It’s great to get away from LA traffic to see the same kind of traffic in Monterey, lol.

I don’t normally do this, but at the risk of extending too many of my truly personal thoughts online, I will be pretty damn honest about things on my mind in this blog. Hell, it has my name on it!

So, I’m 35. I’ve had my fair share of experiences by now, with a lot more to learn. I’m going to list the few key insights I’ve learned to date – while it may be obvious to some, for me these were only academic until I truly learned it FOR REAL from my own life experiences.

1. Pride is the #1 thing that destroys relationships, business, and personal growth. I’ve seen pride make people lazy and complacent, stubborn, and always needing to argue (sometimes just for the sake of arguing), while never being able to satiate their need to be RIGHT no matter what the topic is. Pride shows itself in this context in people asserting their own opinions as fact without respectfully considering the opinions of others.
2. There’s no such thing as not having enough time to do something- it’s simply not a priority. There’s nothing wrong with that by the way, but in our pride we like to justify ourselves into why we couldn’t get to that one thing on our to-do list.
3. After one turns about 30 years old, it seems that most people are pretty set in their ways of thinking and begin to be very difficult to open their mind to new ideas and methods. Usually it’s because they have a family to support and are bound by responsibility that drives stability, amongst many other variables.
4. I traveled to 15 countries in my 20’s, and I’m glad I did. I certainly would have a much tougher time trying to do that now (but I think I’d be able to do it on a nicer budget!). Traveling opened my eyes to so many facets of the world’s cultures, and I’ve only barely scratched the surface. I highly recommend someone in their 20’s to take the time and sacrifice to make this happen before the typical pressures of life set in.
5. This one may offend some but I mean well: to spend your hours from 9 to 5 working for someone else, you’d BETTER love what you do, especially if you are of the socioeconomic strata that is able to have a roof over your head, sufficiently provide for yourself, and are able to read this blog post on your mobile, tablet, or computer device. Either that, or you’d BETTER be making a ton of cash to enable you to do the things you truly want to do. I know that many people get employed in order to just make ends meet, and those folks most likely don’t love what they do. Even amongst these people though, there are people who fight on, hustle hard, save that extra buck, and make their dreams happen. This one is similar to #2 above- if you don’t love what you do, you simply haven’t made it a priority – and when you slave over a 9-5 that you don’t love, well, it’s because it’s just not a priority for you to break free of your chains. If you think I’m being pompous, talk to me after toiling 8 hours at a high-stress corporate job, and finishing the day off with another 5 hours of waiting tables and bartending demanding customers- oh and not to mention working the weekend shifts also. I did those things not only because I had to in order to make ends meet, I hustled so I could inch my way towards an escape into what I truly wanted to do. Those who read this and understand will truly appreciate this one. If you suffer from #1 and #2 above, chances are you’ll disagree with me and want to argue with me and tell me that I don’t know what I’m talking about. Jack Ma said it best – if by the time you’re 35 you’re poor, it’s your own damn fault. Hard words for our millennial generation to hear, but I think they’re sound words of admonition.
6. On a similar note, it’s funny to me that many people view entrepreneurship as a risky path to take for business, and ultimately, in life. Sure, it takes the typical entrepreneur a few tries to get it right- and even then, can fail, but therein lies the adventure, the potential, and the true test of one’s drive, discipline and ambition to succeed. What’s MORE risky to me is the one who “plays it safe” and climbs the echelons of corporate life with the objective of ending life with the pittance of an IRA/401k or at best a pension (rare). This rat race invariably ends in a layoff or a bullying out of their job, and when you’re 57 years old, it’s a tough world out there if you haven’t honed your skills. It perplexes me how much weight some folks put on corporate ranks, promotions, stock options (that are taxed heavily) and perks. At the previous gig I was consulting at, I found out yesterday that the team was all about to be let go due to a corporate restructuring. This is literally about to happen next week, and the team doesn’t even know what is about to hit them. So much effort, heart, time and stress put in for YEARS…all for a company who would dump them cold by striking their line item off the quarterly ledger to meet their EPS guidance. Yet this is the true risk one takes when depending on a corporate handout for years on end while getting lazy.

I write all of these words primarily for my own posterity, but also hope they can be inspiration to the open-minded.