Authenticity

The grandfather of Danny Meyer (founder of Shake Shack and acclaimed restaurateur) used to tell him growing up that “man plans, God laughs.” 

In the past year or so, things haven’t exactly gone according to plan in my career. If there is a higher force, they are probably having a good chuckle about it all. Some context:

• I spent the first four years of my career at a company that I thought I might stay at for my entire career. I was comfortable. But I quit to move on to a new opportunity, walking away from a boatload of money.
• I moved on to challenge myself at a scaling company and to make a positive impact in an industry I cared about. I busted my ass for several months, anxiously making calls, scurrying on and off planes, and “spinning my wheels” without anything to show for it. After seven months, I was fired for under-performance.
• I spent nearly six months working odd jobs, traveling, and over-complicating my decision about what to do next with my career. I settled on teaching, returning as a substitute to my high school alma mater. I started low on the totem pole to get my foot in the door with the understanding that there would be an opening for the subject that I want to teach next school year. But the position was just recently offered to another candidate.

Man plans, God laughs…

I reflect on my personal life from the same period and am proud of all that I’ve achieved. I’ve found fulfillment by challenging myself in places outside of my career, sometimes without even intending to:

• I bought a gently-used road bike from a buddy and broke it in with a helluva maiden voyage, crushing 127 miles and 8,000+ feet of vert in a single day from Newton, MA to Londonderry, VT. People ask me, “why the hell would you want to do that?” My response: “Because I can.” 

• In anticipation of travel to a to-be-determined Spanish-speaking country, I dusted off the Spanish that I learned in high school and started taking 30-minute daily lessons. In less than nine months, I can carry a conversation and am now teaching Spanish at the high school level. 
• I spent six weeks traveling through Mexico by myself. It was a formative experience. Many Mexicans lack the creature comforts that a lot of us have in the US, but they have everything they need – roofs over their heads, family and friends to enjoy the company of, and connection to beautiful landscape in which to enjoy it all. There was an epiphany during my trip when I realized that every single person that I met, I had never met before, and it made me feel small and humbled. “De viajar abre su mente.” Traveling opens your mind. 

• I’ve tackled my fear of heights with a couple gnarly climbs in New Hampshire’s White Mountains. The first, the Eaglet, was the scariest thing I’ve ever done in my life. It’s a 200’ tall, free-standing tower on the side of a mountain in Franconia Notch with exposure over the valley floor some hundreds of feet below. The footprint at the top is about the size of a picnic table. Once we summited, I couldn’t wait to get down. The second climb was an ascent up Cathedral Ledge, an iconic, 500’ shear granite face in North Conway that is equally as exposed and beautiful as The Eaglet. One foot in front of the other…
• I’m currently training for my first marathon and I wrote the first draft of this post while on a training run.
• I asked my adventure buddy, my best friend, to marry me (she said yes).

Forward Motion

So here I am, trying to piece together Plan B, unsure of what the future might hold, but pressing on. The universe moves forward, and I’m doing my best to keep up. 

Dante, the Italian writer from the Middle Ages famous for his “Paradise”, said “segui il tuo corso e lascia dir el gente.” 

Follow your own path and let the people talk.