January 28, 2010
Does it make the boat go faster?
I spent the last two days in Prague at our annual company meeting - slides, beer, little sleep and many conversations. A presentation session I very much enjoyed was a talk by Ben Hunt-Davis, 2000 gold medalist from the Sydney Olympic games. Ben shared his story of winning the ultimate sports trophy in Men's Eight race, starting out as little more than an above average rower. The man certainly knows a thing or two about winning.
A couple of his ideas stuck with me. One was the team's principle to look absolutely everything through the lens of 'does it make the boat go faster?'. Taking the boat for a check at wind tunnel did, having a pint at the pub or participating in the opening ceremony didn't. So none of the team members went to the ceremony, for instance, though I'm sure they would have loved to.
Another thing that resonated particularly well with me was the story about men's four finals where one team was jumping up and down to celebrate coming third but three of the German rowers did not have the power to stand up to accept their medals. Golden medals. So the eight team made an agreement before the race never to talk to each other if they lose gold and have the energy to stand up on the pedestal. How's that for commitment?
These ideas work well even if your aim is something other than rowing a bit faster than men in the other five boats. The concept of Does it make the boat go faster? - reminds me of somebody I knew years back who only did two kinds of things - those that made him money and those that got him laid. Perhaps this was a bit too monotonous (or rather bitonous) but hey, he was focused and it worked. All in all nice to have food for thought delivered like this.
January 19, 2010
Turismisihtkoht Nigeeria, ja taas kord üks geniaalne äri-idee
Täna hommikul läksid Londonist Nigeeria lennuki peale avantüristid, ees ootamas teadagi mis - avantüürid. Kadestamisväärne on nende võime minna üsna muretult teadaolevalt ohtlikku ja võõrasse kohta, teades ainult seda, et lend jõuab kohale öösel ja et keegi diivanisurfifoorumis leitud öömaja pakkuja kipub alt ära hüppama. Lennujaamas ööbimine on seejuures välistatud, sest Austraalia riiklik turistiabileht kirjutab: there is a high level of serious crime throughout Nigeria. Violent assault, armed robbery, rape and carjacking across Nigeria are prevalent. There is a higher risk of crime in and around the Lagos international airport /.../
Oh jah. Lugesin neile peale sõnad, et liikugu nad ringi ainult öösiti ja valgustamata tänavatel, sest pimedas on kõik kassid hallid ja siis pole näha, et tegemist on kaitsetute valgete tütarlastega ning näitasin kätte tee lennujaama suunas.
Samas tekkis eile Nigeeriast rääkides uus ja geniaalne turismi-idee. (Trummipõrin). Daamid ja härrad - pantvangiturism. 50 dollari eest tullakse sulle kuskil kõrvalisemal tänaval kallale ja müksitakse natuke, 100 eest pannakse ka laetud relv vastu vabalt valitud kehaosa. Alates 300 dollarist saad teenuse, kus pannakse kott pähe ja viiakse autoga kuskile äärelinna lobudikku mõneks ajaks elu üle järele mõtlema ning võimaldatakse üks kõne omastele. Ja 5000 dollarilise VIP-paketiga tehakse sulle ka korraliku näopeksu mõõtu meik, pannakse laua peale mootorsaag ja akuklemmid ning filmitakse sinu palvet oma tööandjal või sugulastel raha saata. Valmis ning tellija poolt heakskiidetud klipi uudiskanalitesse edastamine ja juutuubi laadimine on hinna see. Pidi ju nii olema, et kataloogireise ei taha keegi, andke inimestele ainult ekstreemsusi ette.
January 12, 2010
Things I've learned from surfing
Last year I learned to surf. Too early for photo sessions yet but I can catch a wave and ride it all the way to the beach (if I don't get wiped out along the way). Oh what fun, but not only. I've realized there are many lessons for life hidden in the surf.
Sometimes, the best thing you can do is wait. On a not-so-good day, when conditions are not good you paddle around, make dozens of failed attempts to catch a wave - and nothing for tens of minutes or even hours. Then, out of the blue a beautiful clean wave emerges, and you better be ready for it. It may be the last one that day, week or even that year.
Pick your battles. When you're a beginner the bigger waves will hit you like a steam train. You barely have time to acknowledge how high you suddenly are and how fast you're moving when you're thrown into a white foamy abyss. Some waves are best left for those that actually know what they're doing.
Get wiped out. Picking your battles doesn't mean you only ride the kiddy waves. You're not trying hard enough and you're not learning much if you don't crash. Making mistakes is good for you, even if you learn just a little each time.
Don't panic. It's a horrible feeling getting thrown into a massive whirl of water without any idea which way is up or down and knowing with certainty that there will be no air to breathe for quite some time. If you panic you may use up the little bit of fresh oxygen in your lungs that would safely last until you're on the surface again. As in life, things will usually sort themselves out if you give them some time.
Looking forward to my next sessions. In surf as well as on dry land.
Photo courtesy of Teller who seems to really have learned to surf. If you're comfortably riding a wave like this your wisdom must be infinite.
January 5, 2010
The days are long but the years are short
A little more than three years ago, on the last day of 2006 I sat down for twenty minutes and wrote down what I liked about the year, what I thought could have been better and what were my goals or plans for the next year. I've done the same ever since either on the last or first day of the year and even with just a couple of years of doing that behind my belt am finding this incredibly valuable. This allows me to get into a time machine and ride into the thoughts of yours truly last year, or the year before, or the one before that. A great way to see how you've changed and remind you of the things you think or thought are important.
I've written many of my goals down as public (new year's) resolutions which has become incredibly easy after the launch of Pledgehammer. I'm glad to say many of my 2009 goals were successes. I saw six new countries not one (China, Marocco, Andorra, Mexico, Guatemala, Belize), have a new homey home am happy with my sanjuro progress. Professionally I had a healthy balance of hits and misses. I failed miserably on the new kitesurfing tricks front (but learned to wave surf) and Spanish school front (but started learning the language with Rosetta Stone) but hey, no-one's perfect. Now, you may argue these are not uber-important things but the point is I wanted these things in my life. And there's research out there that suggests merely making a resolution increases the odds of achieving positive outcome 10-fold, so there you go.
I've make pledges on the more important fronts as well, and these I've kept to myself. It's not like making these goals public would increase my motivation to reach them, I want them bad as is. When it comes to progress there definitely was some but not quite the way I had imagined. Lesson learned, all's well that ends well and many other cliches sum it all up very well. No-one ever said that fulfilling your dreams is easy.
What's perhaps worthy of mentioning is that I've never made financial resolutions. Guess I'm not that hung up on depositing a certain amount of money in my mattress in the same way I'm very particular about seeing new places or practicing the sports I love. I think that's a good thing.
2010 will see me learn more, kitesurf more and do a little more for the society. Again, I've made some of my resolutions (where I might need a little nudge) public and others not.
If there is just one idea you take from this blog this year then be it about the value of 'annual wishlist inventory check' or however you want to call it. Many people do it already, some even publicly, for instance see wolli's here. And I don't mind if you choose to write it in a small black notebook instead of the said website.
I wish you a truly happy new year!
Update a week later. I realized I haven't given myself too much of a kick in the butt now. So in addition to everything said above I pledge to get more shit done and diversify my income streams, this year and by the end of this year respectively. So if you see me just pottering around some time this year, or not doing anything about the number of different income streams, please poke me with a stick.
