Author: Kevin Williams

I am a business owner & operator. I have been starting and running small businesses for almost 20 years. I love to create - products, content, strategies, stories, copy, you name it. After living in the trenches I have decided to tell my story; where I came from and where I am going. This blog will be the home for my written story. I will document, report, and tell it like it is. I hope I can impart some wisdom & inspiration with a little of what to do, how to do it, and some fun what not to do stories along the way. Join me on my journey and enjoy the ride!

BRAIN EATERS Part 3: Ideas

“An idea is salvation by imagination.” – Frank Lloyd Wright

Brilliant! Absolutely brilliant! We can do this, and then we can add that. And then this, and then that, and then…On and on I dive deeper inside the rabbit hole of ideas. These brain eaters are more fun than my big three but they too can drive me mad. My mind is haunted by a million ideas that won’t stop multiplying. They won’t stop spinning in my head long enough to grab hold of one. I can’t stop long enough to focus on any one thought or idea.

It must be the entrepreneur’s dilemma; the inability to innovate and focus on one thing at a time. I simply can’t do it; it’s too much to ask.  This idea is great but what abbot that one?  How can I make them both work? Should I start two companies? Can I make a hybrid and have the best of both? Should I do one at a time and hope no one thinks of the other before I can get to it?

If I’m lucky enough to stick with one my brain goes down another hole where that one idea spawns a thousand more. Again, spinning, and bouncing, and banging, and thrashing from side to side; idea whiplash.

Maybe it’s just part of being an entrepreneur, or maybe it’s just me. I have listened to many entrepreneurs and believe it’s the first. I must admit, I love it; it drives and inspires me but it is also maddening. Fortunately, I have grown and matured as an entrepreneur, for the most part. I am still taken hostage often by a million ideas but today I have learned to focus better and slow the wheels a bit.  I have learned that I can only one, maybe two or three, things at a time. Beyond that, no matter how good the idea, the execution suffers.

For me this comes with guidance, practice, and experience.  I look to those that have come before me and I practice what has worked for them. As I continue down my path I gain experience and continue to practice what works for me. I used to want to do it all by myself. Whether it was pride, fear, convenience, impatience or something else, it made it much more difficult to navigate alone.

One of the best things I have done was to work with mentors and coaches.  Another was to build a team and a network of people with complementary skills and personalities.  Just think what it would be like if you filled your bus with a bunch of yous!…

Can you imagine what it would be like in that rabbit hole? You’d never make it out, at least not with your sanity. Besides, I already argue with several imaginary Kevins as it is.

We don’t need to do it alone, as with the negative brain eaters, isolation allows them to grow, fester, and take control.  An idea without action can drive one mad.  I can easily become lost in the rabbit hole and alone it’s hard to find my way out. With the right people in our circle we have a much better chance at surviving the brain eaters. We are the visionaries and need to fill the circle with people that plug the holes created by our weaknesses. People that can keep their heads out of the clouds, stay out of the rabbit hole, and keep their feet firmly planted on the ground for daily execution.  They can help formulate the tactics to get the idea from concept to reality. They help contain us so we don’t get lost in the rabbit hole when we need to push the current idea forward.

Ideas are great and it’s good to be creative, but like most things in life, anything in excess can be bad, Moderation is key and not easy for an introverted visionary like me, but just like fear, too many ideas can cause paralysis.

When there is too much going on in my brain overwhelm takes over and I do nothing.

I think I speak for many entrepreneurs when I say that if I can’t do the things in my head I go to a bad place. Entrepreneurs are thinkers and doers, if we are stuck we can’t function.

If you are indeed like me, surround yourself with the right people because we can think and do all day, but if we can’t focus all that thinking and doing, it just drives us deeper down the hole, eating more and more of our brain.

Talk Soon,
Kevin W. @Leap272
Owner – Operator

You have to leap if you want to live.

BRAIN EATERS Part 2: The Mind Killers

” We’ve got nothing to fear but fear itself.” – Neil Peart / Gary Lee / Alex Zivojinovich, RUSH

There are all different kinds of brain eaters; some are negative and some are positive. Life is full of the good, the bad, and the ugly and so is my head. I prefer to get the bad and the ugly out of the way first. I call these the mind killers; fear, judgment, and resentment. As you read those three words I am sure you can think of more that you can add to the list. Of course, I can too, but I am distilling them all down to the core or root of each one. We can often put different labels on our thoughts and actions but if we really peel the layers and get to the core, many of them belong in the same bucket.

Are any of these words worse than the other? I think that really depends on who you ask, and probably when you ask them. Some people might have stronger opinions on one than the other. Others might be impacted themselves by one more than the other, and yet another person’s mind might be more consumed by one than another. In my experience they all seem to feed the other but throughout my life, fear and resentment have been in a constant title match for the belt. I think fear might have squeezed by and pulled out the victory.

That said, I will start at the bottom of my mind with judgment. Judgment used to occupy a large part of my mind.  Every time I entered a new environment or someone entered mine I started judging. I would start picking them apart, sizing them up, and assassinating their character. I would do this for both people I knew and didn’t know.  As I have grown older and, hopefully wiser, I no longer practice judgment like I used to. I have learned to accept people for who they are; including myself whom is often the hardest person to be non-judgmental about. When I assess my own judgments of others, they are usually based on my pride or ego. I am feeling insecure, less than, or judged myself so I judge others to bring myself up. I think it is human nature and our natural instinct for survival and security to assess and evaluate our environments. I believe judgment is simply taking that natural instinct to an extreme.

Resentment rears its ugliness in so many ways, disguised with so many masks. Sometimes subtle and sometimes intense, but always negative. Outward anger or rage is obviously negative, but the quiet, subtle bitterness, indignation, animosity, hatred and the like are often hard to detect and see their full scope of damage. It is often that quiet festering that leads to the loud or violent outbursts. That has been my experience with resentment. In the past I have allowed it to fester, almost receiving a twisted satisfaction from the silent scorn. In the end if not dealt with and erased those outbursts would come and were never fun. But my mind is the great manipulator. As resentment eats my brain I allow it to grow and fester and I find a way to justify it all.

The root of it all in my own mind is fear. Fear is the one with many names and faces. Whether we call it worry, doubt, fright, terror, panic, dread, to name a few, it grips us and takes control. Brain eaters feed on fear and fear feeds resentment and judgment. Once fear takes control the vicious cycle begins.  When I am resentful or judgmental, I usually discover that it is really fear masquerading about. Something externally has tapped an internal fear and has been projected outward as anger or judgment. This is after the fact, of course, as I analyze and process everything.  Have you ever walked into a strange room, afraid of what the people might think? Afraid they will judge you, so you instantly go on the defense and start judging them? That judgment is justified because your fear has convinced you they are judging you, and thus you become resentful; a big, ugly cycle.

The voices of fear, resentment, and judgment feed my mind like the devil on my shoulder; these are the three negative brain eaters that occupy my mind.  Not as much as they used to because I have found ways to deal with them as they crop up (stick around for the entire series to learn how I do so). I no longer allow fear to consume me to the point that it takes my mind and body hostage. I no longer allow resentment to fester and dictate my behavior. I no longer allow judgment to be my first line of defense. Do I still fear, resent, and judge? Absolutely, I am human.

Today I try not to allow them to eat my brain and control my thoughts and actions. Nor do I deny or justify them, I simply acknowledge them and do what is necessary to clear my mind and work through them.

And, when the brain eaters start to gain control, I stop feeding them and I write it out or I grab a coffee with a friend, mentor, or coach and share the secret and sort it out because the brain eaters’ biggest weapon is isolation.

Talk Soon,
Kevin W. @Leap272
Owner – Operator

You have to leap if you want to live.

BRAIN EATERS Part 1: Introduction

“The brain is wider than the sky.” –  Emily Dickinson

Going to the left. Going to the right.
Do this, do that. No, not that.
The voices, the voices, won’t you stop?
Fill my head with constant thought.
he chatter, the banter.
How many of you are inside?

What eats your brain? Hopefully not the creatures that attack the mind, turning you into zombies like the classic film of 1958. But does something? Please say yes as I don’t want to be alone. Of course, I’m never alone with all the voices in my head, but I want more. It’s just not the same.

In this series I am not writing a science fiction horror bit. I am going to let you inside my brain a bit and share what eats at my brain. Take you inside the world of an overactive, entrepreneurial mind. Not too far, though; I don’t want you to get trapped my Land of the Lost in Space.

For me, there is always something eating my brain; good, bad, indifferent it’s always something. Maybe it’s a Pisces thing, maybe an introvert thing, but it definitely a me thing. I have always been quiet on the outside and louder than life on the inside. I am usually the quietest one the room making the most noise; all in my head. I am always thinking, processing, creating, evaluating, writing, playing…Humming riffs, creating riffs, writing songs, writing poems, thinking up headlines and ad copy…Creating strategies, marketing material, benefit bullets, ad infinitum.

The activity just accelerates during a time like the present. As I write this sentence we are ten days into August of 2020 which will definitely become a standout year in the history books, or wherever history is documented in the future. This has been quite a year to date, but the biggest event has been the coronavirus pandemic by far.

We have had mandates, legislative orders, and martial law. We have been quarantined, forced to wear masks, and left toilet paper-less. This is a year for the books indeed. How about we make it an election as well. That really throws fire on the flame. The point is, with so much extraordinary external events in the world today, my brain is ripe to eat me alive.

It does make for some great content. However, if I can just capture it and find a good way to package and deliver it. So much of this activity happens while driving, riding, running, or walking, and most has vanished by the time I get somewhere to write anything down. Maybe I am just forgetful but I believe that these brain eaters have cannibalistic tendencies. Thanks to voice memo apps I can stop and record my thoughts and ideas anywhere. The problem is, most of the time I am so consumed with the brain eaters that I forget to do that. But, successful entrepreneurs are not focused on problems, they are interested in solutions

Don’t leave the table just yet; the next tasty course is on its way…
You don’t want to miss this tasty little treat.

Talk Soon,
Kevin W. @Leap272
Owner-operator

You have to leap if you want to live.

What Do You Need To Be Happy?

“All I want in life is to be happy” – Jonathan Davis, Korn

I originally started writing this last summer and filed it without finishing it. I do that often. I have some thoughts I don’t want to forget that I think are important to write about and share so I just start writing my thoughts down so I can come back later and organize them into something, hopefully, meaningful. I realized that I haven’t posted for some time and thought I should get something up on the blog. The reality is, I should really be posting much more during a time like this. The harsher reality is, business is tough right now so I have been focusing the majority of my energy on the basic tasks to keep my businesses alive. Even though I think content production is important, I have scaled it down to a couple platforms that directly impact my current businesses.

That said, I have felt the need to check in. This blog was created to document my current journey as an entrepreneur and share the inside scoop and the ins-and-outs and ups-and-downs of the daily roller coaster rides of owning and running a business, or two or three. Not to mention share stories and lessons from the past couple decades that brought me to this point.  In my experience, the greatest lessons have come during, or looking back after, hard times like we are experiencing now. With that, I will carve some time to post and document for frequently.

These are unprecedented time and it really makes me stop and think and assess what is really going on, both inside and outside of my little world. What I have been thinking a lot about when my head isn’t being assaulted by all the news of the current affairs is what really matters most. There is so much craziness around the world right now that it really makes me think and ask “where should I focus my time and energy?” It is easy to get sucked into the black hole of fear and anger but what purpose does that serve? How does that add value to this world?

The good news about the main question, what matters most, is that you get to decide that for yourself. For me it’s happiness. I will stick to the context of business because that is what I focus on most on this blog and the original thoughts I wrote were about that. So, here we are admits a major pandemic. Countries, states, cities, and businesses have shut down. How things will turn out is anyone’s guess. What I do know is that running a business, let alone multiple businesses, is extremely challenging right now. So much so, that it conjures thoughts of whether or not to continue.

This, of course, can be done in a very pragmatic fashion by simply looking at the financial statements and making a logical decision based on the numbers. That would be an easy decision for one of our longest running businesses. This business is travel dependent so I am sure you can imagine what the numbers look like right now. The other way to look at it is to pose the real questions about why I am in business in the first place. Why did I choose to be an entrepreneur? What is it in me that drove me down this path? What really matters most? Again, for me it’s happiness.

At this point I will jump back to the original content I started last year. Reading through this and editing it is helping me dig deep and really decide how to move forward with each business, so enjoy and stay tuned to see where I land after digging and putting each business to these litmus test and asking the hard questions…

What do you need to be happy? This is a very important question that aspiring entrepreneurs and business owners should ask. Is it money, property, prestige? Are you simply seeking to make money and acquire stuff? I sure hope not but anyone is free to seek whatever they wish.

My experience is simply that money and stuff doesn’t make people happy. It might help some people but it is not the root of happiness. Some of the happiest people I have met have no money to speak of and some of the most miserable have more than they know what to do with. I think it is important for people to figure this out so they can seek happiness. What it is going to take? A specific job, a specific salary. A business that makes millions?

What if you could make whatever you needed to live and provide for your family doing whatever is you love? Would that make you happy?

For me, happiness is being able to do what I want, when I want, with the people I want. I am not quite sure what the dollar figure is on that but I do know if I ran a 100 million dollar company, my time and services would probably be in pretty high demand. I think that might carve a bit too much in to my happy me time. This leads me to believe, I do not think that is the caliber business I seek to run. I have never ran a 100 million dollar business so I can’t say that for sure, but my guess is that it is not what I am looking for.

What I do know is that you need to know what your happy is. Know your number and figure out if your what can get you there and that is where you will find true happiness. If it can’t, keep looking or tweak your what to make it happen. I believe that if it is your true what, that what that you are called to do, it will happen. It takes time, but if you continue down the path and invest in your development, it will happen.

In my experience, happiness is found in being able to do what you love because you love it, and pay the bills…

Back to present day.

 Now that I read this again and apply this to my current situation I get to ask myself if any of these businesses contribute to my happiness. Do any of my businesses align with what I feel I am called to do? I am still digging and asking so stick around, and in the meantime, keep digging and share any stores you have about the topic.

Talk Soon,
Kevin W. @Leap272
Owner-operator

You have to leap if you want to live.

COME TO REALIZE Part 6: I Don’t Know

Once again I thought this series was complete but another one of my realizations popped up when I sat down to write. And, that is that after years of schooling, training, reading, life experiences, and a plethora of others things, I have come to realize one very important thing; I don’t know…

I don’t know everything.
I don’t know the answers.
I don’t know the questions.
I don’t know the next great idea.
I don’t know how things will turn out.
I don’t know if this will work.
I don’t know if I’m right.
I don’t know if you are wrong.
I don’t know if tomorrow will even come.
I don’t know what anyone, anywhere, anytime is going through.
I simply don’t know.

That realization can be a hard pill to swallow. It can be even harder to admit. What I have come to realize, however, is that with the admission comes a great freedom. The beauty is I do not need to know everything, nor do I want to know anything. Can you imagine the burden of truly being omniscient? No thank you.

So why do I so often fall back into the Mr. Knowitall trap? Because the ego wants to be right every time. Pride once again steps in and grabs the reigns.

One of these days I will come to realize how to let those reigns go for good.

Bonus realization: remain teachable. The more I can remember that I don’t know the more my mind remains open to learn. Once I believe I know it all I have closed my mind to all learning. Then there would be no reason to pick up a good book, have a deep conversation, dig deeper to discover more, and so many other things I love.  That sounds horrible; I will focus on keeping my mind open for more knowledge.

Talk Soon,

Kevin W @LEAP272
Owner-Operator

You have to leap if you want to live

Doubter & Shouters

“I really get motivated when I have doubters.” – Shaquille O’Neal

Have you ever hung up the phone and have the overwhelming urge to scream at it? Walked out of a meeting and all you can think of doing next is banging your head against the wall? Finished a presentation and said to yourself “they just don’t get it.” Left anywhere and said to yourself “I’ll show them!”

That last one is the right attitude.  Not necessarily in a spiteful way, but in a self confident, I believe in what I’m doing kind of way.

No matter what you do or aspire to do in life there will always be doubters. And, the doubters always seem to be the loudest shouters. I have come to the realization that they must be put in our life to test us and make us stronger. They appear in our life at pivotal moments to provoke us and to question ourselves; our motives, beliefs, and convictions which clarify and strengthen our “why.”If, and only if, we do not succumb to the doubts they shout about.

I have also come to believe that we are our own greatest doubters. We have the loudest voice in our head, we have the final say, and we control the volume dial. Self doubt is normal and natural, what is not normal and natural is actually believing what we say and allowing it to drive us. Or paralyze us. Once we begin to believe the lies we tell ourselves, we are doomed.

We cannot and must not take action based on doubt, in my experience, those decisions only lead to regret and unhappiness. Doubt is just a form of fear that we must acknowledge and push trough. It is important to remember that this kind of fear does not exist in the present moment. Fear is something our minds manufacture about something that might happen sometime in the future. Does that sound like solid information that we should base major decisions on?

The best thing we can do is act like Shaq and use the doubters, ourselves included, to motivate us to try harder. The best way to deal with the doubters is to prove them wrong. Put the ear plugs in and just keep moving forward.

At the end of the day, it doesn’t matter what anybody else says or thinks. Can you put your head on the pillow knowing you were true to you and did your best?

If so you past the test…Get up and do it again.

Talk Soon,
Kevin W @LEAP272
Owner-Operator

You have to leap if you want to live

COME TO REALIZE Part 5: Don’t Sweat The Small Stuff

Great advice. To an extent, that is. Another similar saying is “don’t cry over spilt milk.” It’s just milk, right? Yes, it is important to keep your head up and focus. Don’t let the little things hold you up, hold you back, or get you down. That is important for progress and growth. And, sanity!

I, personally, can drive myself and those around me, crazy tripping on the little things; draining all my time and energy on things that seemingly do not matter in the grand scheme of things. This takes my focus away from the goal and I lose sight of the big picture and the road map becomes blurry and illegible. Then I look back and ask myself “how did I end up here?”…

Again! The truth is, sometimes it is good to sweat the small stuff. It’s really all about context. If I stand in that same spot trying to read the roadmap and reflect on how I got to where I am, I realize that is the small the stuff, not the big things we do that make us who we are or set us apart. It is the little things that we do that make the biggest difference and raise us higher.

The super power is in differentiating the little things. What are the things that matter most and what are the things that just trip us up? What will matter six months from now? What am I spending 80% of my time and energy on that yields no return aside from frustration? Ask yourself questions to find out what little things make the biggest difference.

Life is too short to sweat the little stuff that doesn’t matter in the end or add value to you or anyone one else. I am still honing this super power and I am sure I will be doing so rest of life and career as a business owner. As long as I continue to improve and make progress, I don’t sweat it and keep of going.

Talk Soon,
Kevin W @LEAP272
Owner-Operator

You have to leap if you want to live

COME TO REALIZE Part 4: Don’t Put All Your Eggs In One Basket

“I believe in diversification of income, because you never know what will happen. I’m a slightly paranoid person who thinks things could be ruined at any time.” – Eugene Mirman

Yes, you never know…What will happen, when it will happen, where it will happen, how it will happen, or why it will happen. But mark my word, something will happen. Chances are you might not even see it coming because you are so focused on that one basket. Even worse, you might only focus on one of the eggs in that basket.

I’ve heard the saying in the title many times as well as several variations of it. It simply boils down to what you are willing to risk. It seems pretty obvious that if you only have one basket all your risk is residing in that one basket. I am sure you can figure out what will happen if all the eggs spoil in that single basket. You lose it all.

Now, what about the case of one basket with a single egg? That sounds pretty risky. That is quite a bit of pressure on one egg to perform, even if it is a golden egg. Even precious metal can tarnish. I have learned that the hard way, more than once.

We had the golden egg. One golden egg sitting pretty all by itself in its cozy, comfy nest. It was unsettling and we knew to sustain a business we had to continue to innovate and produce more products to put in the basket as well as other baskets. We needed to create a wider offering to carve out a larger part of our market just in case that golden egg started to tarnish.

So we embarked on a mission to innovate and create and grow our business by adding more products. And we did, but another old adage rung true; timing is everything. We had the vision, we had the mission, but we also had success from our golden egg. Another lesson I have come to realize; success breeds complacency. Let me rephrase that, success can breed complacency. It did in our case. We became comfortable and complacent. We lost the urgency that drove us in the beginning to deliver our first successful product to market.

It didn’t last long but it lasted just long enough for competitors to produce their own versions of our golden egg causing ours to lose some luster. And, unfortunately, some market share. We did survive, however, and learned our lesson. We continued with our vision and mission with urgency once again and brought new products to market to fill different baskets.

As silly and cheesy some sayings might sound at first, they are often true and demand some thought. Many might seem like common sense, but it is often the simple things we overlook that cause the largest falls.

Talk Soon,
Kevin W @LEAP272
Owner-Operator

You have to leap if you want to live

COME TO REALIZE Part 3: Hope For The Best, Plan For The Worst

“I love it when a plan comes together.” – John “Hannibal” Smith, The A-Team

I share that sentiment. It feels great when a plan works and I can place another check mark in the success column. I love to plan for the best, who doesn’t? Isn’t that what we are all shooting for? I expect to hit my mark, every time. That is the expectation when I give it my all. Otherwise, aren’t I just copping out and selling myself short? Why wouldn’t I expect the best outcome when I put forth my best effort?

Because a business doesn’t operate in a vacuum and I am not perfect. Things do not always turn out as planned for a variety of reasons despite my best effort. There are so many variables at play that can impact the results no matter how good I am or how well I plan. I can compose the perfect plan and orchestrate the strategy of the century. I know it’s good so I host visions of grandeur in my overactive, Pisces brain. I plan for the future and what will come next because I know the best is coming. Until it doesn’t and I find myself racking that same hopeful brain trying to eek my way out of another worst case scenario I left out of the plan.

The reality is simple; we do not plan for the best, we hope for it. We aim for it but we do not plan for it. We plan for the worst, that is why there are contracts, contingency plans, and exit strategies. Besides setting the basic terms of an agreement, the meat of any contract is basically what happens in the event of disagreements or worst the case scenarios. It seldom matters what type of contract it is, 80% or more of the heady legalese that should be considered a second language, deals only with what will happen in the event of…fill in the blank with anything negative.

Hope is a wonderful thing but it becomes dangerous when it is commingled with expectation. We should always hope for the best. If we didn’t we would become pessimists and that is no way to live. The danger lies in the attachment to any desired outcome.  Once we place an attachment on to the outcome we hope for, we are set the dial to failure, or at the very least, disappointment. The attachment narrows our vision in a negative manner that restricts and eliminates the possibly in our mind for any deviation of what we expect as the final result.  We must free our mind from that bondage of attachment and be open to alternate outcomes.

The lessons that I have come to realize in this context from my personal experience in business and life in general are two-fold; one, as I eluded to before, it is rare that things turn out exactly as planned, and two, when they do, revel in it. Take the victory, enjoy it, and then move on without expectation of what will come next.

A bonus lesson; be flexible and enjoy the success whenever a plan comes together. The means and the end might be different than how you envisioned or planned it but if the end result is what you wanted then there’s nothing to complain about. Don’t let the things that don’t matter prevent you from appreciating what does matter. If the plan comes together in one way or another it is a victory.

The road is very narrow in a “my way or the highway” mindset, so do some road work and widen the road.

Talk Soon,
Kevin W @LEAP272
Owner-Operator

You have to leap if you want to live

COME TO REALIZE Part 2: Expect The Unexpected

“And you may ask yourself, well
How did I get here?” – David Byrne

How did I get here? I often ponder that question; sometimes in wonderment, sometimes in shock, sometimes in frustration, sometimes in regret, and sometimes in utter satisfaction and contentment. The latter is the most rare yet most fulfilling. Nearly five decades, nine businesses, well ten if you count the one I literally registered yesterday with my son because he is not an adult yet. There have been so many events that have transpired that triggers that question during times of reflection.

There have been so many great lessons from these various reflections. Although the times of frustration, disappointment, and regret are my least favorite they tend to yield some of the most powerful lessons for me. When I can weather the storm and make it through the darkness to the other side the rewards are great. It seems to be a universal principle that the times of greatest pain and difficulty produce the greatest pay off if one can endure and make it through.

I have certainly had my share of such difficult times. Some I have weathered well, others I have not. Some I have learned a valuable lesson the first time, most however, I have had to endure and repeat several times to really grasp anything positive that I could carry forward.

So, how did I get here and what did I come to realize? Just as in part one, I am not going for the deep dive here just looking back for a general lesson that can be applied to a variety of contexts. For me that is to expect the unexpected. I have shared in many of my articles that I am a Pisces and have the imagination and daydreaming tendencies of one. I can plan, prepare, and envision how everything is going to end up in my head yet it seldom does. Sometimes the end result is so far off I have no choice but to stop and ask myself “how did I get here?”

Well, here I am; business number two, which is travel related, is on life support as a result of the corona virus pandemic. Business number nine which was purchased by business number three last August is alive and surviving the best it can consider the circumstances. The other handful of active business are alive, they are more investment businesses that require minimal day to day effort so have suffered very little.

As far as number ten goes, time will tell as it is not even 24 hours old yet. I can only hope that I can impart some of the wisdom I have learned from own mistakes onto Nolan as he follows the path of Kerry and I into the world of entrepreneurship. The best I can do for him is to not project any of my past or any of my stubborn opinions and control onto him and simply expect the unexpected from him. Let him do his thing and offer support and guidance upon request. There are more ways than my way to do things and standing in the back and watching is not always my strong suit. I guess I need to expect the unexpected from myself as well.

To close, the lesson for me is that I can only put in my best effort today. I have no control over how things will unfold tomorrow. As long as I can let go the expectations I have of the outcome and put forth my personal best, then I am in a good position to succeed no matter what end result is. I can plan and prepare all day long until the sun don’t shine, but things are going to happen the way they happen despite my best efforts. Sometimes you just have to hope for the best and plan for the worst.  That way excess disappointment is removed from the equation.

Hmm, another lesson I have come to realize?

Stick around to find out.

Talk Soon,
Kevin W @LEAP272
Owner-Operator

You have to leap if you want to live