We’ve been working on this for a long time now so I am very excited that we’ve finally launched 5ones Earth. Big ups to all of the 5ones team for their hardwork and dedication.
Earth is an interactive map for surf, skate and snow spots as well as pro shops and company headquarters. It’s almost like local search for action sports. Check it out…
Maybe it should be the other way around (what business can teach you about surfing), since I learned to entrepreneur before I learned to surf. Either way, I came across a couple of blog posts this morning about surfing lessons for entrepreneurs and felt as both an entrepreneur and surfer, I should also blog about this subject. Here are 5 things about entrepreneurship that I learned from surfing (or vice-versa).
1) Patience – It takes a long time to learn to surf, it’s hard and one should not expect to be ripping waves their first day out. Same with building a business. It’s an exercise in patience. If you think you’ll be successful overnight, you’re sadly mistaken my friend. You will fall a lot at first but the more you do it the better you will get.
2) Thinking fast – No two waves are exactly alike. Every way breaks differently and when you’re riding a wave you always need to be making split second decisions. This is a skill that’s required in business too. You can’t predict exactly how the wave of your business will break so be ready to make decisions and adapt on the fly.
3) Positioning – This is pretty much what the other two articles I referenced above talk about. With surfing, you’re relying on so many elements to come together to make a surfable wave. When then do, you need to be positioned correctly to catch that wave. The same thing with business. Lots of waves will come your way, be in position and be ready to ride the good waves.
4) Wave selection – Being in the right position to catch a wave is one thing. Catching the right wave is another thing. As a surfer, you learn to read the shape of the waves as they’re coming in. If you pick the wrong wave it might close out on you and there will be no where to go. Like I mentioned in the point above, pick the good waves to ride. In business you need to learn to recognize and pick the right waves that you can ride to success. Get on the wrong wave and you might put your business in a position that it has no where to go.
5) Competition – There are a lot of surfers competing for the same waves as you, just like there are a lot of entrepreneurs competing in the same marketplace as you. If you don’t get aggressive while surfing and take waves, there are a hundred other surfers in the lineup who will paddle right around you and do so. In business, if you don’t jump on the opportunities presented to you, there are a hundred other people waiting who will. I love surfing next to the candy-ass surfers who aren’t aggressive, that way I can take all the waves I want. I also love competing in marketplaces where candy-ass entrepreneurs don’t leverage the opportunities that come their way, that way I can and I will.
If you’re a surfer, I’d love to hear some of things surfing has taught you about business.
I am reading a great post about not selling out on your blog that I found through a post on Shoe’s blog. It’s something that I feel compelled to write about because it’s something I’ve struggled with ever since starting this blog 3 years ago. For the longest time, since people started reading this blog, I felt that I needed to please my readers and write things I thought they would be interested in. I have a mix of readers who are professional colleagues as well as personal friends and family. Who can I possibly please both audiences? I tried once, and it burned me out really fast.
Then one day, a light went off in my head and I thought… You know what, I don’t want my main focus to be building traffic, or increasing RSS readers, or any of that. Screw that stuff. This blog has my name on it and I just want to keep it real and write about things I want to write about and as often as I want to write about them. Sometimes that means I’m writing about stuff that relates to my career and sometimes that means I write about surfing, or taking a vacation, or whatever.
I honestly don’t care if this blog ever makes a cent, that’s not my intention with it. I don’t care if people read it or not. If you do want to read it, that’s great. I am stoked on that. But just be warned that I’m going to write what I want to write about – and they might not be exactly what you want to read about.
My traffic and RSS subscribers stopped increasing on this site a long time ago. And that’s just perfectly cool with me. I have enough other sites that I work my ass off on to increase traffic. This is my personal outlet and that’s they way it will always be.
I got an email yesterday from a reader asking what my strategy is to survive the economic recession. I’ve actually been preparing for it, for awhile now. I pretty much saw this coming at least a year ago and really knew it was coming fast during late spring/early summer. The writing has been all over the wall for awhile now, sorry folks but this shouldn’t be a surprise to anyone. So what I am doing?
I’m saving every penny I possibly can so that I can invest into as many distressed assets as possible. There are going to be some amazing opportunities to pick up some sweet deals on web companies over the next couple years and I want to be the one picking them up. Quite frankly, there are a lot of websites run by people who don’t have clue, so when I can swoop in, pick those up and rehab them, I will.
I’m spending as little money as possible on myself right now. I stopped buying new surfboards, taking surf trips, buying new clothes, going out as much, I downsized my house, don’t drive a fancy car, etc etc etc. The only thing I want to spend money on right now is distressed websites.
So in a nutshell, that’s it. I’m not only going to survive this recession, but I’m going to come out on top, much better off then I am now. What’s your plan?
Yesterday I had the pleasure of making my kids sit through several hours of the public hearing for the Trestles Toll Road. I wasn’t sure how well it would go, considering my girls are 5 & 2, and public hearings can be about as fun as a kick to the balls, but either way, I thought it would be good to expose them to the bigger picture of standing up for good causes like the one being debated.
I originally attended the Save Trestles rally partly because I was covering a story for 5ones but more importantly it’s an issue that I believe strongly in and want to support. Even though I’ve never even surfed Lower Trestles (as good as the break is, I’d rather not have to paddle over 50 people on each wave), I do think it’s generally a good idea to preserve one of the last pristine world class surf breaks in the country. There are enough roads, parking lots, houses and shopping centers elsewhere that the last thing we need to do is destroy a beautiful beach to build more. Nature’s a nice thing to enjoy and once it’s gone, it’s gone. You can’t exactly dig up the concrete and put everything back the way it was.
I was pleasantly surprised when the night came to an end and I’d realized both my daughters had actually sat through the majority of the hearing without misbehaving, even participating. They waved the signs they created, cheered when appropriate, and held their thumbs down when those in favor of the road presented their issues. And when my 5 year-old leaned over to me and said…
“Dad, these people should not build that road.”
I knew that bringing them to this event turned out to be a priceless experience for them. To quote the lyrics from one of my favorite musicians, Xavier Rudd…
“…our children keep growing up with what they know, from what we teach, and what they see…”
Politics aside… No matter where you stand on issues, I think it’s important to stand up for the ones you strongly believe in. In more ways than one, Surfing has turned me into a tree-hugging shark-hugging hippy, and by no means am I perfect. But as I listened to both sides of the argument last night, I don’t know how anyone could be in favor of the 241 Toll Road, hippy or not… It’s not even a political issue, it’s an earth issue.
While sipping guzzling my morning coffee and reading through my feeds, I came across a great post from Sugarrae titled How to Find a Pair of Balls. Her post is more or less about; if you’re wanting something out of life you need to reach out and grab it. It’s not going to be handed to you.
The only difference between my success and someone else’s lack of it is that I refused to accept, and still do refuse to accept, anything less than what I want for myself in life. I don’t give myself excuses. I don’t wait for shit to be handed to me, I go in search of what I want.
I love reading posts like this because I can relate to them on so many levels and Rae inspired me to write a post about my experience. I struggled for years to get to the point where I’m at now and to be honest I still have at least a few more good years of struggling left in me. Otherwise, I’d be retired on a beach somewhere, surfing epic waves all day. And until I’m there you can bet your ass I’m still busting my ass and making sacrifices every day. I’m now starting what will be the third business I’m currently running. I work hard, even if it doesn’t always seem like it.
Most people don’t realize the amount of work that I’ve put in over the years to get where I am. Like Rae, I wasn’t handed an audience or a reputable name in my industry, I had to work hard for those like anyone else. My family and I sacrificed years of our lives for the hope there would be a payoff (better quality of life) at the end of the rainbow. We’ve gone through many times where we literally didn’t have a dollar to our name and we’d stay up all night wondering how we would come up with a few bucks just to eat the next day. Luckily for family or we’d have starved to death. But I also want to point that family only helped in times of emergency… the only unfair advantage I’ve ever had is my burning desire for a life that doesn’t consist of a dead-end job. I instead desire a life where I have as much free time to spend with my family and surf as I want.
I have friends and family (you know who you are) coming up to me all time asking if I can teach them to do what I do. The problem is that they’re expecting quick success because they chose to look the other way all those years I busted my ass with nothing just to get where I am today. All they see now is what looks like a pretty glamorous life from the outside (I can assure you though, it’s not always glamorous, far from). I am in no way trying to disrespect these people because I love them, but to be quite frank, none of them have been willing to do what it takes to become successful online.
Even though it may sound like it, I’m not trying to toot my own horn here. That’s not at all what this post is about. I’m just trying to point out that if you want to be successful in life you need to get off your lazy ass and do something about it. It will not be handed to you. It all comes to down to how bad you really want something. I’ve had every excuse and reason in the book on why I shouldn’t be successful but I refuse to accept that there’s nothing I can’t do or have.
I definitely recommend you check out Rae’s post.
Is there such a place where time ceases to exist? Where the land is so beautiful that you could swear you just saw the most mind blowing scenery that’s ever graced your eyes, only to turn the corner to a view that out-does the last? Where the people, who have no money or material possessions, are happier, friendlier, and more greatful than any other people you’ve ever met? A place so tranquil and relaxing that all your troubles literally slip your mind?
Such a place does exist and I am fortunate I was able to find my own little paradise in Nicaragua.
A couple months ago I wrote a post expressing my desire to not only travel to Nicaragua but also someday own a home there. Last month I had the pleasure of fulfilling half that dream as I was able to spend a few weeks in what is undoubtedly one of the most beautiful places on this earth. And after spending some time in Nica, it has only made my (now burning) desire of buying a home there that much stronger.
Nicaragua is not only beautiful in the sense of the breathtaking landscape… it’s a combination of everything; the people, the food, the culture, the surf, the experience, the wildlife… everything.
My trip began with a series of fortunate events… From getting bumped up to first class, to oversized luggage (think surfboard bags) fees being waived, to scoring a ride with a local surf guide from the airport in Managua to our destination in San Juan Del Sur… it was definitely a sign of good things to come.
Once arriving in San Juan Del Sur, my good friend Shaun and I quickly looked for the nearest taxi (and by taxi I mean an old Toyota 4×4 pickup with a bench in the bed) we could find to haul us to the nearest surf break, Playa Maderas. One of the very few annoyances I found in Nicaragua is that the surf is not easily accessible, it’s mostly by boat or muddy “highways” that will push any 4WD to the limits. However, riding in the back of a truck through the jungle is certainly an exciting experience in itself.
San Juan Del Sur is a beautiful little town that sits right on a picturesque bay in the Pacific. It served as a hub for most of our time spent in Nica. All the amenities you need can be found in SJDS; hotels, restaurants, bars, markets, taxis, friends, and more are found here. Here is a couple of pictures of the view from one of the restaurants…
We also spent a few days up near a surf break called Popoyo, where we stayed in a B&B that was literally right on the sand. It was the coolest beach house ever with the most amazing decks where I spent many-a-afternoons lounging around in the hammocks. There was a couple of pretty good surf breaks right out in front, so it was a nice change from the boats and 4WDs. Its nice just to grab your board and walk 10 steps to the surf. Unfortunately I don’t have any pictures of this place but that’s ok because they could never do it justice anyways. I do however have this wonderful picture of a whole pig that we roasted on the beach one night…
The one thing I can’t stress enough is how good the actual surf in Nicaragua is. In the few weeks I was there, the infamous offshore winds blew every day but one and the swell was consistently at a minimum of chest-high with most days going head-high or overhead. For you non surfers, that means it was really good.
All-in-all my trip to Nicaragua was a wonderful one filled with more great experiences than I can remember. I could turn this post into a book but I feel like it’s already getting too long. I can hardly wait until my next trip back. Some things that really stand out in my mind are….
The greeness. It’s their wet season right now which means that whole country is literally all green right now. So beautiful.
The people. I met so many wonderful people and made many life long friends. That’s pretty impressive for only being somewhere for a few weeks. I was also very impressed on how most of the local people there have no money or “things” yet they are so happy and nice.
The cost. Everything is so cheap… most meals, which I found to be excellent, where about $5 US. My last night there I splurged and went for a Filet Mignon, it was as good as anything I’ve had here in the states (thanks Nick!) and I think was only about $13 US.
The underdeveloped land. Surfing at beaches with no homes or people is amazing. You don’t get to experience that here in the US. Everything is so crowded. I was so blown away when we cruised the coast line in boats at just how empty the land is.
Here a couple fishing pics to leave you guys with…
A nice Blackfin Tuna…
Notice the colors of this Mahi-Mahi, they call them Dorado in Nica…
I want to give some shout-outs to the friends I made, if I forgot your name I apologize and it doesn’t mean I love you any less…
Alan, Codo, Nicaraguan Superman, Heather, Sandra, Sonya, Caleb, Oscar, Marlys, AJ & Molli, Nick, Josue, Cliff aka “killing it”, Jeffrey, Brandon, Ashley, Dan, Jesse, Gustaaf, Aaron & Rena, Kevin & Betsy, Mike, Victoria, Tona, and last but not least my good friend Flor de Cana… All truly wonderful people.
Next time you see me, ask me to tell you some stories about Nicaragua, trust me, I have lots of them I’d love to share ‘em all.