Yanik Silver

Evolved Enterprise

Sinking Ships, Mermaid tails and Lessons from the Deep with Sir Richard Branson

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I’m back from our 9th trip to Necker Island with our visionary host, Sir Richard Branson, in support of the Virgin Unite charity.

I sometimes have to truly pinch myself because I originally had written in my Life List, “Have lunch with Branson,” and now that’s turned into probably 50 lunches. Who knew? Over the years, we’ve developed a deeper bond from our shared belief that business can be the greatest lever to make a difference in the world and not taking ourselves too seriously.

Not taking ourselves too seriously was on full display as he went along with doing our Q&A in a mermaid tail that Sophia from our team beautifully set up. Yes, we went full “mermen” here…

The outfits were for the “Under the Sea” theme party celebrating an incredible project spearheaded by Maverick #61 Mike Cline and Aydika James.

It was actually an incredible “full circle” experience this year because last year Maverick members and invited guests on Necker were tasked with how to take an old WWII Navy ship and turn it into a self-sustainable impact project. Not an easy task, but we did it!

I believe the right people are in the room at the right time, and this was especially true last year. We had a last-minute cancellation, and Mike and Aydika were flexible enough to join us. As soon as Lauren Keil from Unite BVI started presenting this idea, I was so excited to see those two writing furiously. They have previous experience building Burning Man art cars, and this fit in perfectly with this project.

We took the YO-44 —one of the last five ships that survived Pearl Harbor from being scrapped for metal— and transformed her into a thriving artificial reef and adventure dive site. The project was designed to help rehabilitate heavily over-fished marine populations in ways that boost income for local dive operators and the BVI economy. And it’s a breathtaking art sculpture used as an artificial reef, providing marine science research as well as swim and marine stewardship programs for local BVI kids.

This project was featured in the NY Times, Travel & Leisure, Bloomberg, and numerous other publications for the breakthrough impact.

It was amazing to be able to have started a project last year during our week and have so many of the first donors who raised funds for this incredible project right on the spot. Mavericks Jeff Siegel, Mike Geary, John Ratliff, John Carter, Matt Curry, Tom Shieh, Steve Little, Melinda Wittstock, Jim Spano, Garrett Gunderson and Sasha Ablitt were some of the founding donors. And Mike and Aydika truly dropped everything to ensure this project became a reality. The degree of coordination and partnerships to make this happen was truly incredible. There’s a big lesson here because only an epic project like this can garner this type of support.

The ship was supposed to sink well before our week on Necker, but Mother Nature had other plans. So a few days into our trip, we braved stormy rain and wind to see the ship off. Richard joined us for this amazing three-hour-plus celebration, and as the clouds cleared, our anticipation grew. We weren’t sure how long it would take to sink the ship or if the giant Kraken sculpture would even remain upright.

At the end, when the ship finally sunk, it went down sideways, but the divers below were able to guide it safely to the bottom upright. Phew! Here’s an incredible short film documenting the build and sink.

It fit with my intention for the week. The very first day at sunrise, I wrote this in my journal after meditating.

In case you cannot read it –

TRUST

Trust the Universe has even more in store for you than you can imagine…Trust the divine timing…Trust your crazy ideas…Trust your wings will grow when you leap…Trust your nature…Trust you’ve been encoded with a Cosmic Alarm Clock…Trust the co-conspirators catalyzing your conscious evolution…Trust the perfect unfolding of your understanding…Trust your divine connection

Typically, I don’t read entries from my journal, but that’s how I started off our Growth sessions and conversation in the Temple house that first morning. I read this entry because I trusted who was in the room, the conversations we’d have, and how the experience would shape attendees in profound ways.

That always happens.

Typically, you come in with one intention, but you always leave with a breakthrough in some other way that you’d never expected. It was actually pretty amazing the type of conversations we had that really centered around conscious evolution and working with “invisible” aspects that show up in the material world later on. This would not have been the crux of the conversation several years ago.

Evolutionary Growth

I tested my own level of comfort with having a shamanic ceremony right in the Great House on the night before the full moon. I’ve realized it’s time to actually step fully into this other part of myself too and fully align and integrate that into what we’re doing to “catalyze the catalysts” and light 1,000 suns! I wasn’t sure if it would be too “weird” or not, but we had a good number of the attendees actually take part and many more who were interested in some of the shamanic work. I’ve been meditating and doing yoga regularly now for three-plus years, and it really has started paying dividends because I was in a deep meditation for about an hour and a half during this ceremony. We’ve changed the dollar sign symbol to a tree to reflect this evolutionary direction for Maverick around “growing yourself and growing your business” and not simply profits.

I see our retreats and experiences together as something that can be absolutely transformative on a deeper level.

Authentic Growth

We are pretty selective with our guests and speakers on Necker because it’s more about the conversation— but I was so excited to invite Leslie Blodgett. She’s the former CEO of Bare Minerals who recently sold the company to Shiseido for nearly $1.8B.

Everyone loved her. Leslie doesn’t normally speak at conferences, so this was a real special treat to hear from her. She came in when the company was pretty small, and part of her message to us was to never change being authentic to your brand and yourself as you grow and not to listen to the “professionals” necessarily. For instance, as she’s in the beauty industry, she railed against the “fakeness” of perfect models and instead used real women who actually loved the product.

Leslie told us people love to connect to real people. She never had any media training and actually resisted it even when they started making more and more TV appearances, infomercials, and QVC work. The ethos was a girlfriend talking to another girlfriend. And that’s the way she ran the whole company, asking, “What would you do for your friends?” For instance, one time they had a defective brush that shed hairs all over women as they put on their make-up. Instead of waiting for customers to be upset about it and return them, they preemptively sent all the buyers a new brush.

Leslie also bucked convention because she wouldn’t hire celebrity spokespeople. The whole beauty industry was “fake,” and she was going the opposite direction. She wanted that authentic zealot to be her brand advocate. And Bare Minerals was able to build an incredible group of girlfriends before we had the technology to easily do it and help spur word-of-mouth. In fact, she was so committed to the community that five minutes before the IPO, Leslie told them the news before anyone else. Once the video of Leslie’s presentation is ready, we’ll have it for you in the Maverick Members learning library.

Ocean Conservation and New Business Ideas

Our week on Necker raised $251,033.34 for Virgin Unite, putting our total at over $2.2 million throughout our partnership together.

But it’s not just about a donation. It’s about putting our brainpower and resources together to make a difference. This year we were provided another challenge to take on….

The Ocean Is Everybody’s Business – Ocean Unite

The ocean is also probably the biggest business in the world. It is the world’s seventh largest economy with a GDP equivalent to US$2.5 trillion (about 5% of global GDP). Its key assets have an overall value of more than US$24 trillion.

Life on Earth depends on a healthy, vibrant ocean. Without it, we won’t have a livable planet. It is an essential life system. Habitat destruction, biodiversity loss, overfishing, pollution, climate change, and acidification are together pushing the ocean system to a point of collapse. Yet despite this doom and gloom scenario, we live in a time with unprecedented opportunities for reversing this trajectory of decline and restoring ocean health. Because it’s not too late to solve this crisis. The ocean is amazingly resilient and could recover, but it needs each and every one of us to play a part.

Companies, business leaders, and consumers can play a huge and positive role as force multipliers for positive change to benefit the ocean. Committing to implementing a business model that is both environmentally and socially responsible, will have multiple positive effects for the planet, its people, and the global economy. The private sector is a strong and compelling voice to governments on the need to ensure protection, and it has major reach in terms of brand and consumers.

Our task: to convince the world, especially the business community, that reviving the ocean is mission critical and to get on with making this happen. Just as business leaders helped drive ambitious climate action, now we need business leadership more than ever to reverse the ocean decline and put it on a pathway to recovery.

With that set-up, our task was to create an actual for-profit Evolved Enterprise that would help companies be more profitable, tell a better story, and be more conscious of being in alignment with ocean conservation.

We broke off into teams, and everybody presented to Richard, me, and the team at Virgin Unite as judges. There were some great ideas, and the winner was a business model for an agency to come in and help provide a trust seal and consulting work to companies, helping them reduce and remove plastic from their supply chain. We have allocated startup funds from our donation to support and provide resources for a team of young entrepreneurs to drive and run this new venture. You’ll hear more about this #Blue project as it continues to develop and take shape. I’m also excited to say the other teams that didn’t win are moving ahead with two or three other projects as well, so we are getting more and more seeds planted for this important work! You can find out more at Ocean Unite’s new site – The Ocean is Everybody’s Business.

New Worlds Opening

I had another transformation this week as well. About seven or eight years ago we did a trip to Iceland and dove the Silfra Ravine, which is in between the two tectonic plates of America and Europe. I had gotten certified a week before that dive and truly jumped into the deep end because it required a dry suit, since the water was freezing cold! I wasn’t very comfortable diving and even had a bit of claustrophobia under the water in my hooded dry suit. So I wasn’t sure if I’d dive the new Art Reef or not. Plus, I had issues before with clearing my ears and equalizing.

As we dove down, I started feeling like I wouldn’t be able to do it because at 12–15 feet or so, I wasn’t equalizing. My instructor was super patient, and we just hovered and then swam around for a bit until I realized I was at the bottom of the wreck. Amazing! I was totally comfortable down there, and again I credit my meditation practice for this. It was totally in awe and had deep feelings of joy and wonder playing in and around the Kraken. It seemed so much bigger down there than on land when I had previously toured it before it sank. I can’t wait for others to enjoy this dive and see the ripple of the impact created. Being able to face this truly opened up the world under the sea for me again. It seems totally appropriate with our theme and focus during this week.

Team Necker Finally Wins

We typically end our week on Necker with the annual Patron XO invitational Beach Volleyball match of Team Necker vs. Team Maverick. We are three-time champions, and George from Team Necker had been recruiting all year to make a better showing. The game gets pretty out of hand quickly as we have a shot each time the other team gets seven points. So if you’re losing, those shots add up quickly, as they did for me.

Richard was quite pleased with Team Necker finally claiming the title on their home court, as you can see. Here’s a great pic of the celebration following their victory. Next year, I’m already planning who is coming based on volleyball skills. And as a former “professional” (technically) volleyball player, I’m going to have to enlist a few big guns.

And speaking of next year, we have dates for Necker set. This will be our 10th anniversary of supporting Virgin Unite, so we’re planning some epic surprises. If you want in, I’d expect this to fill very quickly. The dates are March 22–29, 2018.

Let The Seeds You Are Planting Grow…

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That’s part of my journal entry from a few years back when I drew this picture. A little further down the page I wrote:

“Allow the seeds to grow – you cannot constantly pull up the roots and expect a mighty oak to thrive.”

Seems fitting as we approach the holidays and the end of the year…

It’s natural to take stock of what you’ve accomplished this year and what’s next.

My friend and ultra successful entrepreneur, Rick Sapio shared with me his own personal process. (Side note: Rick has founded more than 20 companies and personally spent time with 14 different billionaires. We bonded over a shared experience of getting “kicked off” Necker island our first year. Funny story that you can find in a very old blog post here.)

Rick’s end-of-year process is really powerful and I immediately sent it to my whole team after trying it myself. Download it here. It’s part of a unique strategic program for entrepreneurs called Business Finishing School.

My wife, Missy, and I spent the morning of the Winter Solstice reflecting on 2016 and sharing intentions for 2017. We’ve never done that and it really brought us closer together.

Doing this work brought out some interesting insights including my answer to the question that asked, “What else do you need to do or say to be complete with 2016?”

My answer, “Blog post about “waking up” with drawings.”

Huh?

I didn’t really understand what that meant until yesterday…

A little back-story is in order.

I took the afternoon off to play tourist in DC. My first stop was the Air & Space Museum. I love seeing Spaceship One on display there. This was the ship that won the $10 million dollar X-prize for a spaceship to go up into space twice in one week. This was the technology licensed to become Virgin Galactic so it has a special place in my heart.

Next, I walked down the road to the Botanical gardens to soak in some tropical air. After that I took a detour to the U.S. Capitol building. I had never actually toured there even though I live so close. Luckily I got into the very last group allowed in. I’ve really, really wanted to check out just one feature inside. Underneath the dome of the Capitol is a fresco painting entitled “The Apotheosis of George Washington”.

It’s epic.

Just standing there and taking in this beautiful piece of symbolic art is so powerful.

The guide gave me the official story about the painting but I think there is quite a bit more there from research I’ve seen. Anyway after leaving the Capitol I still had a little time before I was meeting my brother for a Caps game that night, so I looked for a spot to meditate and journal. (Yes, it might sound a little strange but I’ve committed to meditating 2x/day so that calls for some flexibility and sometimes being slightly out of my comfort zone.)

I found a little plot of grass beyond most of the tourists but where I could still see the top of the Capitol building with the statue of Columbia. I leaned up against a tree and after mediating realized I was actually under a White Oak tree.

Aha!

That little nudge prompted me to find this drawing in a previous journal and here we are…

When I found that page from several years back, I read through the entry and realized it was perfect for this time of year:

I’ll type it out here in case you can’t read all of my writing:

“Allow the seeds to grow – you cannot constantly pull up the roots and expect a mighty oak to thrive.

My seeds have been planted, watered and nourished. It’s now a time to allow them to continue blossoming.

Evolved Enterprise as an overlay across what we’re doing is a bloom that has significant potential. It’s the framework for how I catalyze and co-create a meaningful difference & change the way business is played.

Allowing joy, my full heart and full business mind to converge together.

Taking everything that works in marketing and psychology and multiplying by the impact potential without losing the FUN. That playfulness is my barometer for where I’m on track. You could be solving the world’s problems in a totally serious mood – or laughing like the Dalai Lama. I prefer laughter and a sense of a divine inner child. Creating new ideas that have a deeper soul & evolved enterprise essence is fun! All the pieces of the EcoVerse coming together should be and can be incredibly fun…on the journey & as it happens.”

Then here’s text that I wrote with my left hand. (Using your non-dominant hand helps open up another part of your brain.)

“Let the seeds you are planting grow! You are in a place of divine timing and intersection. You’ve already done the ‘work’, in your journal, in your mind, your relationship network, etc. The pins are stacked. Allow yourself to ask for and receive your full abundance of joy, creation and fulfillment.”

Okay But I Still Wasn’t Complete…Yet
Reviewing my answer again of what I needed to be complete with 2016. I didn’t think that one journal entry was quite enough.

I found another more recent one that seemed to really speak to “waking up” — plus it had more drawings.

This one is more personal so I definitely felt a bit uneasy to share it.

However I decided that if I can help empower someone else or nudge them in some way, it’s worth it. And the bigger reason is I cannot shake this deep knowing of a seismic shift happening. I’ve felt it growing stronger as I’ve released Evolved Enterprise but even well before that.

See if this resonates with you:

Here’s the entry typed out:

“As I fully aligned my head (business side & creative side), my heart (impact), my voice (right speech), grounded foundation, gut, fun/lighthearted happy child and higher purpose = everything IS in alignment.

Head, heart higher purpose (and happy inner child) is good shorthand but it is so much more. And aligning your physical body, emotional body, mental body and spiritus body.

The chakras are a very good explanation of the subtle energy that falls into alignment for fully expressing our blueprinted destiny + dharma + truth. A state of grace [MC Yogi song “Grace” was actually playing at this moment]

And they really are subtle energies. The intuitions, the impulses of inspiration, enthusiasm, joy, insight & truth. When I shared my appreciation for the 2020 EcoVerse it was free flowing alignment of my higher purpose being fulfilled by the framework of the EcoVerse. I cried as I received the same MEN energy download on my 43rd birthday. Putting my full effortless effort – embrace my destiny of destiny of fulfilling this role to midwife and empower global visionaries to co-create the shift of the ages (Silver age). Not in an ego way but simply a blueprinted knowing in great service with immense byproducts I cannot even begin to imagine yet…”

[Written with my left hand (I call it my integrated hand)]

“Who are you to play smaller? Who does that serve? Not you, not the world. It’s a false humble. Your JOY is in full service…”

This last part was really huge for me. I wrote this out on my 43rd birthday with my left hand and it really stuck with me. It made it back into my journal again to remind me of this poignant message.

I pretty much always experience something profound writing with my non-dominant hand. I learned this technique from Bill Donius, author of Thought Revolution, when he shared the process with Maverick members. (Note: I have an entire process for journaling for entrepreneurs that I cover inside the Evolved Business Blueprint. It’s one of the modules for getting deep into the answers of a business that delivers your most meaningful work and creates an extraordinary profit in the process.)

Growth * Impact * Joy
We just got back from the Big Island of Hawaii for the Maverick Summit with the theme of “Legendary Legacy”.

Legendary Legacy is about stepping into your true voice. To connect your head (business smarts), with your heart and your higher purpose (without forgetting about the happy inner child too) 😉

The same thing that got you where you are now won’t necessarily get you to the next destination on your journey. The only way to grow is to continually express your deepest essence of your greatest gifts.

That’s why we’ve actually updated the 3 circles I always talk about. Here’s the original illustration that started so much of this journey a few years back:

Tada! The tree keeps showing up…

The dollar sign is replaced with the TREE symbol because at the core of everything we do is truly about growing yourself AND your business. The dollar sign was simply too limiting and one-sided. (Though one of our members did remind me money does grow on trees so we got you covered there too!) This is the DNA for everything we do and at the center of the marketplace of impactful entrepreneurs served.

At the Summit I also shared the BIG picture of how the pieces of the EcoVerse all tie together. Something I’ve been thinking about, journaling on and working through for a long time. (One of the topics I was talking about in the last journal entry.)

You can see the full 2020 Vision document here.

(I’ll be holding a special presentation at the beginning of the year to help you create your own Vision document and what it entails. Look out for those details.)

2017 Theme
Now as you go through the Reflection and intention exercise prompts from the worksheet you’ll end with a few words or phrases as your theme for this next year. One of mine is: “Seeds Blooming”…

Hmm…seems pretty perfect with this drawing and journal entry. And if you read the 2020 EcoVerse Vision you see the symbolism of seeds, soils, suns and blooms are pretty prominent.

Let me know what your theme is in the comments. And leave a note about what you think about these journal entries and going behind the curtain with me.

If you like it, please share this with someone that could benefit from this for the coming year ahead.

The 8 Pillars of Joy

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bookofjoy

A few weeks ago, in perfect timing, The Book of Joy arrived at my house. It occurred the same day I got to the page in my journal that I had doodled a question “Is there joy today?” several weeks before. Nice little bit of magic.

I took the book with me on my Strive Challenge trip and loved it.

The book covers a week-long conversation with the Dalai Lama and Archbishop Desmond Tutu. Two people who I believe truly exhibit joy & happiness while embracing the suffering and oppression we still see in the world. book_of_joy___about_the_the_book_of_joy_book

Here are the internal notes I shared with Team Green.

The 8 Pillars of Joy

“Joy is a byproduct of a life well lived. It’s much bigger than happiness.”

  1. Perspective – Changing the way we see the world changes the way we feel and the way we act, which changes the world itself. i.e. Exiled from his home country doesn’t mean anger but a new opportunity to meet extraordinary people.
  2. Humility – Arrogance is the confusion between our ‘temporary’ roles and our fundamental identity. Humility allows us to celebrate the gifts of others, but it does not mean you have to deny your own gifts or shrink from using them.
  3. Humor & Laughter – Laughter and a sense of humor is a universal index of spiritual development.
  4. Acceptance – We cannot succeed by denying what exists. As you grow in your spiritual life, you are able to accept anything that happens to you. “Everything’s wonderful”. Our responsibility is to pursue the goal with all the dedication we can muster, do the best we can but not become fixated on a preconceived notion of a result. Quite often, our efforts lead to an unexpected outcome that might be even better than what we originally had in mind.
  5. Forgiveness – Without forgiveness, we remain tethered to the person who harmed us. We are bound to the chains of bitterness, tied together, trapped. An eye for an eye will leave the world blind. If we choose to retaliate, or pay back, the cycle of revenge and harm continues endlessly, but if we choose to forgive, we break the cycle and we can heal, renewing or releasing the relationship.
  6. Gratitude – Every day, think as you wake up, ‘I am fortunate to be alive, I have a precious human life. I am not going to waste it.’ The ability to see wonder, surprise, possibility in each experience and each encounter that is a core aspect of joy. In Buddhism, one can be grateful even for one’s enemies, as our most precious spiritual teachers. Gratitude helps us catalog, celebrate and rejoice in the each day and each moment.
  7. Compassion – All traditions carry the same message: the message of love. Compassion is a sense of concern that arises when we are confronted with another’s suffering and feel motivated to see that suffering relieved. It connects the feeling of empathy to acts of kindness, generosity and other altruistic tendencies.
  8. Generosity – In giving we receive. Generosity is actually hard wired into our brain to make us feel good.

This also feeds right in line with the my ‘Return Path to Joy, Happiness & Bliss’. yaniksilver.com/returnpath.

Leave a comment about your favorite expression of joy and how you apply it in your life…and grab a copy of this wonderful book for yourself or someone you care about. bookofjoy.org

Striving for Big Change

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A few months ago at a Virgin Unite board meeting, I met Essie North, the co-director of ‘Big Change.’ Essie said I just had to join her in Italy for the STRIVE Challenge in September.

Ok, that sounded fun until I heard it would require swimming 2 miles, mountain biking for 70 miles, running a half marathon and then, just for good measure, hiking 6 more miles to a volcano summit.

I’ve never really done any of those activities beyond a few laps at the pool during adult swim or riding my bike when I was 15 years old before getting my driver’s license. And running? Sheesh – forget that. I stopped entertaining that silly idea after dry land training for hockey in college.

Even though the event was taking place in Sicily and sounded pretty epic I wasn’t sold yet…

Then I got a nudge from Richard Branson asking if myself and few other Mavericks would like to participate. He was going to be doing the challenge alongside his kids and they were doing the full route starting at the top of Italy and finishing at Mt. Etna in Sicily. The triathlon portion of the Strive Challenge was set to start the day after my birthday so I decided to take this on as one of the biggest physical challenges I had ever set for myself. I decided I would do it for the growth that takes place when we exceed our perceived limits.

And in Richard’s infamous words, “Screw it – let’s do it!”

I didn’t quite know what I was in store for, but I accepted the challenge along with Mavericks, Tracey Ivanyshyn, Pat Divilly, Samit Gehlot and Tom Shieh. Tracey did the hiking portion of the challenge and the rest of us did the triathlon portion.
I knew this was outside of all of our comfort zones, whether it was for never having done a long swim before or never been hiking at altitude. (Samit has an awesome story about his swim training in Kenya and I know Tom was training at12am – 2am so he wouldn’t miss any time with the family!)

Here’s a pretty typical training week as we neared the event:

event
Keeping up with this during travels and trips made this an even bigger commitment. Big thank you to Maverick #211, Steve Young, who introduced all of us to Coach Jason Kilderry at Etacoach.com.  And huge thank you to my wife, Missy, for letting me go on my birthday, supporting all the long runs/bikes/swims, being my coach on the beach so I didn’t drown the first time in a wetsuit and for putting up with lots of extra laundry.

We all said that if exceeded our fundraising goal we’d come up with some sort of Maverick mischief for the challenge. I’m excited to report we raised over $15,000.00+ and still going. In fact, you can still donate here: http://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/maverick1000

All proceeds go to Big Change which is Sam and Holly Branson’s charity doing 3 big things:

  1. Give young people the skills to believe in themselves and drive change in their own lives and the world around them.
  2. Help young people access the opportunities they need to develop and grow.
  3. Create environments of support for young people where change is possible – often that means understanding and working with key adults including parents, teachers or social worker.
Leading up to the event I was having a really hard time sleeping. Probably a combination of staying up late to get a lot of stuff done before leaving and the unknown of the event. I flew overnight to Heathrow and arrived in the UK on my birthday. I decided to spend the day in Avebury in the English countryside. It was the perfect place to recharge and meditate on what would was ahead.

avebury

avebury2

 
I couldn’t sleep at all the night before the Strive Challenge started. I had to wake up at 4:30AM to catch my flight to Italy but no matter what, I just tossed and turned. I finally got a few winks in and then my alarm went off. There were 7 of us late-comers on the final chartered flight. Everyone knew we’d go straight from the airport to the swim but we had no idea just how tight it would be. After we landed, we took a bus to the beach and then 10 minutes later we’re in the water.

The entire rest of the group was ready and had already started their swim. Our late group raced to get into our wetsuits and for the debrief and then we were off too. The current was quite a bit stronger than I had anticipated and made the first mile swimming feel a lot slower than typical. My goal for this whole challenge was to finish, put my best effort out there and to NOT be last.

Pretty quickly I realized I was last of that final group of 7 – and hence the whole group. Agh! I finally gave in and realized if I was last, I was last and it didn’t really matter except to my ego. It was a strong moment of surrendering. After that I just kept swimming and ended up passing a few swimmers before the halfway buoy and then a few more on the backside. Closing in on the final buoy was a great feeling and then being welcomed in by hugs from fellow Mavericks. A pretty fast welcome to day one and we were off.

Day Two: Mountain Biking Challenge

To give you an idea of what we had in store for us here’s the topography for our ride:

fullsizerender_1

Some pretty damn big hills including one that was 5 miles at a sharp incline. Yikes! I realized I hadn’t quite trained for enough hills. We started at the same beach we ended our swim at and took off on mountain bikes. This time I had props for the boys, green butterfly wings:

hills-helmet

Our wings actually made it really convenient to stay together in a pack during our long, tough day. We started at 9am and ended thoroughly exhausted at 6:30pm. We rode 65km this day with a few breaks in-between, certainly my hardest bike ride ever. They kept saying there was a lunch but by the last checkpoint we realized that wasn’t happening. Samit said he’d love to have a kebob – we laughed and said we’d just manifest that. Well on the last stop, Tom’s bike needed to be repaired and while we were waiting a Sicilian man came strolling down the mountain. Our guides said he’s a little strange but not dangerous as he takes care of some of the animals here.

Okay.

He sees a 2 liter Pepsi bottle on the table and told us he has Coca Cola. This man proceeds to whip out a 2 liter Coke bottle but with strange red liquid inside. We find out this is a homemade wine and then he pulls out homemade sausage and 2 loaves of bread. We all look at each other and pretty quickly decide those are the kebabs we asked for. It was perfect and delicious. Definitely a welcome change from the Clif blocks and gels we were eating all day. Then we found dessert too on the side of the road too with a few ripe prickly pear fruit we picked. Afterwards is was all downhill for the final descent to the finish line in butterfly formation:

fullsizerender_2

Day Three: Mountain Biking Challenge pt 2

The organizers originally had an even more grueling day planned for everybody for the second mountain biking day but they reworked it after everyone had such a tough day one. The first part of the day two took us by the seaside and then into the mountain trails. It was pretty muddy and bit wet from the previous days so lots of splashing around. At one point we came across a small concrete bridge with moss over the top of it making it extremely dangerous and slippery. Tom & Samit both went down. Afterwards, Tom took it upon himself that we would all stay put to help ensure the next groups of riders made it across, including a pregnant ‘Baby on Board’ Striver. Truly going the extra mile as I try to teach my kids as one of our 13 Silver Keys.

The very last climb of the day took us into a small village and we realized we hadn’t had any gelato this trip. We told each other there would be gelato waiting for us at the top (hopefully). As our pack rode into town we asked a police officer for gelato and he said no. We asked another person on the road also she also said there wasn’t any gelato. Undaunted we went off the route and found a gelato shop. Perfect again!

gelato

And here’s the obligatory bike celebration pose –

bike-pose

Day Four: Mt. Etna Run/Hike

Today’s costume change was green super hero capes and rainbow wristbands.

green-cape

We started at the foothills of Mt. Etna and everyone took off for their trail run. Our plan was to do a 7 min run and 1 min walk – but pretty quickly realized there was a lot more incline and tough terrain then we had accounted for. Again all the Mavericks stayed together and helped push each other.

On the way up I was able to enjoy each moment as the woods actually smelled like Italian spices & herbs. And I picked some wild blueberries to eat on the way up that I wouldn’t have noticed if we were actually racing. In fact, our timing was perfect again as we caught up to Sam, Holly and Richard at one of the water stations. And then we ended up running the final leg together with Richard for an epic photo op with the Maverick caped crusaders:

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That was the midway point of the day and after lunch we set out for the final 9 miles up Mt. Etna to the summit.

I had started feeling a little bit of elevation and tiny bit lightheaded but I couldn’t stop here. I kept moving. One foot in front of the other, plodding up. At one point I turned on a few songs for a little dance party up the mountain. That winded me a bit more but it was so much fun! As we kept creeping up the mountain our cut-off time became a real issue. Our mountaineering guide finally said we would not reach the summit if we didn’t get a small ride from one of the buggies. I couldn’t believe it. We had come this far on human power and now we’d need to drive up a bit. It took me a minute to reset inside the buggy and realize I could continue to be frustrated and miss the rest of the amazing summit or let it go. It was like a small ‘piggyback’ a couple hundred meters up the mountain but enough to give us the time we needed to ascend the final 300m.

The summit was incredible.

You could actually feel the heat rising from being on top of an active volcano – and being above the clouds was unbelievable. I took a moment to meditate and lock in the feeling of this accomplishment and culmination of everything we had worked for.

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And here we are at summit with the Kenyan flag in honor of our Maverick brother, Samit’s home country & celebrating Tom’s birthday in style:

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Surprisingly it all hit home in the shower when we got home. I literally thanked every part of my body, especially my knees. I’ve previously had 2 ACL tears but took the approach that every cell in my body had changed so I could do this.

How Entrepreneurial Parents Can Help Develop Empowering Identities and Positive Values in Your Kids

by

There’s no doubt what we believe about ourselves has a way of becoming our TRUTH even if it’s not based in objective reality.

And most of our self-identities about what we are good at, who we are or what we can do is shaped at an early age.

Fact is, we have a self-identity for every single little part and parcel of our personality, characteristics and abilities. Taking my almost 11-year old son, Zack, as an example, it would be how well he plays baseball, ice hockey, interacts with teachers, responds to authority, respects rules, how artistic he is, how resilient he is, etc. And that’s a small window; there are probably hundreds of other self-identities beyond these.

Think about yourself.

What were you told as a kid that may or may not be true anymore?

Yes, I’m definitely a big believer in playing to our strengths and talents but I also don’t think you can only be a one-sided or one-dimensional character. For my 9-year, Zoe, she is super artistic and creative. However I always like to remind her that’s she’s more athletic than she thinks and I tell Zack he is more artistic than he thinks.

Zoe has now has taken on the identity of being the “adventurous” one in the family like daddy, so I’ve been nourishing that.

This past week before the kids headed off to sleepaway Camp, Missy and I each took out the kids for some 1-on-1 focused, intentional time together.

At the last Maverick Family Freedom event we both heeded the advice of my friend Jim Sheils, co-founder of BoardMeetings. He believes (rightly so) that it’s important to have just one child and one parent for a ‘retreat’. You want to share an experience you both will enjoy. And finally, a real biggie is NO electronics. Yep turn off the phone and technology.

So for “Daddy/Daughter Day”, Zoe and I went indoor skydiving as her adventurous activity.

It’s a bit of haul from the house but it gave us more time in the car together to talk and hang out.

I feel like the best lessons are from actually living them. Of course it’s usually less about what we say and more about what we do.

I committed a long time ago that I want to make my life my lesson as much as possible. More like guideposts along the way. As Ghandi said, “My life is my message.”

I love it when the kids “catch” me doing yoga, meditating, journaling, reading, being kind to others, doing fun things, teaching, writing, etc. (I remember a study awhile back that mentioned kids that see their parents exercise are healthier, so instead of waiting until kids go to school to exercise they do it in front of them or even together.)

A Different Lesson Learned

Now I thought I might teach Zoe about giving and random acts of kindness on the way to skydiving. We paid twice for the person behind us at the toll plaza. Usually the person acknowledges you, beeps or catches up to you. I thought that would happen again and Zoe would get a little jolt of joy from that. But no, not this time. I was a little frustrated but then realized the real lesson was non-attachment. I told her receiving the thank you is not important – it’s just the act itself that makes us happy as we pulled into our destination.

If you’ve never heard of Indoor Skydiving or tried it – think of a giant chamber where they blow air up so you can position your body in such a way to mimic skydiving.

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Zoe did her first flight and did fine. The second flight is a high-flying one with the instructor where you go much higher in the chamber. I could tell she was getting a little nervous but I just told her to breathe and enjoy it. She made it through flight #2 and was really proud of herself.

I’m hoping this moment will add to the mosaic of her adventurous self-identity anytime she feels unsure or scared to do something.

The next day was “Daddy/Dude Day” with Zack.

For the guys day out, we picked Top Golf and miniature golf as our outing.

Top Golf is a driving range that’s been upgraded for the 21st century. It’s very cool and they’re building locations all around the country. Each ball has an RFID chip in it so it tracks distance and where it lands. There are 7-8 holes you are aiming for with different scores for each one. We played a few different games including one where you just aim for one particular hole but you have to hit the ball into each of the 9 different pie-like slices surrounding the pin.

Intent and Targeting

Cue up lesson from Dad:

Zack did real well at this game. I technically won on points since I hit to the pin and got more points but he beat me on lighting up more areas of the hole. It was a great lesson we talked about over burgers on intentionality and targets. Previous games we just aimed for any of the holes but specifically and deliberately aiming for just 1 hole we each got better. Will that lesson stick? Who knows – but I do know for sure you learn better when that lesson is tied to an experience as an example.

After that we hit the miniature golf course and started making up our own rules to make it more fun. Rules like standing on one leg, pool cue shots (ode to Chevy Chase) and backgrounds through the legs were a few of them that made it lots of fun.

 

When we got home we decided we’d put together a new backyard swing we bought a few days before.

My own self identity has been the story that I’m not good at anything mechanical. I thought back to desks I put together that leaned to one side or other IKEA-like nightmares. Oh well, I figured it would be a good project with Zack. He loves legos so it made sense he did great on helping put together the swing. Zoe thought she wanted to help, but after tightening a few bolts she hijacked the huge cardboard boxes and turned them into a fun rocket ship.

ZoeRocketship

After we were done I told Zack I couldn’t have put it together without him and he just lit up. He was so proud of himself and couldn’t believe we built something that we were using now in the backyard.

Zack-swing

I’ve committed to making sure we have quarterly meetings like this that are scheduled and on my calendar, otherwise they won’t happen.

Think about it.

It’s too easy to get busy with work and other commitments when we only have a small, precious amount of time with our kids. Most entrepreneurial parents I know would say they are working hard to help provide for their family. The travel, long hours and sacrifice is for a better tomorrow.

Yes, that’s true in some ways but there might also be a real blind spot I’ll share with you…

Zack vs. Jack

The other week I was supposed to go to San Francisco to have lunch with a CEO of a top technology company (his first name rhymes with Zack). It would have been my third week in a row leaving in some way and I had just returned from Haiti. I’ve been showing the kids what we are doing in Haiti and on other trips so they just don’t think I leave for no reason.

I was debating if I should go to the West Coast or not. Even though I travel a bit, I have attempted to be home for just about every meaningful event for the kids. Whether it’s a chorus concert or chaperoning a field trip. That kind of flexibility is also a big reason I work out of the house. That way I can play street hockey when Zack comes home from school or hang out with Zoe creating art. In fact, I remember Richard Branson telling me he’s always kept his office in his house to be around everyone.

This might be controversial but I don’t believe in sacrificing for someone else.

That simply creates regret.

If I decided to stay home instead of leaving for SF it was with intention. How many times have you said yes to something you wanted to say no to? Or vice versa. You only end going to the event/meeting, etc. but really want to be somewhere else. I knew Zack would be thrilled for me to watch him play 2 baseball games over the weekend and that’s exactly where I wanted to be in that moment. Even if this isn’t a ‘forever’ etched memory – it just adds to ongoing story that his Dad supported him.

Love Notes from 30,000 Feet

You don’t even need to spend one dollar for an experience to create one of these deep imprints.

I love handwritten thank you notes and think they are incredibly meaningful.

Receiving a personalized note makes such a deep connection because it’s so uncommon in today’s digital age. (BTW – if you want some great cards that also support Haitian orphans check out 10CardsofHope.com)

I’ve sent handwritten notes to my wife, family, colleagues and teammates but never the kids. So on a plane ride home I figured maybe they’d like them. I told each one how proud I was to simply be their dad and then what I appreciated about them. I left the notes on their dressers while they were sleeping to see what happened.

Here’s the note I wrote to Zoe:

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Both Zack and Zoe treasured their notes.

I know because Zoe has hers tucked away on her bathroom mirror behind a picture and note she drew for herself:

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When you open that note it has reminders of some of the happiest memories she’s had to help her feel better if she has an ‘emergency’ sad feeling.

Personally, I still have a note my mom wrote to me that I’ve kept for 12+ years now after Missy and I took her to Vegas while she was going through chemo. A note costs you nothing but your time and to acknowledge and appreciate the unique awesomeness in your kids.

Saying Yes to What Matters Most

And here’s a final story from the best-selling book Essentialism by Greg McKeown to consider…

Her father made plans to take her out for a night in San Francisco. Cynthia was just 12 years old. Her father planned the date for months. They have everything planned out including her attending the last hour of a presentation he is giving that afternoon. At the end of the presentation they would meet at the back of the room and leave quickly before anyone talked to him. The evening included catching a trolley to Chinatown, eating their favorite food, Chinese, shopping for souvenirs, seeing the sights and catching a movie. After that they’d grab a taxi, back to the hotel where they’d jump in the pool for a swim. Her dad like to sneak in after the pool was closed she mentioned. After all that they’d order a hot fudge sundae from room service and watch the late, late show.

They had discussed this all several times. The anticipation was part of the pleasure of it all.

“Everything was going on plan, when her father was leaving the convention center, he runs into an old college friend and business associate. They hadn’t seen each other in years. They embraced and his friend said, “I’m so glad you are doing some work with our company now. When Lois and I hear about it we thought it would be perfect. We want to invite you, and of course Cynthia, to get a spectacular seafood dinner down at the Wharf!”

Cynthia’s father replied, “Bob it’s so great to see you. Dinner at the wharf sounds great!”

Cynthia felt dispirited. Her daydreams of trolley ride, ice cream sundaes evaporated instantly! Moreover she hated seafood and could just imagine how bored she be listening to adults talk all night.

But her father continued, “But not tonight. Cynthia and I have a special date planned don’t we?” He winked at Cynthia, grabbing her hand and running out the door to continue on an unforgettable night in San Francisco with his daughter, just as he’d promised.

Who was Cynthia’s father? None other than The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People author, Stephen Covey. He’s famous for having said, “The main thing is to keep the main thing the main thing.”

Exceptional Experiences and Magical Moments Create Deep Imprints

Again, going back to when you were a kid, what do you remember most from interactions with your family?

I bet it something that is really special or something really traumatic in some way. Each of these highly emotional moments are deeply imprinted on us. If that’s the case, then why not consciously create positive imprints for small and big moments? Let me know what you think.

* * *
Resources:

Family Board Meetings book by Jim Sheils

Family Freedom Event:
I believe in “engineered” lessons. I didn’t see anything out there to teach kids business or parents how to raise better kids. So like a good entrepreneur – I created something to scratch my own itch:
www.maverick1000.com/family

 

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