The COVID-19 crisis has fundamentally changed the way society and businesses are run. Restaurants and social gatherings are shut down, furloughs are happening left and right, and anyone who can work at home is working at home. We are being fed the narrative that this is all temporary, but it would be naive to think that this crisis won’t change the world in some lasting and impactful ways. A great divide is coming and it is time to ask yourself, are you a linchpin?

Have you ever thrown a pebble into a lake and watched the ripples expand? The pebble you begin with can be tiny, but eventually, the ripples will amplify to reach every corner of the standing water. That is how I look at the relationships I have enjoyed throughout my life. The relationships you maintain will ripple into every corner of your life. They will affect your health, your happiness, your decision-making, and your career. I have spoken about it before in my piece on how the people you chose to spend time within high school can be used as a predictor of success, but the older I get the more I find that this principle remains true well into adulthood.

January 1st 2020 marked not only a new year, but also a new decade. The 2010s are over and all we have got are the ‘20s to look forward to (jury is still out on whether they will roar or not). I am anxious to see what type of technology, politics, and culture will emerge in the coming years, but while we wait for the time to tick by it is worth reflecting on what the past decade meant to all of us. Personally, I learned a lot.

The holiday season is always a blur. It is busy at work, busy at home…busy everywhere. But as the last few days of 2019 passed me by, I couldn’t help but reflect on what I experienced this year and the lessons I will be taking with me into 2020.

This year was a busy one for me. I launched byte, a direct-to-consumer invisible aligner company. It has taken a lot of hard work, long hours, and course correcting but the business is doing well. Most of what I learned this year is related to growing that business. I have launched several businesses throughout my career, and so the lessons detailed below are not groundbreaking or newly discovered. Instead, they are fundamental life lessons that deserve to be repeated, and are reinforced for me year after year after year. 

I recently heard a story from a friend about his grandmother. She is a WWII refugee from Eastern Europe, who had known a lot of struggle in her early life. Now, she was old and living comfortably in the United States as she had been for more than 60 years. A friend of hers recently developed Alzheimer’s, which I think we can all agree is a horrible disease that is incredibly difficult on the family and friends of the victim. But when that friend’s wife complained about how difficult the illness was to deal with, that little old refugee responded to her with a blank stare, saying, “I don’t get it. You are warm. You have a home. You have clothes to wear and food to eat…what is so hard?”

When I was 25 years old, I was working in sales. It was exciting and stressful, and I often had no idea where my next deal was coming from. I was new to the industry. It was competitive, and the pressure to perform well was ever present. Instead of panicking, I decided to keep my head down and move forward. I would start looking for a new deal before I had even closed out the last one and in that way I kept myself busy and the stress at bay. Months later, when I finally picked up my gaze and looked around; I was surprised to find that I was the head sales rep by leaps and bounds. The journey had been nerve-wracking and unpredictable, but through that forward momentum I was able to go farther than I ever anticipated.

Different people, and the life experiences they bring to the table fascinate me. They always have. I love learning about someone’s accomplishments, how he or she achieved them, and what they learned along the way. Throughout my life, I have spoken to hundreds if not thousands of people, and I have been passively learning through their experiences.

Have you ever heard the phrase, “defense wins championships”? This nugget of sports wisdom asserts that offense, while glorified and exciting, will not actually determine who comes out on top. If your team wants to win they are better off laying a foundation and protecting the home turf. But defense-heavy strategy is often frustrating to fans and players alike. Defense is the smart way to play, but offense is more fun. Charging the line, racking up points, and playing aggressively is exciting. It gets the adrenaline pumping and makes the players feel like champions, but it will never yield great results by itself.

I was recently interviewed by a major publication on my entrepreneurial experience and the importance of tenacity and perspective.

Here are a few sound bites pulled directly from the piece:

“I start every deal from scratch – from the scouting (i.e. what business to get into next) to the financing. We only do one thing at a time, so we have no distractions and only two options – to fail or succeed.

Congratulations! You are a winner. If you have landed on this blog post and are reading these words, then I can immediately deduce a few important things about you, and I am happy to inform you that you are jackpot winner. For example, I can instantly tell that you are literate, that you have electricity, and that you are enjoying an Internet connection. Those three simple things automatically make you one of the luckiest people alive.