What does success mean? Get specific… what exactly does it look like to you? Is that word just a placeholder for some anonymous measure of public respect and acceptance? Is it about bank account zeros? My idea of success has changed… a lot. The answer I’d have given you when I was 21 is nothing like the answer I’d give you now. Why?

A few weeks ago, I owned up to the biggest mistakes I made in my 20s... mistakes that cost me literally millions. This video is the sequel. Believe it or not, when I turned 30 I didn’t magically become an angel, with a perfect track record of success.  (Shock! I can hear your gasps from here)

So here’s a crazy story.... In January, I started training for an Ironman 70.3 event.  I had never done anything like this before in my life… and I knew it was going to be f-ing hard. I’m 6’3” and weighed 235lbs... I looked more like a linebacker than a skinny triathlete. An Ironman 70.3 (aka: Half Ironman) consists of a 1900m swim, 90km bike ride and 21km run. This is how I broke down my goals:

I’ve got to come clean... I’m not a guru. I can’t read your future, don’t perform miracles, and I’m about as enlightened as a stick. I’m just a SaaS-obsessed business coach that has made WAY too many mistakes, enough to fill entire encyclopaedias of ‘what not to do’. But I did do something right: 

Hate to break it to you, but it’s not all about money. I mean it. Here’s an example... One of my coaching clients recently hit a milestone that we’ve been working towards for years:  $1M per month in profit.  After 9 years of hard work, he turned that dream into a reality. HUGE achievement! But instead of celebrating, the next question that came was... “What was the purpose? Why am I doing this? If we make more money as a

12 months, 1 piece of paper, A4 only. Does it fit? Can you write a plan for your next year on a single piece of paper? If not, then… your plan is too complex. (This is coming from a guy who LOVES spreadsheets.) Your next 12 months are going to fly by whether you want them to or not. The question is: Are you going to get 12-months’ worth of life out of them?

Ever noticed my black wedding ring? Want to know a secret about it? It’s electronic (made by Oura). It measures a lot of cool stuff about my body, including my sleep. I didn’t care about sleep for YEARS. It wasn’t until I had kids (aka: human alarm clocks) that I had to dial in my routine and structure.

When I was 26 years old, my company Spheric was growing steadily.  We were doing about $2.5 million in annual recurring revenue (ARR), with about 16 employees. But… I felt suffocated. I was struggling to cope with the daily challenges that came with business, so I reached out to a mentor for help.  The first thing he did? He asked about my routines.

I’ve never been one to watch wrestling.  Rarely ever step in the ring for a boxing match.  But despite not being much of a sports guy... I sure know how it feels to get slammed to the ground by life, kept in it’s chokehold, and kicked in the gut while I’m there. Failure after failure, problem after problem, it was mentors and business coaches that helped me through everything that went wrong.

I like to hang out with inspiring entrepreneurs.  No, not sipping coffee in their offices… I like to get out and do something fun. Even if it means breaking bones. When you connect without it being about business, two things happen: First, you get insights into the character of a successful business person. Second, when the conversation isn’t forced, that’s when the most valuable business advice flows organically.