Last night, Annie and I went out with one of our favorite couples to The Smith in the East Village. Our dinner conversation ranged from the insanity of extended families to politics to Bob Ross’ Joy of Painting (happy little trees!) The discussion also turned to the lists that we all wrote down as kids about what we wanted out of life when we grew up. We all recounted the categories and the hilarity of the details that we went into when describing our expectations of the future. My favorite was the description of the perfect husband though the eyes of a 17 year old: “He must be good looking (if at all possible) and not go bald.”
This morning, still relishing in the glow of the great dinner (think beer battered green beans, bacon wrapped apricots, and a culinary piece of perfection:”Stout Braised Beef Short Ribs.”), I got to thinking: when do we stop writing down what we want out of life with the expectation that it is still something that can and should happen? When do our lists have more to do with this week’s to-dos and less to do with the biggest ideas that we can imagine? When did the lists we make change from our dreams and goals to a detailed account of this week’s groceries and bills that need to be paid?
My favorite book in the world is The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho. Early on in the book main character, a young boy name Santiago, meets a wise king. The king exhorts the young boy to not believe the world’s greatest lie:
“What’s the world’s greatest lie?” the boy asked, completely surprised. The King responded, “It’s this: that at a certain point in our lives, we lose control of what’s happening to us, and our lives become controlled by fate. That’s the world’s greatest lie.”
At a certain point we all run into a brick wall on our way to achieving what we committed ourselves to when we had the innocence of a child. That brick wall, the first failure or set back of our adult life, is the end of their pursuit of the much larger vision they envisioned for themselves before the toils and responsibilities of “growing up” were upon them. That first roadblock is enough of a disappointment for the majority to stop, slow down, and put away their childhood lists. It is enough to convince them to believe the world’s greatest lie.
But for others, like Santiago in The Alchemist, it is just the beginning of an incredible adventure up, over, around, or through that wall. It is hitting that wall, and the next, and the next, that strengthens our resolve to go through this life with a resolve that we were made for the things of our dreams and the only thing standing between us and the life we’ve imagined is our own cowardice and willingness to turn our backs on the dreams of our youth.Tweet
Somethings can only be learned when you’re outside of your normal surroundings. Some experiences you’d never agree to do if you were home, but because you’re the mindset of adventure you say yes. When you meet people on the road, knowing they’re also away from home, you’re more likely to become friends.
“Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness & many people need it sorely on these accounts. Broad, wholesome, charitable views of men & things cannot be acquired by vegetating in one little corner of the earth all one’s lifetime.” ~Mark Twain
This video was recently posted and is a part of a series based on “3 guys, 44 days, 11 countries, 18 flights, 38 thousand miles, an exploding volcano, 2 cameras and almost a terabyte of footage… all to turn 3 ambitious linear concepts based on movement, learning and food ….into 3 beautiful and hopefully compelling short films….. = a trip of a lifetime.”
200 days. That’s all I have. 200 days left until life changes for good and I have to check a new box on the demographic section of surveys. And, only 200 days left to get to Africa and complete my goal to be to all 6 inhabited continents before I turn 30.
As I’ve recently shared and my lifestyle has shown, I love to travel. I love the experiences that happen on the road, the people that you meet, and the bigger view of humanity that is only possible when you go and see it for yourself. This year has been especially full of travel (100,000+ miles flown this year so far) and I’m thankful for each journey and the continued awesomeness that has continued to develop from each of them.
About five years ago, I decided that I wanted to get to all 6 inhabited continents by the time that I turned 30. At that time I’d only been to North and South America and Europe. I shared that with a few folks and they gave me some positive feedback for having a good dream. I like having dreams that other people think are cool. But, over the past few years, I have really committed to a statement that changed the way that I think about dreams.
“A goal without a deadline is just a dream.”
If there isn’t a deadline to our dreams, they’ll never happen. For some really big dreams that I’ve had, the only time they’ve ever happened was when I assigned them a deadline. If there is an open ended timeline for when it can happen, there wasn’t any urgency or pressure to make sure it happened. I love that pressure and love the feeling of making it happen. When I turned 29 this February, I had still only been to North America, South America, and Europe and didn’t have any trips planned to any other continents. Since then I’ve been able to check off Asia and Australia.
But, according to my handy “Days Until” app on my phone, as of today, I have 200 days until my 30th birthday. Which means I have 200 days to figure out how to get over to Africa and make sure that this goal isn’t just a dream.
In an awesome interview on his amazing home on Necker Island, a few very fortunate and awesome entrepreneurs had a great discussion with Sir Richard Branson. The whole interview is worth watching (but a little long at 40 minutes)
But, there was on line that Branson shares that ties right in with the ideas of the Philanthropreneur:
“Creating business in themselves can solve social problems. By being an entrepreneur you create businesses that create jobs and by creating jobs you can help take people out of poverty.”
To see more on what else businesses and entrepreneurs need to be doing to bring about social change, check it out here and skip ahead to 13:41:
Last year on the TOMS Shoe Drop, we spent a lot of time on the buses driving through rural jungle towns in Argentina. In the “get to know you conversations” with my fellow travelers, I noticed that there was a consistent phrase I said when talking about my life: “My Dad always said…”
It didn’t really hit me until I was talking with Pam Mycoskie, (Blake, the Founder of TOMS, mom) and she stopped me mid-sentence, and said, “Andy, I really want to meet your dad one day.”
I had to smile. I hadn’t realized how much I was referencing my Dad until that moment. But then, as I continued to chat with other folks I met for the first time on the trip, I realized how often I was telling a joke or sharing some wisdom that I first picked up from Dad.
The piece of advice that Dad shared with me in Jr. High that has stuck and been something that I have given a ton of thought to is this:
“Andy, I want you to look at what your Mom and I do and think about what you think we do really well and be like that. If you there is someone else who does something else really well in their life, learn from them in that area and be like that. I want you to be the best that you can be in everything that you do and to do so mean you’re going to have to learn from a lot of different folks along the way.”
That encouragement and humility fostered what I like to think is my insatiable appetite for learning from anyone who is willing to teach me. I love sitting with people that are really good at what they do and asking really good questions. (My Dad is also really good at that. There is not a better listener on the planet.) I love learning the hows and they whys of success from folks that are further down the road from me. And I love that I can share that and talk about it all with my Dad.
My Dad has taught me more than anyone in the world about life and what it means to be a man, a husband, and a father. The nuggets of wisdom that he’s shared throughout my life are the most referenced quotes that run through my head. But my Dad is not only quotable, he is also my hero.
It could be called the Sundance for Social Entrepreneurs. Or perhaps the SXSW for those with intent to change the world. Maybe even the Davos for the doers. Whatever analogy the strikes your fancy, the Skoll World Forum in Oxford, England was more than most could have imagined. From performances by Peter Gabriel and Baba Maahl to a brand new film being premiere by the Sundance Film Institute to tmoving ideas shared by Princess Noor of Jordan and the incredible wisdom Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu – there wasn’t a shortage of incredible moments.
But aside from the headliners and names that everyone knew before the event started, the new names and faces of social entrepreneurship have stolen the show. From the moving speech of Rebecca Onie from Health Leads to the inspiring vision of Ned Breslin from Water for People, the big ideas and new level of accountability in action has been the undertone of the event.
Having attended Sundance, SXSW, and now Skoll World Forum this year, it was clear that each event had the potential to be an echo chamber for its audience. Not every film at Sundance was amazing, nor every start-up at SXSW revolutionary. The same could be said of Skoll: not every good intentioned entrepreneur had an idea that will change the way that you and I think about life in the community or field that they are working in. But, the overwhelming and incredible part about the community that descended on Oxford is this: that’s okay. Failure is accepted as a normal part of innovation and a possible outcome for the current strategies being played out by the teams that were in attendance. The further they sail from the shores of conventional wisdom, the closer they are to create a new normal for the constituency they serve. A new normal that brings about permanent change in the real world and for generations to come.
When we understand that failure is a natural part, and even a predominate part, of the road to success, the less fear we have as we approach a new initiative or big idea that we don’t know will work. As seen by the incredible stories of change at the Skoll World Forum, the timeline on which success must be viewed is much longer than we expect and will require the input and buy in of more people than we know.
Cara Mertes, the Director of the Sundance Institute’s Documentary Film Program and my host in Oxford, has shared a quote with me a couple of times that I believe sums it up nicely.
“Every moment of major social change requires a collective leap of imagination” – Jeff ChangTweet
It is really hard to not have high expectations when you find out that James Cameron of Avatar fame is going to be on a panel moderated by CNN’s Soledad O’Brien that will also featured the ever entertaining wisdom of Charles Barkley. But that happened. Last week I attended the NBA All-Star Technology Summit at the Beverly Wilshire Four Seasons Hotel. It was a star studded morning that saw panels and conversations ranging from the the future of broadband connections in the inner cities to the pending doom of the NFL in one generation. The content and caliber of the conversations from the stage truly did exceeded my already high expectations.
Across all of the incredible panelists and high level conversations, the unspoken theme of the day was that of innovation. A theme that resonated strongly with me and produced four full pages of notes and brainstorms. The quote that no one said, but was running through my head the whole morning, is one recently shared with me by my good friend Dan Patterson. Walter Gretzky, Wayne’s father, is credited with telling his son to “skate where the puck’s going, not where it’s been.” The innovation and the big ideas from yesterday were all about where it is going based on the best information available in the right now.
But the most important caveat to the idea of skating or innovation to where it is going was also the ability to adjust as you go. I spoke with James Cameron after his panel and that was something he shared with me. He and his team started investing in the ground breaking technology that made Avatar possible 5 years before the movie was filmed. He said they didn’t know if there would even be enough theaters that had 3D screens for their distribution to work. But they went for it any way. And, when that blockbuster was all said and done, 80% of their revenues came from the 3D experiences they innovated towards.
“You have to know what people are going to want before they do. And if you get there just before they do and you’re the only one who did, you will reap the special rewards that only a true innovating visionary can.”Tweet
“Every morning in Africa, a gazelle wakes up. It knows it must run faster than the fastest lion or it will be killed. Every morning a lion wakes up. It knows it must outrun the slowest gazelle or it will starve to death. It doesn’t matter if whether you are the lion or the gazelle: when the sun comes up, you’d better be running.”Tweet
“The most successful mountain climbers know they must spend at least as much time, if not more, in tending to their base camp as they actually do in climbing mountains. Survival is dependent upon seeing to it that their base camp is sturdily constructed and well stocked.”
So it is with love.
Annie and I both run at a pretty good pace. This past year has seen us making trips around the world and finding out daily how amazing and exhausting life on the go in New York City can be. We have both undertaken new roles in our professional careers and have both uncovered amazing groups of people that are passionate about their place in this crazy world.
We have individually been chasing down the big dreams that are uniquely our own and have sought out more opportunities to bring more value to our communities and our connections as we go. We have both made ascents on peaks that are solely ours to climb even as we travel further down the path of our adventure together.
But, as the quote from Dr. M. Scott Peck so perfectly captures above, Annie and I have tended to and continually moved our base camp forward together as we’ve gone and found the strength to make our next journeys from there. As hard as it sometimes is to make the ascents alone, they are climbs that are only meant for us as individuals. But, I know beyond a shadow of a doubt, that the confidence I walk around with on a daily basis stems from the love and support that I am replenished with at base camp.
The individual conquests and battles that I fight and strive to see through to victory are made so much sweeter knowing that there is a reprieve and time to recuperate at base camp before going out for the next fight and adventure. And that each one of our individual ascents moves us closer together and closer to the big huge vision we have for our adventure together.
To my best friend, my beautiful Valentine: I love you.Tweet
“Champions do not become champions when they win the event, but in the hours, weeks, months and years they spend preparing for it. The victorious performance itself is merely the demonstration of their championship character.” – T. Alan Armstrong
“High achievement always takes place in the framework of high expectation.” – Charles KetteringTweet
Last night, Annie and I went out with one of our favorite couples to The Smith in the East Village. Our dinner conversation ranged from the insanity of extended families to politics to Bob Ross’ Joy of Painting (happy little trees!) The discussion also turned to the lists that we all wrote down as kids about what we wanted out of life when we grew up. We all recounted the categories and the hilarity of the details that we went into when describing our expectations of the future. My favorite was the description of the perfect husband though the eyes of a 17 year old: “He must be good looking (if at all possible) and not go bald.”
