2020: Calm

Into the stillness we wander, there, under the light of the moon we find joy, happiness and delight; the world calm at our feet. All we must do is dance.

A sight, a sound and a smell can take me right back into moments I lived this year. The nostalgia sits ready on my extremities for reliving. 12 months lived me moments that continue to be worlds beyond what I had known or expected.

Ideas that were helpful to me: 

• Unconditional Love
• Chardi Kala [In High Spirits]
• “It’s tough, but it’s fair” JW Baker
• Everyone is on their own journey
• What’s for you will find you. What’s not for you will pass you by.
• “Service is the rent you pay to live on Gods green earth.” Frances Hesselbein
• “I’m not in jail, the hospital or below ground. It’s a good day.” JW Baker

I could not have expected the gifts received in 2019: laughter, friendship and love. 

My first moments of 2019 were with an Antarctica Sunset–I finished my goal of 7 continents. The next days saw me on long solo hikes in Argentinian, Patagonia–perfect for aligning myself. Following, I enjoyed an opportunity to speak in Espanol! to a group of Paraguayan Leaders & Entrepreneurs on Product Management, then to visit with the Innovation Team of the Paraguayan President in Paraguay’s “White House.”

And a few days later my friends got me into Brazil without a visa and I enjoyed a beautiful countryside lunch in Brazil and spent time at the Iguazu Waterfalls. 

All that happened in January. [nuts! Whoa!?]

I am grateful for January. It bookended another set of adventures:

• building a start-up
• moving into New York City’s Lower East Side
• loving with intention, daily

Along the way I had these observations

Life is a wonderful thing should we choose to live it with wonder. Something I admire about this year is the quality of finding wonder in everything–it is the most beautiful way to live life. It is both eager to find the silver lining and stubbornly optimistic though fueled with pragmatism and a ‘how can we make this seemingly impossible thing, work’ attitude.

Some challenges are a mile high and two miles wide–see them as opportunities.

Life is long. Live it well and above all, live it in the driver’s seat. Do what makes you happy and find ways to bring others into that joy.

The journey there can be arduous or simple — in all cases, the journey to cultivating what you’ll live for is one that must be traveled alone. It is a beautiful thing to recognize what you want to include and what you do not. Live into that boldly.

This year particularly underlined the value of celebrating and valuing the importance of those things that give me a feeling of completeness: who I am, how I show up and what support I can offer those I love. Our culture has an obsession with power, position and prestige–you get to choose the stick you measure yourself by. Even if it is those 3 P’s, make it an active decision. You will be glad you did.

I appreciate 2019 for exactly what it was. I am thankful for all of it.

Thinking about 2020

How do I want to feel? Calm

Who do I want to serve? Ambitious underserved people 

What do I want more of in my life? Moments of honest connection 

What do I deeply desire? Stillness

What is the kindest thing I can do for myself? Travel often 

What would I do differently if I truly loved myself? Spend more time alone

What changes can guide me to feel the way I want to feel? Sleep Earlier

Early to bed, early to rise makes a man healthy, wealthy and wise. – My Grandpa/Old Indian saying

It is not up to destiny. It is up to us. Go’on and get yours.

Thank you for being along for the adventure. How can I serve you?

With Gratitude,

M

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On the last day of every year I visit the year behind me and set intentions for the year ahead of me. These aren’t resolutions–they’re intentions and alignment. Visit older posts: 2018, 2017, 2016 ,2015, 2014 , 2013

Damian Lillard is an National Basketball Association Athlete and tops my list of athletes to follow from 2019.

Work in the dark – hold on tight

Uncertainty is an incredible thing to experience and all humans face it in some way. Today you may be hungry, wondering where your next meal is coming from. Tomorrow you may be cold–homeless or unable to fill up the gas in your home’s water heater. Another day you might be in a relationship and trying to navigate how or where things go.

Uncertainty is an incredible thing that tests all of our being.

Most of uncertainty is out of our control. For me, uncertainty has meant fear, loneliness and worry. Even surrounded, there are things people just won’t understand or comprehend.

When I was a kid, this looked like being the only kid in my Indian-church community that showed up from a battered home with an absent father who was on his way out.

As an adult, it’s meant being the one guy in management consulting that’s quitting to travel and more recently the only cat in my friend group taking on a very high-risk job in a startup.

It has been my experience that people don’t look optimistically at your adventures. They recognize risk quickly and are quick to point that to you, through no fault of their own. We are programmed to survive. I want to believe that they want to help us survive. In the thick of uncertainty what you don’t need is people putting you down or wavering in their faith. What you really don’t need is to be putting yourself down or wavering in your self.

Whatever you are working on, through or for. Keep working.

Keep the faith. Release what you can’t control. Own what you can control. Rest. Hydrate. Exercise. Recognize your emotions and talk about it with people you trust. Hold on tight to those dreams and keep at it.

When the light shines on you, you’ll be ready.

Dismiss Certainty

A lesson I think I am taking on is that one thing that is certain in life is that nothing is certain.

We can feign certainty and confidence, but there is no case where we know all the possible outcomes of the future.

Marcus Aurelius, one of Rome’s 5 last great emperors speaks about this and draws us towards asking ourselves what we are here for and what we are doing. As such, I think it is both normal and worthwhile to consider these things. And to allow yourself to feel less than and question what you are contributing.

The only way to do better is to consider what you could be doing better.

Hurt People

Imposter syndrome. Insecurity.

Common –particularly amongst kids-like-us.

Kids who have uneasy childhood.

Trouble in their history.

Difficult family.

Strength. Resilience. Courage.

Also common in kids like us.

In my own personal journey Im holding space for how I may do more to let go of vibes that don’t help me and accept vibes that can enable me to pour more wholly into people around me.

Kids like us-We are not limited to the traumas of our past. We can be like anyone. And if we tell ourselves that, it’ll be the truth?

¯\_(ツ)_/¯

keep your head high young gun

onwards and upwards

Work In Progress

We’re all a work in progress.

In honor of that, assume positive intention and also–don’t be a dick.

Something I am learning is to cut people and myself some slack. I can look backwards and recognize a few burned bridges because of bloated expectations, poor communication and me tripping on myself. I think it’s possible to burn bridges with other people and with yourself. Neither is ideal, but always be kind to yourself.

In a recent feedback session I learned that an organization really valued some work that I had done and was using it to institute a national model for how other regions could work.

Ironically, most of the time I was thinking about how I hadn’t moved fast enough, listened more attentively enough to people or data and generally felt pretty poorly about the whole bit. What’s more, someone I care about was dismissive about the bit.

I aim to assume positive intention and to cut people slack, giving people leeway to fit into things, but when I perceive folks are rude and incompetent I find it really hard to hold back. Its especially bad when you’re both at the same time.

And yet, I have been that a times. We are all a work in progress

One of my friends Alexandria Maloney, schooled me on something of late: set boundaries and tell people to bounce. You can’t be everything for everyone and not every journey needs to be walked together. Frances Hesselbein once shared with me that you should be comfy with walking separate journeys (her underlying point was–don’t burn bridges unless you need to, but you rarely will need to.) Another friend shared: give people an opportunity save face. Again–difficult, particularly when they’re being rude and incompetent. And saying that, I think about the times I have shown up rude or incompetent.

In short, everyone is a work in progress and sometimes progress might be as simple as getting out of bed in the morning. Just appreciate it and be kind to yourself. Everyone makes mistakes and while the world won’t always forgive you, don’t let yourself be the last one to forgive you–keep moving. Your life can go nowhere without you.

Protected: Punching Fear In The Face

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June 2019

Month six of 2019. Some things that pop to the top of mind.

China

Chinese politics have always been interesting.

• Right now upwards of 1 Million Uighur’s Muslims in China are in concentration camps.
•  China has banned Ramadan for them, forcing Uighur’s to eat.

• Chinese history books do not talk about Tiananmen Protests. Individual accounts make those come to life.

My experiences in China ranged over 4 months. I had unique experiences in Beijing and Kunming for 4 months and another set of experiences in Taiwan for 3 months. Taiwan and China are not the same place–this is clear in the culture, language, cuisine and atmosphere.

Both are incredible. Chinese people are warm, friendly and welcoming.

That said, Racism and Xenophobia is strife. I had similar experiences walking with an African-American darker skinned friend of mine through Kunming. They looked at her like she was foreign to Earth. This doesn’t take away from the warmness that I experienced in China or the warmness she experiences while she’s their–she’s been in China for four years and feels more at home there than in America. For that reason she’s moved back to China for the foreseeable future.

Bitcoin

Crypto is on a bull run again just as equities markets seem to be on a tumble. Looks like 1 Bitcoin is just shy of $9000 USD today. We’ve been building bitsian for over 1 year now. I am a firm believer that if we make it past 2, bitsian can go on to be a billion dollar company.

I have fielded interest from people looking for Product Managers and my response has stayed the same: I’ll help connect you to my network, but I’ve promised 3-4 years to my team and I’ll be doing my best to honor that promise. 

I’m excited to build this thing. Our first product is hot. The next two will be fire too.

Crypto is something worth putting your money into, but the FOMO is not something I stand by. I’m not sure what happens with the price of BTC in the next few months. It could shoot up. Some people are saying that if it beats $10k it won’t fall back under.

Do what feels right. If you have disposable income, consider adding it to your portfolio.

Don’t overcommit yourself thinking that you’re going to cash in and win.

this isn’t financial advise and I am not a financial adviser. you should talk to someone licensed and I can help put you in touch if you need. Tyrone is knowledgable. 

2020

Who knows what happens next.

American public service has been made a mockery and the international community recognizes that too. I’d secretly hoped that this would lead us to melt down all the bad politics and infrastructure we’ve build into institutions: pundits included, but what we’ve seen is both sides coalesce around deeper around their ideologies.

The jobs we are talking about are some of the hardest jobs out there. Leadership isn’t easy. I’m impressed by operators that can flex and lead beautifully, building cool things.

The progressive candidates have fielded some interesting names.

Andrew Yang is one worth checking out.