Growth Dynamics Get Down

I'm recording this in early March. This is the first winter of my life where I've spent probably more time not working than working.

And I'm happy to say that my wife, the most amazing oncology nurse on the planet, got an opportunity to more or less fully retire on her terms entirely this winter, and she decided to spend almost every day of the winter up at our second home in Vermont.

We set goals of skiing 30 days this year, and I'm very happy to report she skied 40.

But why am I sharing this with you?

I'm sharing this with you because I want all of you to have an idea of what it's going to be like when you don't have to go to work anymore. What do you want those kind of endless string of days—where you don't have to check into the office, you don't have to call people back, you don't have to get a PowerPoint done, you don't have to get a quote done, you don't have to go make a call—how do you want your life to happen at that point, when it's all your life and not someone else's?

And I absolutely loved watching my wife enjoy every moment she could on the ski slopes at Mad River Glen, Vermont. We love it there. We have a second home there.

And I know, as much as anyone I've ever met, regardless of the income level, my wife earned every single one of those 40 days because she worked her butt off and took care of people in some of the most horrible emotional circumstances there are.

But that is the life that we talked about years ago that we wanted to live at this point in our lives.

And so I've watched her enjoy that. I've enjoyed the time I got to spend with her on the mountain this year. And I would implore all of you to talk to the people that mean the most to you—if you're married or not married yet, your friends—and talk openly about what the best retirement you could have would look like, where it would be, who you would spend it with, and what you would be doing in those days that are all yours and no one else's.

It's really why you're going to work today.

I don't care if you're 22, 42, or 62—know where you want to end up and make the decisions that will get you there with the most amount of certainty, understanding nothing's guaranteed.

But you are entitled to have that life if you do the right things the right way. You just take care of business the way it should be taken care of.

So have a reason. Have a purpose.

You'll love seeing that smile on someone else's face the way I got to see it on Patty's this year.

Take care. Thanks for paying attention. Be your best.