Oh man where do I start with this YEAR!

2020 for me falls somewhere been a rough year and the zombie apocalypse. I feel like I haven’t had the luxury of time to stop and reflect- but that’s on me, even with the challenges of balancing a 18 month old bouncy kid 24/7. Oh, the days of galavanting around the world would have come to a halt even without the pandemic. Glad I got that out of the way in 2018!

I need writing for my soul. So I literally type this on my phone while I have this big baby strapped to my chest! It’s also a great way to get my steps in and put him to sleep. 🙂

What has 2020 taught me? It’s shown me that persistence and resilience are possibly two of the most important things a person can have. These are the stepsisters of GRIT. This has become especially true in this twilight zone of a pandemic. It’s taught me to take resourcefulness and creativity to new levels while the world started going crazy. I also learned that no amount of credentials (or lack thereof) can substitute how you tell your story. Telling your story-no- selling your story is all on you. I had to learn this the hard way this year due to my atypical professional background.

I came into this year looking to make a temporary change from my entrepreneurial life. I was interviewing with companies left and right, but found that I really had to redefine my story for the corporate mold in order to get hired. I found it really challenging to show a side of me that would translate well into a company’s hiring needs.

Long story short and 4 months into my hunt, I landed a job in global marketing at a pharma company in Santa Monica. After 14 interviews I had practically met the entire leadership team. It was right around April where I had accepted the position. I began my work in a world where to this day I haven’t met any of my team in person, now 9 months into my job. We’ve moved from Santa Monica to our Airbnb in Eagle Rock, and are now in a phase of saving money at an accelerated rate.

Mason is growing fast, and Sarah’s been the best mom watching after him every day. While my back to back Zoom meetings might seem rough, it’s a cake walk compared to being a full time mom. I am super lucky and thankful Sarah loves being the best momma!

The pandemic has let me continue what I had been doing did the last 6 years- to work from home. That’s been a blessing for sure, not needing to commute, but it’s been replaced with more work from the confines of my office.

I’m thankful for the opportunity of course, and the job is fantastic. I’m blessed with a great team and a supportive culture.

All that said, I have realized even more these days the precious, real value of time. I originally stood up my company to be a “lifestyle” engine that would support my family with sufficient growth as we pursued the things we would really want to do in life. I’ve gotten to appreciate this value of time tenfold while in this new role. What I had failed to anticipate were the sheer costs of raising a new human being, and this motivated me to supplement my income differently. And now, I pay the price when I sit in my office chair when the day is still dark, and get off of that chair when the day returns to darkness.

It’s all joyous. It’s all good. I’m thankful to have a job when many thousands have lost theirs in the evolving landscape of the corporate and business world. I’ve realized that I just need to take my game to new heights as I look at the power of business, the quality of life and time, and work on what’s coming next. One of my goals is to get back to balance in the hours in the day and to be able to spend more time with my family.

I’ll say something unpopular but necessary. For those who have once seen the sheer power of business and the freedom it brings through time and resources, you never forget. It’s like Plato’s Allegory of the Cave. Once you’re out of the cave, you can’t go back to believing in shadows. The corporate world is the cave. It’s the Matrix. It tells you that you have limits when you can accomplish so much more. I’m back in the cave for the moment, but you can bet I have my eye on the real thing that’s casting the shadows on the wall.

If it sounds like I’m complaining, I certainly am not. My job is actually very cool and the best thing I possibly could be doing with my background in the corporate world. I work in a global marketing for a biotech company that makes therapies that can actually make certain cancers completely disappear. I have an awesome team and fantastic boss.

But when you know that you can make more than the CFO of the company with a fraction of the hours you expend, you simply can’t go back. Tim Ferriss’s Four Hour Workweek is a real thing. The corporate world has a tendency to make people forget what is truly possible. Cushy regular compensation is a false sense of certainty- a dangerous thing to depend upon when you’ve got 3 mouths to feed.

Last year was supposed to be a year of growth, and it certainly was. It was definitely an adjustment in life in every facet of it- and I had to setup new systems to adapt to it all. This year will be a quantum leap year. Health, wealth, relationships are all strong on my mind as we step foot into 2021.

I look forward to the day when I can control my own hours once again. Until that day, the mission is to stay motivated and strong, and not lose sight of what true freedom looks like.

When I write at this time next year, I have great hopes that I will be able to write about big things. I have a feeling I will. 🙂

Peter’s 2021 Objectives:

• Launch new venture that I have been working on
• Run 1000 miles
• Finish 20 books
• Write next book (or at least start to)
• Acquire stepping stone property in West LA
• Cut to at least 13% body fat
• Learn conversational French
• Get my next Airbnb to profitability
• Keep watching family grow!