These days I have come to meet a whole new breed of people thanks to the business I’m getting more involved in. I’ve learned loads and loads from these new people, but I have to say that one very interesting learning that I’ve weaned is that those at the very top of this business do not drink – or choose when they want to drink and cannot be swayed in any way to drink if it is against their will.

Now, I like to think of myself as a person of a relatively good sense of discipline, in particular my work ethic. However, in my social arena, I have time and time again crumbled to my own vices, whether that’s eating too much, or drinking. I let myself go (and at the time of this writing I am just north of 195 lbs. with about 19% body fat) when I lose my discipline, and suddenly I can’t fit into the same clothes I could a month ago. However, the new people I’m meeting at the top of their game make my sense of discipline look like a spoiled Malibu high teenage brat. Allow me to explain.

When I made a visit to meet my marketing partners in NYC recently, I treated them to a nice dinner at Nobu in Manhattan. Over scallops and tuna carpaccio, my main partner declined my offer of an expensive sake. His reasoning: “I don’t drink on weekdays.” After politely declining, we went about conversation as we regularly would. Most of the others put away those shot glasses like it was the antidote to a poison.

In another occasion at a recent conference, I met my consultant at an afterparty. He was also, not drinking. His rationale: he didn’t drink at these kinds of events anymore- that’s how business gets done. It was as if he had graduated from a life of drinking into the echelons of success which included a lifestyle of tempered drinking. In his case, he professed to love drinking, but he only enjoyed alcohol on specific occasions, and typically at home with his wife.

WOW. What discipline!

Then I remembered my management team at my consulting gig last year at Directv. Both of these guys did not drink at all. In their case, it was a health or a vanity issue, where they were trying to maintain a physique and not lose all the gains they had worked so hard at Gold’s Gym to achieve.

I realized that I had been surrounded by highly disciplined people who would pass the libations on as an edict of habit and an integral part of their lifestyle.

So, I am trying this outfit on to see if it fits. I can already say that my mornings are so much clearer, and I accomplish about 3X what I would accomplish had I gone out the night before. And I know myself – the way I enjoy alcohol, I go full on Korean – it’s never one or two drinks. It’s drinking till the wheels fall off. In this all-or-nothing mentality, I’m going to put my all-in play on abstinence for the time being.