Each Spring, ACbert and I usually join two soccer leagues and one softball league. All the teams are fun groups, so not only do we enjoy playing, we also enjoy hanging out with the different groups.

I usually only join a team after I’ve looked ahead on my calendar to know for sure that I will be able to make most of the games, which is what I did this season. Even though I expected to only miss a couple games this season, I’ve found myself more often than not responding to the weekly RSVP emails saying, “I’m out.”

It’s annoying and frustrating as I truly enjoy playing and hanging with the various teams, and making a commitment I don’t keep. But the reality of making AlumniChoose successful is that all hands need to be on deck at all times, but when excatly that is, isn’t something I can plan ahead for. Startups tend to flow on a month-to-month basis, if not weekly. Long term planning and startups aren’t the best of friends.

This morning our friend Lauren texted us to see if we were up for helping set up a new Irene evacuation shelter they were opening near Union Sq. It makes sense that there would be need for a massive number of volunteers across the city, but neither Annie or I had heard anything about it on the news. Had Lauren not texted us, we probably would’ve stayed home, worked, took a walk, and slowly prepared the rest of the apartment for Irene. Instead we spent 5 hours doing some serious sweat labor to make sure those in need, and their pets, had a safe place to stay during the hurricane. I appreciate having people in my life who think about others as it helps me to remember to think about others. Not only does helping others help them, it also has been scientifically proven to make the giver feel good.

ACbert got sick at a wedding last week in Chicago. The sickness is still lingering and, a week later, she’s still not well enough to go outside for very long. Normally it’s not a big deal as weekends come and go. But this weekend is Memorial Day and the weather has been simply beautiful and our friends coordinated a picnic at Governor’s Island today. I was looking forward to hanging with them but Annie woke up this morning still not healthy enough to go out.

I wanted to go to the picnic, but I also know marriage/relationships comes with a set of responsibilities like taking care of your partner when they are sick. I was in a funk for a little bit about not going, but quickly got over it and focused my energy on being present with ACbert. We made veggie wraps, a vegan cake, and watched a movie. ACbert also has an amazing ability to make the best of bad situations. The day ended happy because we chose to make it happy.

Over the weekend I went skiing with a group of friends in Killington, VT. Prior to this weekend, the last time I went skiing was eight years ago in Whistler, Canada.

Starting on the bunny hill and then working my way up to a “real” mountain, I was impressed at how quickly skiing came back to me. It felt very natural. Each time I went up the mountain I pushed myself a little more. Without polls, faster, through moguls, over hills, etc.

On one ride up in the Gondola, I chatted with an older lady who sat next to me. She’s been skiing all her life. I told her my background and she offered to watch and coach me as I went down. I excitedly excepted and off we went.

When we got to the bottom she said my form was great and said I needed to try a different hill as our current hill was too easy for me. Then she said,

“In skiing if you don’t fall down, you’re not pushing yourself hard enough. You’re not learning anything new.”

Moving away from skiing, the older lady, and the mountain, this philosophy rings so true with my current work at Red Rover.

Over the past two months, I felt like I kept failing over and over again. It’s frustrating, annoying, and wears me down. But it’s not impossible. And the next time I take on the project, I’m better at it.

In my work I want to kick ass and be amazing, and many times I am, but I also want to keep falling down because that means I’m trying something new and pushing myself forward.

In skiing when you fall down and your equipment gets scattered across the snow, they call it a yard sale. Here’s to a life filled with many more yard sales.

An old man in our building passed away a couple weeks ago. I only saw and spoke with him a couple times. Annie and I nicknamed him Morgan Freeman because of a striking resemblance.

I found out about his death because of a police notice on his door and asked our Super what happened. Our Super said the police sealed his apartment because they needed to go through his stuff to find someone to call. They haven’t been able to find any one yet nor has anyone showed up. That’s sad.

I remember someone telling me how the first two rows of your funeral are the people who really count. The exercise then is to think about who would be in the first two rows and make sure to put an effort into keeping and building those relationships.

LinkedIn’s Google tag line is “Relationships Matter.” They say they are about helping you strengthen the relationships within your existing network. 

Today I received this email from LinkedIn:

From an engagement perspective, three things jump out to me in this email…

1. Relationship Strength – I’ve met everyone on the list IRL (in real life). This isn’t information LinkedIn would know, but whatever calculation they are using is doing a great job of weighting the strength of my connections. I suspect it is based on the number of common connections we share.
2. Call To Action – There’s a nice simple motivating call to action to get me to want to click though.
3. It’s Human – 95% of the email contains smiling human faces. It makes me smile. Each face I look at brings back a collection of stories between me and that person.

Like Facebook, I’m not very selective at “friending” people on LinkedIn. I just don’t have time to mentally decide on who to link with and who not. So my account has a lot of noise. I’m impressed LinkedIn is able to filter most of the noise for this email. Relevancy matters.

The only additional result I’d like from this email is when I click through, instead of just bringing me to that individual’s profile, it would highlight the change(s) that happened and then even give me the option to quickly send them a note of congratulations or support.

Lots of people seem to duck and hide whenever a fellow friend has a house/apt move coming up and is seeking help. I go the opposite direction and preemptively offer my help for two main reasons…

1. Moving is a great workout.
2. The best gift you can give a friend is your time. That time can come in a lot of different ways, and helping someone move is one of those ways.

Anytime I can get a great workout and better connect with friends, count me in!

Today a friend, Adam Ace, invited me to go see The Pee-Wee Herman Show on Broadway. Adam and I originally connected through our touring on the college market. He is a rather expressive comedian known for his red outfits and red speedo underwear. At one conference, he’d forgotten his underwear and asked if I had anything that would be just as funny. It just so happened I had a pair of SpongeBob SquarePants boxers in my suitcase (don’t ask).

Having grown up watching Pee-Wee on TV, I wasn’t sure what to expect seeing him live on Broadway. After 90 minutes of laughs, smiles, and flashback memories, Pee-Wee didn’t disappoint. The show did a great job of mixing original show elements with current themed jokes. Pee-Wee himself looked like he hadn’t aged over the last 20 years.

Though a friend, Adam got us on a sorta VIP list to meet and greet with Lance Roberts who played The King of Cartoons as well as an up close photo-op with Pee-Wee (Paul Reubens).

It was also interesting to see a lot of young kids sprinkled throughout the audience laughing along side the adults. With a new Pee-Wee movie coming out, I suspect we might be in for a bit of a Pee-Wee revival for a new generation.

After the show, we stopped to “water the plants” at a humous Charmin store dedicated to making sure NYC has an enjoyable place to go to the bathroom. I didn’t even have to go, but I did just because it was that funny of an experience. Nice work Charmin. There isn’t anything too unique for NYC.

This morning my four hour flight to South Dakota left LGA at 6:05am. Most people would probably only be ok doing that type of flight once a year. As a speaker, 6am flights are totally common. I’ve lost count of the number of times I’ve headed to the airport before sunrise.

It hurts me every time I leave town on a weekend for a training and leave Annie. It hurts me every time I go to bed early and set my alarm clock for 3:30am so I make it to my flight on time.

The real pain of speaking is missing the life moments with family and friends at home while on the road in an airplane, hotel, or rental car.

People often tell me they’d be excited to jet around the country and I always say the same thing. It’s a ton of fun for the first 10-20 times, but then every time you have to wake up before the sun to just barley catch your flight by running through the airport and get a neck cramp from sleeping on the plane and the rental car can’t find your reservation and you live off of Subway and you check into the hotel only to go up three floors to find your room key doesn’t work and you wake up early again to drop off the rental car and sprint through the airport to once again just barley make your flight, it can wear you down. But the first 10-20 times are exciting!