How Things Become Awesome!

There is a group on my company’s version of facebook called “the group of awesome.” At first glance I thought what a ridiculous group, but my first instinct was wrong. In addition to the very humorous posts that come up we see lots of things which are all…Awesome. Some end up being cool tricks that others didn’t know (e.g. the button on the side of your cell phone silencing instead of hitting the ignore button) or sharing some amazing videos or pictures that are worth the time to see for yourself. What we don’t see in this group is the journey to becoming awesome, we only see the things that have arrived.

This weekend, marks something that has been nine years in the making of becoming awesome. Some may argue it’s been awesome for some time, but I have high standards. In the summer of 2002, my manager told me stories about his experience in hosting ski trips with hundreds of people and chartering MD-80s. It seemed so easy when he told me. After I stopped salivating over his successful trips, it wasn’t long before I was thinking that’s so easy, I could do that. In a few weeks I was off and running; calling around trying to get huge resorts to host hundreds of people. Looking back it’s amazing how naive I was at the time.

That following March in 2003 I hosted 55 people on my first Tahoe ski trip. This was by no means my first rodeo. I’d organized ski groups before and even some party trips to warm weather destinations. Unfortunately, my goal was to hit 90 people and so I saw the trip as a bit of a failure. It’s good to have high standards, but don’t be so blind to miss a great thing when you are in the middle of it. The feedback from many trip attendees was that they were impressed how things got pulled together and suggested I get a group organized to keep hosting these trips. Thus Papys Adventures was born.

The trips continued. I developed checklists and tracked metrics to be more efficient. I gathered feedback from surveys (formal and informal) from those who came on the trips. I observed things that worked and didn’t work. I learned a lot about people dynamics and that one sour person can be a buzz kill for an entire group of people (solution: a no bitching clause). I also learned that I can’t make everyone happy, but that there are triggers which make most people happy. I found common denominators, things that would produce high return on investment. I also surrounded myself with others who were smarter than me and that allows us to automate a lot of manual labor. I learned that if you want to get large groups the super connectors are a very powerful type of influencer. Most importantly I learned from each and every one of my mistakes.

March will mark nine years since that first trip and this weekend is our 10th annual trip. I never hit that goal of 90, closest we got was 70 in 2008 and this year. We did however host over 600 people on all the Tahoe trips combined and over 1,600 when we account for all the other trips. Success looks very different when you look back on your accomplishments. I had a passion for bringing people together and the strength for organizing events. It was a perfect alignment that I always encourage others to find in their careers. Something my boss left out of his story and something I never expected was the impact on people’s lives from all the new friendships that were formed.

To be clear, I’m not bragging, because the truth is I don’t want credit for those new friendships. I didn’t make them happen. The people on the trip did. It may sound arrogant, but it’s a fact now that Papy’s Adventure’s South Lake Tahoe Trip is awesome. Being awesome takes a lot of hard work which doesn’t happen overnight and you cannot do it alone.

Pinch Me!

It seems that there are three points during each year which allow me to reflect on my life: Fourth of July and Christmas because of their proximity to the middle and end of the year. Those are my ideal time to set and review my goals in-depth. The third is my birthday…today.

Given many challenges I’ve faced over 33 years, I always feel like my life is constantly getting better. Or it could be that I keep facing new changes which end up keeping me entertained. Either way, my life is pretty much amazing and I wanted to take this opportunity to celebrate that (instead of just another number).
I’m not posting this to brag, but rather to help you have an awesome life too. I’m a big believer in the law of attraction. If you want it bad enough then it will come to you, but it does takes a lot of hard work. I’ve noticed a few things have helped me capitalize on the quality of my life and I want to share them with you. I’m curious if you agree or have others to add.

First is my family and friends. My immediate family is 17 and growing (but this applies to even those with small families). I’ve also got an even larger extended family that manages to do a great job of staying together. In addition, I have some very dear friends and a wide circle of ‘close acquaintances.’ The key here is not only are these people fun to be with, but I invest in them when they need me. This can be hard at times, but sometimes it’s just being a person to lend an ear or extend an arm for comfort. You’ve got to determine what sort of support network you need. In preparation for our next chapter, Kim and I have decided to move to the east coast so our future children can grow up closer to our amazing families. We are sad to leave behind our wonderful west coast friends, but we know the connections we’ve made with them will make it very easy to stay in touch. Even if you don’t come from a large family, you’ve got to ID your support network and continuously invest in them.

Next, Kim and I are in a constant pursuit to love our jobs. Thankfully, I’m on edge daily trying not to become a workaholic because I enjoy my job so much. I’m lucky because so many people are not happy in their jobs. Fifty percent of Americans admit they don’t like their jobs and another 20% say they show up just to collect a paycheck. It’s for this reason that we made the decision for Kim to leave her job. The passion was gone for her. I realize unemployment is through the roof, but you cannot put a price tag on happiness. It’s not that we’re fortunate enough to pull it off, it’s that we worked our butts off to be ahead. You’re committing 40 hours (or more) to work each week, so do a self check to see that you love it. If not, you’ll need a plan to get to that point.

Finally, it’s about having priorities and knowing what ‘awesome’ looks like. It’s important to have good perspective on things. I always struggle watching those kids on “American Idol” who truly don’t know they suck. Ferris Bueller really sets us up for success when he says, “Life moves pretty fast. If you don't stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it.” I stop and look around at the most random times: the top of a ski lift, when sitting in front of a fire place, or every morning when I wake up. I also do this at the worst of times. I reflect and look at my situation. Did I put myself here? Is it just part of life? Is it really that bad or am I overreacting? This allows me to know that right now, even with a lot of stress in my life and more coming, that things are awesome. Have you paused lately to make a comparison?

So tell me, am I on the mark or are these three things not enough for you to position yourself for a great life? You only get one shot, so leave the regrets and the sense of feeling bitter at the door.

My Obsession with Efficiency

In the summer of 2003 I made a decision that when I grew up I wanted to be the CEO of the world’s greatest aerospace company. I made this huge life decision after a 3 month assignment in a position that was supposed to be my future ended up being a bust. My motivation for wanting to be CEO was I felt my need to leave a mark on this world. I had recently lost my father rather suddenly and thought I had to commit myself to being remembered. Hopefully you can see this wasn’t a decision I took lightly. I changed my mind 2 years later and thought being the CEO was as hopeless as me being an astronaut.

What happened? I got a lucky crack at a position in management. I had a dozen great people on my team. The team was diverse in their backgrounds, skill set and thought. I loved working with them. I hated having them work for me. This was the first time I really started to see the inefficiencies in others. How could I not notice? Their performance would determine my success in the position. The observations were not limited to my group, but also the groups which delivered a product to us and those to which we delivered our product (we worked on an airplane assembly line). It’s ok though, because that realization helped me change my “what I want to be when I grow up” goal. Since then that goal is to develop the future leaders of the world’s greatest aerospace company.

The rationalization came to me on a flight from Dallas to Los Angeles. I sat next to a guy who fathered a baby with a woman that he had been dating. He lived in LA and she lived in Dallas, but they committed to making it work. This guy was just like me (not the baby part). He could talk you through an exciting story like a rollercoaster and get you to want to hold on for the ride. Then he told me about how he acted around his newborn daughter. He told me how his time with her was only about her. He turned off the TV, the phone, and put away anything else that could distract him. I realized in order to get more of that quality time there needed to be some level of efficiency in everything else we do. That’s why I push to be so efficient, so that I can enjoy those priceless moments.

Unfortunately over the past few months my hair has been on fire and my own personal efficiency has been crap. I was reminded of this when I got to meet my new niece earlier this month (pictured above - only 3 weeks old at the time). I need to get back in the game so I don't miss those moments.

I’ve got some great ideas I’ve compiled on how we can be more effective and I’ll share them here. These items range from email to meetings and communication. This isn’t just about being organized; it’s about being efficient with the time we have to feel the biggest ROI. What are your thoughts on how your time is consumed?