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As a kid, I grew up poor. Understanding that statement in full would take more time than I have available for writing this entry. To put it into perspective though, it's taken my wife 5 years to fully understand my definition of poor.
I guess I could've sat her down and explained each and every situation but that's just not something I felt was necessary. But over time, the stories were told and one day, not too long ago, she looked at me and said: "You were poor!" To which I replied: "Yeah, that's what I've been telling you."
As a kid my definition of success, which was more like the definition for not being poor, had been redefined over and over again. But somewhere around the time I started driving, my definition of success became associated with owning a Mercedes Benz 280SL. My exact preference was the convertible model but the hard top would've worked as well.
Obviously as we all know, anyone can make payments on cars they can't afford. At the time, the concept was foreign to me and I believed that in order to own that car, you had to have money. To me, owning that car meant you were successful.
I wanted to be successful and owning that car became a goal. I remember telling my friends: "One day I will be successful and I will own that car!" Or maybe it was: "I will own that car and I will be successful!" The two became synonymous as if owning the car would instantly make me successful.
By the time I got to the point where I could afford that car, my definition of success had changed. I wanted to be famous. Be careful of what you wish for though because you might just get it. I had my 15 minutes of fame and by the time fame spit me out of the back of the bus, my definition of success had changed to being anonymous and wealthy.
The term wealthy is subjective so I'll use the definition of "having an abundance of money". I hate to even call this a goal because I didn't have a plan for getting wealthy; I just assumed that wishing for wealth would be adequate enough.
During the dot com days, I worked for a technology company and we were all going to be rich. Our company, a 20 million dollar a year software development firm, was going to convert itself into something more appealing to Wall Street. In the process, we burned through 150 million in cash trying to turn a small profitable company to one which carried significant debt. Apparently that's what Wall Street wanted.
Those were some interesting times for all of us and while my friends were driving fancy cars, buying big houses, and day trading in the stock market, I was living a humble existence and stockpiling money. I was on my way to wealth but still without a plan.
Unfortunately, our company missed the window of conning people into buying shares of worthless Internet stock and before I knew it, I was out of a job and that company owed me $30K in back checks and accrued vacation. In addition to losing what was rightfully mine, I also watched my mutual funds and 401K take a nose dive. I was so wrapped up in all of this mess that I hardly had time to think about my failed marriage which had fallen apart the prior year.
So there I was... out of a job, looking at a significantly smaller portfolio, and on my own. The definition of success changed from being wealthy to not being homeless and the goal became survival. And for the first time, I had a plan -- a business plan.
I cobbled my plan together using the application "Business Plan Pro". Of course it only took me a few minutes to complete my plan because I thought the questions it asked were stupid and I skipped most of them.
The questions I did answer reflected an incredible amount of sarcasm and I felt it would be best to not show my plan to anyone. Even now as I look at the layout of a plan, I can barely contain my sarcasm...
Executive Summary:
[In this section of the business plan you define who, what, where, and when. You describe your team and their strengths. You define the objective of the business. And if you need financing, you define why you need it, how much you need and how you plan on repaying it.]
The difference between 10 years ago and the present is that I am completely capable of filling in the above with believable text. Of course, the art of owning a business is the art of being able to spew believable bull crap. I'm getting ahead of myself though so let's continue...
With enough clients left over from the previous company to provide a modest income, I became a business owner overnight. I knew nothing about running a business but I figured it was easier than learning how to be homeless.
I spent the next year in survival mode trying to get to a place where I could breathe a sigh of relief. Once I felt like I had put enough distance between me and poverty, the definition of success changed to being a successful business owner.
I began working with a mentor who advised me about the many aspects of running a business. I had a ravenous appetitive for business knowledge having arrived late for that party so I started to read and listen to the various business books my mentor had suggested. Fortunately those books are fairly small because most business owners have ADD. :)
How do you define success in business? I have no idea. My business is still here so does that make it successful? The question doesn't have relevance anymore because somewhere along the way, my definition of success had changed. I was so consumed by my business that I no longer wanted to be a successful business owner.
And then it happened. I met a woman who knocked my socks off along with other articles of my clothing but this is a PG rated show so I won't go there. I wouldn’t say my goals changed but I think they were definitely reorganized and the need to have my business less dependent on me had become a bigger priority.
It probably isn't much of a shocker if I told you that my current definition of success revolves around athletics. But like being a successful business owner, how does one define being a successful athlete? I don't know the answer to that one either.
I guess I could say that in order to be successful, I have to win. I do have that fantasy but I'm also somewhat grounded in reality. And if I redefine winning within the confines of M40-44, I still have a fairly unrealistic goal.
I've recently defined being a successful athlete by saying that I want to be as fast I can be. On the surface, that might appear to be too loose but on closer inspection, it does present a somewhat solid target; I'm just not sure how to quantify that. I do think I'll know when I'm there though.
Unless something changes with my work situation (like firing myself!), I don't think I could simplify my life any more than I have already. This leaves me approximately 20 hours per week to train. In other words, in my current situation, my training is maxed out. And while I've been making fairly decent gains over the past two years, I think I'll hit a plateau within the next 2-3 years. Sure, I'll most likely eek out time here and there but I doubt I'll see the kind of gains I saw this past season.
Let's talk numbers. I participated in the Oceanside 70.3 event in 2008 and 2009 with nearly identical conditions. My finish times were:
5:16:51 - 2008
4:51:11 - 2009
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0:25:40
While going from 5:16 to 4:51 was a matter of adding 20% more training and proper execution, I think subtracting another 25 minutes in my next go will be exponentially harder. In fact, I think I'll hit a plateau at the half Ironman distance in this next season. At the Ironman distance, I feel there is still some fitness to be gained and that plateau is at least two years out.
The other night, while lying in bed, my wife asked me what my goals were for the New Year. Once my head hits the pillow, you have about 10 seconds before I fall asleep. I started to discuss my goals for the business but that's about as far as I got.
In a nutshell, my goals for 2010 are:
- To be a better husband.
- To be as fast as I can be.
- To create autonomy within my business.
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