Lisbon, Portugal
Airbnb Headquarters
Maker Faire 2015
Marvin’s Marvelous Mechanical Museum
Went to Marvin’s Marvelous Mechanical Museum in Farmington Hills, MI tonight. As you can see from the pictures, it is like no place I’ve visited. An eclectic blend of everything from creepy to fun mechanical games and treasures. Of all the crazy things to see and do, the first game I played was Pac-Man, followed by Donkey Kong, Pinball, and some old school driving games.
2015 Resolutions
2014 in Review & 2015 Resolutions
“Everyone has a plan – until they get punched in the face.” – Mike Tyson
Previous Resolutions
2014 in Review
Mike Tyson once said “everyone has a plan – until they get punched in the face.” I spent a considerable amount of time in 2014 dusting myself off from the barrage of punches life threw at me in 2013. What I learned in 2014 is a big reason I haven’t been able to accomplish a majority of my resolutions over the years is a lack of time. Year after year I have the best of intentions to keep my resolutions, but life hits me with punches. Sometimes life’s punches are jabs you come to expect, and can often block. Sometimes you don’t see life’s punches in the form of an uppercut that throws your head back and makes you wonder what hit you. Every now and then the worst of the punches come called haymakers. Haymakers are instances when life winds up and really gives it to you good. No matter how strong, resilient, or well trained you are, no human can escape from getting knocked down after being hit by a perfectly placed haymaker.
Because nobody likes getting punched in any way, in 2015 my strategy is to be incredibly strategic. I want to move with intention, but remember to listen to advice from my corner on how to best proceed into the next round.
Something I absolutely learned in 2014 was in the sport of boxing it is you alone in the ring against your adversary and I don’t want to be in that type of ring. There were many times in 2014 I felt alone in the ring and there were some tough adversaries. In business and life, teaming up with others is what has almost always made me most happy and successful. In 2015 I am looking to team up with many others to help fulfill their dreams, but remembering I’ll need their help to achieve my own as well.
I wrote about it briefly last year but think it is important to touch on it again now. On December 10, 2013 I was laid off which resulted in an unprecedented 4 months of uncertainty. The first thing I missed was the great many people I worked with. The other thing I experienced for the first time was phantom vibration syndrome which resulted in me often reaching for a work issued BlackBerry that was no longer there. The distress caused by the unfamiliarity of not having my BlackBerry quickly passed when I realized my previous responsibilities and challenges were also no longer there. Suddenly my life was adrift, but I felt a strange sense of reassurance. Although I wasn’t familiar with the uncharted waters before me, they were fast and exciting and I welcomed each new day with great anticipation.
The time I was able to spend with family is time I will never be able to get back. Time is a common theme I’m starting to realize as being incredibly important as I get older. Remember the first time you arm wrestled your father and realized how strong he was and how much less strong you were? As I have aged I have come to realize the same struggle of time’s strength on my life when attempting to hold back it’s hands.
In addition to spending time with family, I strived to learn as much as I could about topics I was most interested in. I got tremendously better at PHP and CSS after picking up a web application I had been working on as my “side project” for years. I am not ready for even an alpha announcement, but much of my spare time is now spent working on it. Career wise things ended up working out nicely in the end because in April I joined AWS as the Web Content Manager in Developer Marketing at their San Francisco office.
Key Insight: I don’t care who you are, at some point in life you will go through adversity and people will doubt your ability to overcome whatever obstacle stands in your way. I’ve developed a mantra over the years which is to shake it off and take a step up.
At the same time, I don’t want to paint an unrealistic picture of the first few months of 2014. I had my fair share of self doubt despite my sometimes unrelenting positive perspective on life’s challenges. I’ve mentioned it before, and I’ll say it again, you can’t ever stop believing in yourself. Whatever mantra you adopt, just promise me one of your life’s mantra’s is to never stop believing in yourself. It will make all the difference and you won’t have to look far to see people who have given up when life’s proverbial dirt was piled on them.
How I Did on My 2014 Goals
- Juggle 3 balls: Failed (I didn’t try at all)
- Focus more time on stretching: Failed
- Drinking more water: Somewhat Successful
- Flossing: Somewhat Successful
- Reading a book a month: Successful (just about)
Books I Read in 2014
- The Year Without Pants (Scott Berkun)
Unless you love WordPress, or have a passion for learning about innovative ways companies operate internally, this book may not be for you. I obviously love WordPress, Scott’s books, and learning the new ways innovative companies are operating, so this was a great read for me.
- Without Their Permission: How the 21st Century Will Be Made, Not Managed (Alexis Ohanian)
Like Scott Berkun, I love all things Alexis Ohanian has produced and shared in his life thus far. I loved Alexis’s book and more than anything else am happy a good person succeeded in the startup world.
- Steve Jobs (Walter Isaacson)
★ Probably the best book I read all year. I couldn’t put this book down despite already knowing a lot about Steve Jobs. What a fantastic, well written book.
2015 Resolutions
- Create a resolutions app by February 20, 2015 to track progress of my resolutions so I am held accountable to my progress throughout the year.
- Take my old buddy Wilbur (the dog) for a walk at least once a week.
- Do at least one blog post a month. I’ve really fallen out of the habit.
- Don’t drink any diet or regular sodas. I stopped drinking regular sodas several years ago for health reasons and picked up the bad habit of “switching to diet.” I’ve been eating very well over the last year and want to continue that trend by drinking no soda whatsoever.
- Improve my grammar by reading The Grammar Book by Susan Thurman and applying the learning to my everyday writing.
“Don’t spend time beating on a wall, hoping to transform it into a door” – Coco Chanel
I can sometimes get in the habit of obsessing over ideas, people, and especially companies that either don’t want to change, or aren’t capable of changing. The actionable takeaway here is at the end of the year to write things I did to take matters into my own hands. This may often mean having the courage to walk away from things that aren’t ready to change, and venture onto the the path of happiness versus familiarity.
- Read 12 more books in 2015, continuing my success from 2014.
Family Resolutions
For Lizzy:
You are a bundle of seemingly endless energy who loves life. Mom says you get it from me (the love of life part, I can’t match your energy levels at 37), but wow are you ever awesome. So far next to nothing slows you down and you literally can conquer anything life has thrown at you with ease. The only resolution I can think of for me and you is to see if we can focus that energy by learning to swim. Mom and I have talked about some tumbling or gymnastics classes too. Other than that I think the best thing I can do for you is keep out of your way and pick you back up when you fall. Reminds me a bit of this blog post.
For Christina:
I thought 2014 was a really good year for us. Life threw some big punches our way but we really rallied and came together to overcome them. In 2015 I’d love to have a monthly date day/night.
For Tyler:
My little man is now seven years old and everyone knows how much I love my buddy. I was telling Christina recently that I need to focus more dedicated time on you because life and your little sister have demanded more of my time and you deserve more. To make the resolution measurable let’s go on a bike ride once a month, play tennis once a month, video game time once a month, and practice your handwriting one a week.
Bison Creek Ranch
Legoland
Legoland Hotel
Stanisław Jerzy Lec: A Life of Extraordinary Resilience
An Extraordinary Escape
After being captured by Nazi forces, Lec received a death sentence for his second escape attempt. When taken to dig his own grave, he killed his guard with a shovel and escaped again. This remarkable act of survival later became the subject of his most famous poem.
According to Clifton Fadiman‘s introduction to Lec’s book Unkempt Thoughts (Myśli nieuczesane):
“Lec has led the strange (to us), hunted, haunted life of thousands of Central European intellectuals, their experience inexorably shaped by war and revolution. At the outbreak of the war he was imprisoned in a German concentration camp. There he stayed until July 1943 when the camp was liquidated by mass executions. Escaping in a German uniform, he succeeded in reaching Warsaw where he joined the underground fighters. After the war he continued his writing, varying his career by brief service as cultural attache of the Polish Embassy in Vienna. He has also spent two years in Israel.”
After Nazi Germany’s attack on the Soviet Union, Lec was imprisoned in a German work camp in Ternopol. Following his escape, he participated in partisan warfare within communist formations and eventually served in regular units of the Polish army until the end of the war, which he finished in the rank of major and was awarded the order of “Polonia Restituta.”
Lec’s Memorable Aphorisms
Lec is best remembered for his razor-sharp aphorisms that cut through the complexities of human existence with wit, irony, and profound insight:
“No snowflake in an avalanche ever feels responsible.”
“The first condition of immortality is death.”
“You can close your eyes to reality but not to memories.”
“He who limps is still walking.”
“Is it progress if a cannibal is using knife and fork?”
“Suppose you succeed in breaking the wall with your head. And what, then, will you do in the next cell?”
Complete Collection of Notable Aphorisms
- Beyond each corner new directions lie in wait.
- The exit is usually where the entrance was.
- He who limps is still walking.
- In a war of ideas it is people who get killed.
- The mob shouts with one big mouth and eats with a thousand little ones.
- Even a glass eye can see its blindness.
- To whom should we marry Freedom, to make it multiply?
- I am against using death as a punishment. I am also against using it as a reward.
- You can close your eyes to reality but not to memories.
- Optimists and pessimists differ only on the date of the end of the world.
- Is it a progress if a cannibal is using knife and fork?
- If a man who cannot count finds a four-leaf clover, is he lucky?
- No snowflake in an avalanche ever feels responsible.
- All is in the hands of man. Therefore wash them often.
- Do not ask God the way to heaven; he will show you the hardest one.
- If you are not a psychiatrist, stay away from idiots. They are too stupid to pay a layman for his company.
- Thoughts, like fleas, jump from man to man, but they don’t bite everybody.
- The first condition of immortality is death.
- Suppose you succeed in breaking the wall with your head. And what, then, will you do in the next cell?
- When smashing monuments, save the pedestals—they always come in handy.