Where Have I Been?

I drove down to Richmond (sorry for not hitting you up, Gourlay) to demo a new tool that we are carrying. If you’ve asked me in the past 6 months, “how’s business?”, there’s a good chance I’ve made mention of this item, and now we are finally selling it. It gives the company an opportunity to take it to the next level and sell an item that is desirable. This involves going on the road and showing people how it works, which is what I did.

This gets a little more intriguing when I realize that the people who I’m showing this item to handle millions and millions of dollars. It all adds up to a tremendous opportunity which will hopefully go to plan.

I don’t write that to brag, but merely set the stage for the development of this post. As I was sitting in the IHop this morning eating my comped 2 x 2 x 2, I was reviewing the sales folder I had kept since I started making these types of sales trips. My first date of notes was 4/12/08. This means that I’ve been making independent sales trips since I was 25. I look back and think to myself, “how on Earth was I selling when I was 25?” I hardly even knew what I was selling let alone who I was selling it to. Now a decade has passed and I can say with almost confidence, I know what I’m doing, which also leads to surprises.

Last night I heard a couple banging in the room next to me with paper thin walls as the man sounded like he was having a heart attack…life on the road is a different type of lifestyle. I’ve stayed in dozens of different hotels and they always lead to some sort of reflection on “what am I doing and do I like doing it?” When I was 25 I didn’t know why I was selling, I only knew I was supposed to sell. Then at 30 it was that I knew what I was selling, I just didn’t know who to sell it to. Now at 35, I’m starting to nail them all down. It’s mind boggling to think that it took a decade of working everyday to almost achieve some inherent goal that continuously is out of reach.

I’ve also been reading the book AntiFragility which essentially says, “don’t be a sucker.” Suckers are people who are over educated and believe they know everything because they read it in a book. They also play it safe because that’s what they are supposed to do and end up eating it when the unbeknownst catastrophe wipes them out. The barbell strategy when it relates to money is to keep 90% of your money in cash and use the other 10% in wildly risky plays that strike it rich if you’re right and have a floor if you’re wrong. Advocating having “options”, not only in finance but in life, as a key factor to being happy and successful. I enjoy the varying perspective the book takes because it gives thought to not being a sheep, which most people are.

So I’m using this post as a mere update to my life that continues to exist. I think I have a pinched nerve in my elbow which I noticed a few weeks ago when I tried to bench press, but didn’t think it was severe and I would recover. Than last night I couldn’t do a push up and I knew something was wrong. Just wanted to close this post on some useless info.