Know Your Place

Once a month, I get together with a small group of ambitious and brilliant friends in Canton to eat steak and talk about business. The conversation moves fast, and challenges me to keep up. I love it.

But I often leave with a feeling of angst, like I'm not doing enough in business, or I'm letting opportunities slip by. They bring so many orthogonal perspectives on business that I feel like I'm this close to cracking the code and stumbling upon a eureka moment.

We had one last night. Driving away, I had the same feeling. But this time, I had my eureka:

It's not a new concept, but... it's real now.

A part of this was due to me realizing two things:

• I feel confident that if I just devoted enough time and energy, I could start making a ton of money
• But if I devoted this much time and energy to this, I seriously risk my children turning out poorly, creating a dead end and making any wealth I've gained completely pointless when I die

So there's a weird dichotomy that somehow balances... In order to meaningfully focus on my current situation, it helps to have a multi-generational perspective. And when I primarily have a multi-generational orientation, it naturally leads to me knowing that the most important thing for me to do now is to focus on my current situation, not worrying and planning so obsessively for the future.

Know my place.

My family is on the upswing, materially and spiritually. In order to maintain that - sustainably - I need to approach family growth like any other growth endeavor. If I went too hard in the gym, I would injure myself and end up setting back progress instead of simply maintaining humble consistency. If I stayed awake working until midnight 2-3 nights in a row, I might get a marginal amount more accomplished, but would risk getting sick, brain fog, burnout, etc.

I have ideas that I want to do in business, family, and community. Big ideas. It's possible I'm the one that gets to implement some of them, but it also just might not be my place. My first priority needs to be to establish solid foundations so future generations can continue the path - well-rested and without any slipped discs.