meet this legend one day and challenge him to a competition.  They’d each start at the same time and chop for a day.  At the end of the day, who ever had chopped down the most trees would win.  As they began, the young lumberjack jumped out to a lead and showed an aggressive pace.  The legend was keeping up, but it was clear the young man was clearly moving faster. A couple times during the day, the young man looked over to see the legendary lumber jack sitting down in the shade.  The thought to himself, “the old man just can’t keep up,” as he continued to chop away. At the end of the the day, the trees felled were tallied and the young man was shocked to see that not only had he lost, but lost by a decent margin.  In complete disbelief and humbled, he asked the legend how on earth he had done it, especially with all the breaks he’d taken.

The legend smiled and shared, “I wasn’t taking a break, I was sharpening my axe.”Tweet

Last night over beers, I asked a friend of mine a simple question:

Me: “What motivates you?”

Him: “Money.”

This has been, and continues to be one of my all time favorite open ended questions as there are so many different ways to answer it.  Will the response be direct, sappy, inspirational, or long winded? In the brevity and truth of his response, he summed up something that has been lost in the participation trophy self esteem obsessed society we find ourselves in: self interest, or, put another way: greed.  In an effort to make sure everyone plays nice and gets along and doesn’t have their feelings hurt on the playground (literal and real), we’ve taken away the hunter and kill or be killed natural instinct.

And, then I thought about that a little bit more, and realized, it is in my self interest to not change the system that is pumping out pushovers and pansies into the business world.  Their whining will make it that much easy for me to win.Tweet

Some people hire professional life coaches, buy inspirational tapes, or attend “The New You, Today!” seminars. I just go to spin class on Thursday mornings at 6:45 with Shaina for some in your face inspiration with the added benefit of a killer workout.

Since moving to New York City in February, Annie and I have fallen in love with our gym and the awesome environment it presents for working out and working out hard. (And by awesome environment, I mean you have to workout and workout hard because there is a disproportionate skew towards the ridiculously good looking and you don’t want to be left behind)

Prior to joining Equinox, I had never been to an entire spin class, I never really understood the intensity of the workout. But, over the past couple months, I have become more and more of a regular.  There are different instructors each morning, but after a couple months of observation, Thursday’s instructor is the best. Shaina comes incredibly well prepared and changes up here routine each month to focus on different elements of the workout to keep from getting stale or routine.

But, both Annie and I agree, the best part is that she gets inside your head and elevates the spin class to a higher level.  And she does it with brute honesty and a smile. Some of my favorite lines from this past week:

• * Look, if you need an easy work out, this isn’t the place. There are a whole row of elliptical machines out there!
• * Is that your best? I don’t believe you!
• * Think of all the people who are still in their beds right now that didn’t have the discipline and commitment that you have to be here. You are way ahead of them on your way toward your goals, in life and in the gym!
• * I need you to give me more!
• * You have the rest of the day to be comfortable. Not now. Now is all about discomfort and pushing your limits!

There is nothing better than in your face honesty that challenges you to rise above dished out by someone who has earned your respect.  The call to something bigger and the relentless pursuit of the best are the marks of a true leader – in the saddle and all the way up.Tweet

In the continued harsh pursuit of truth and embracing reality, I need to look no further than my quest to understand the motivations and stimuli that prompt action in my own world.  The journey to self actualization for the sake of self actualization is worthless.  But then again, like most things, the destination isn’t the point, the journey is.

“The unexamined life is not worth living.” – Socrates

“It is a sad fate for a man to die too well known to everybody else and still unknown to himself.” – Francis Bacon

“To thine own self be true” – William Shakespeare

With that level of self awareness, I have found the continued ability to trust my gut and take decisive and quick action to position myself in places and opportunities that bring about the best of my best.  If I don’t immediately see the ability to add value or bring my skill set to bare, I have very little interest in sticking around.  By constantly honing and refining the understanding of your skill sets and strengths, the impact you can make is compounded.  Less time is wasted on things that are not in your sweet spot and new opportunities are uncovered by intentionally moving on from those that aren’t made for you.

This isn’t a license or an endorsement of shirking responsibilities or quitting prematurely.  In fact, the exact opposite.  It is an endorsement of continually being better at only committing to the responsibilities and the tasks that you know you are best suited for. By pushing through the hardship of a wrong decision should only cement and deepen our intentionality to choose wisely in the future.

There is no greater gift that you can give the world than to constantly position yourself in the place where your passions align with your skills.  The place where you truly come ALIVE.

“Don’t ask yourself what the world needs. Ask yourself what makes you come alive, and go do that, because what the world needs is more people who have come alive.” – Gil BailieTweet

This week I was thinking a lot about the idea of settling or resigning ourselves to what we have already accomplished and what that comfort does to the fire we each could and should have for the passions that inspire us.  The questions of why would we ever stop short of our best is one that I wrestle with often.  And perhaps even more haunting, what if our true best is beyond the reach of our imagination?  What if it is a level or a higher plain that will only be reveled with measured and sustained success in the future that we can see?

It is in a complete pursuit of that measured and sustained success in the future that we can see and imagine that I have come to realize how much I don’t know and how pious and cocky it  is to declare, “I have life figured out.”  The more I know, the more I understand how little I do. The more I understand how little I know, the more willing and open I am to continue learning.

“Dare to be naive.” – R. Buckminster Fuller

“He who knows most, knows how little he knows.” – Thomas Jefferson

“Worry about being better; bigger will take care of itself.” - Gary Cooper

“Shun idleness. It is the rust that attaches itself to the most brilliant metals.” – Voltaire

“Diligence is the mother of good luck.” – Benjamin Franklin

Self improvement for the sake of self improvement is vain and void.  But self improvement with a laser focused end game is a true testament to a bigger picture.  Don’t work out so you can look good at the pool, work out so you can have the stamina to help others in need at the end of a long work week.  Don’t eat healthy so you can loose weight, eat healthy so you’ll live longer and impact more lives.  Don’t work hard so you can get a raise, get a raise so you can afford yourself the freedom to give away more of your time and your resources. Don’t travel the world so you have a more exciting set of Facebook photos than your friends, travel the world to understand it and find your place in it.Tweet

Tweet

“I love being handled well.” This comment was shared with me by a very successful, and now retired, industrial executive. He started his career in sales and told me that as he climbed higher up the professional food chain and made the transition from selling to being sold, there was nothing that he appreciated more than a great sales guy.
In my first job after college, I loved selling to sales guys. No fluff, no pleasantries, just the facts. They knew my approach, my pitch, and my close as well as I did, just for a different widget/product. The best part of selling to sales guys is that they will not waste your time and they will most always respect your more the harder you pursue. I have never had a sales guy tell me that I was being too persistent or that they were offended that I had left 8 voice mails for them over the past two months.
Persistence is one of the most important mindsets a good salesman, and really a good anything, can develop. I am not sold to nearly as much as the former executive I referenced earlier, but I do get my fair share of pitches every now and then. And, I have to say, I am shocked out quickly people roll over. I pride myself on being direct, but at the first hint of rejection, I have had sales guys ask if they could call me back in a few months. Why? Why call me back in a few months unless you know why I am saying “No” today?
In addition to persistence, there is a quote by Bruce Barton that has serve the best salesmen over the years:

“The big rewards come to those who travel the second undemanded mile.”

The concept of “going the extra mile” dates back to Roman rule. If an officer in the Roman army asked, a commoner was required to carry the pack of the officer for one mile. The actual credit for the term “going the extra mile” can be traced back to the teachings of Jesus in Matthew 5:41.
When I have received even the slightest acknowledgment that my business wasn’t just another cold call or quota that needed to be filled, I am much more inclined to return a call, grant an appointment, or commit my business to the ask that has been made of me.
It is in being sold that I have found more wisdom on how to sell than from any other experience. And it is in the extra mile that I have put that wisdom to use and gained more than just another sale but another long term relationship because they were “handled well.”Tweet

I prefer administrative assistants that tell the truth. See if you can tell the difference in the response to my request to have their boss call me back:

Admin #1: I will have him give you a call.

Admin #2: I will place this note on his desk.Tweet

Recently, in the wake of being overly active and engaged in the new opportunities that I have taken on for Marquis Jet here in Dallas and North Texas, I have not had much time for my own thoughts (as is evident by only 7 blogs this month.) Instead, I have been inspired and challenged by some quotes that I think speak to the core of what we all are up against any time we take on a new venture or a new goal. Here are a few to start the week and finish Q1 strong and ramp up for Q2.

“Our doubts are traitors, and make us lose the good we oft might win, by fearing to attempt.” – William Shakespeare

“If we did all the things we are capable of doing, we would literally astound ourselves.” – Thomas Edison

“Do or do not…there is no try.” – Yoda

“Obstacles cannot bend me. Every obstacle yields to effort.” – Leonardo da Vinci

“If it is possible, it is done; if impossible, it shall be done.” – Charles Alexandre de CalonneTweet