Is it possible to have too many opportunities? Recently some things have happened that place me at a fork in the proverbial road where both paths look like they lead to wonderland. What a contrast to five years prior when I was looking for my first full time coaching job, constricting my search to just the Northeast at the request of my wife and getting frequent rejection letters. One of the paths in the road is longer, a little more bumpy but familiar. The other path is a short cut but with many unknowns and the possibility to disappoint the passengers who’ve been riding with me the past couple years. Which road to take? I’m not sure but the decision will be based on the long term goals and prospects of my family and the business that I’ve been building the past 2 years.

The last 3 months has seen my business expand greatly. Astronomically. With no signs of slowed growth in sight. This isn’t just in client growth but also the quality of our service, the experience we provide, and the partnerships we are forming. For many other entrepreneurs, these things come with short term drawbacks usually referred to as growing pains. Not so with us. I’ve always expected the growth (sometimes without warrant) and anticipated the staffing, scheduling, logistics and equipment that would be necessary to continue to plough through. If you aren’t expecting the best to happen how can you possibly prepare for it when it does?

I’m on the road several times a month for coaching, speaking engagements and consulting. I’m a regular at most airports in the North and Southeast. Here’s some tips from my travels:
Try to enjoy yourself. Being on the road can be a bore if you focus on the hassles but isn’t so bad if you have the time to take advantage of new experiences.

Get yourself good travel gear. An iPad, travel dedicated chargers for phones, tablets and computers, a high end carry on bag, travel size everything, and airline security approved clothing can make things much more manageable.

Eat well. New cities provide an opportunity to eat new food. It’s the one thing I look forward to the most when on the road. Use Yelp to find great places.

Sleep well. Almost all of my travel is work related. And when I’m on the road I am working my arse off. Often as much as 16 hours of speaking and teaching to large audiences in just a day and a half. When I’m done I want to sleep comfortably. Take the time to find a nice hotel so you can sleep comfortably and come back and do your job the next day.

Up the convenience. Airline and rental car reward programs help. Bring your GPS so you never get lost. Select hotels that minimize driving. Check in online. Carry on everything.

Be productive. Although tempting to sleep on the plane, get some work done. Use the ‘forced separation’ and you’ll probably find flights can be extremely productive despite the cramped conditions. Oh yeah, get the wireless too.

Master the security line. I pack and dress to blast through the security line. Come up with a method that allows you to go through the line as fast as possible and you’ll miss less flights. I regularly arrive at airports 25 minutes before my flights and haven’t missed a flight for over 18 months.

Push the limits. Unless you’re a worry wart, check in online and arrive to the airport as late as you can. I don’t want to spend any more time in an airport than I have to and Yota 95% of the airports in the US you can safely arrive at the airport 30 minutes ahead of time and have no problem. If you travel a lot and have never missed a flight you’re spending too much of your life in an airport.

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The only way to prove your the best is to show it not say it. In this day of fast media and internet sensationalism, ANYONE can say they’re the best. And they do. In my niche business market, we’ve had 3 of our local competitors copy or tag line almost verbatim since we introduced it. So there are now 4 businesses claiming to be the best. Unfortunately for them, the only way to prove that you’re the best is by the results you provide. Talk is only good if you can back it up.

I recently took a business trip to Las Vegas. I’ve gone there at least once a year for the past 8 years. I’ve left from cities all over the U.S. and the scene on the departing flight is the same every time. Everyone’s happy. Everyone’s hamming it up with their seat mate whether they knew them before boarding or not. Drinks are being served like it’s New Years. Contrast this with my typical business trip to any other city in the U.S. and it becomes clear that Vegas is a place people WANT to go to and ENJOY going to…even if they’re going there for business. I bring this up not because I love Vegas (which I do) or because I’m on the Las Vegas tourism board (which I’m not). I bring this up because as a small business owner I saw a lot of relevancy for what I do. I’ve tried to make my sport performance training center a destination not a place to workout. Somewhere that people WANT to come to even if it’s a little more expensive or further away than their local gym. I want people to have an experience not a workout. How can you make what you do a “Flight to Vegas” and not somewhere else.

A little more than 2 years I uprooted my family to move to a city that I’d never been within 120 miles of to start a business from scratch. The past 2 years have been a bit of validation as I love the area (we live in Cary, NC part of the Raleigh-Cary metroplex) and our business is thriving. Yesterday I received a very informative newsletter from my great commercial real estate agent, Blair Graham, with info from Forbes magazine stating that Raleigh was rated the top metro area in the U.S. to start a business. This was great to hear because I had spent the 10 months following my resignation from my previous job researching the best place to move and start the business. I had some very strict criteria both for the business as well as for quality of life. The Raleigh-Cary metroplex was in my top 5 (probably last choice to be honest) but I chose it, almost impulsively on a site visit (which was the first of what was planned to be one visit to each of the top 5 possible cities), based on a string of events and ‘opportunities’ that fortunately never panned out. Glad things turned out how they did.

Here’s what Forbes has to say about the area:

Topping our 13^th annual list of the Best Places for Business and Careers isRaleigh, N.C. It is one of those locales with a strong university presence helping fuel growth in the area (albeit in an East Coast state, a rarity in the upper part of the list). Raleigh and nearby Durham (ranked No. 31) get a strong boost from three elite schools in the surrounding area in University of North Carolina, Duke University and North Carolina State.

Raleigh ranks No. 1 after dipping to third last year. Low business costs (18% below the national average) and a smart labor force (42% have a college degree) make North Carolina’s capital an attractive spot for employers like First Citizens Bank and Progress Energy. Job seekers get it: The net migration rate to Raleigh was the second highest in the U.S. over the past five years.

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We recently hit our 100th paying client at Athletic Lab. Growth is good. And while we’ve had big ups and downs the overall trend is decidedly upwards. We did it 5 weeks before our 2nd year in business. While we actually have around 140 people training regularly at Athletic Lab, a handful come from professional teams and organizations and we count the organization as the client rather than the individual players. So 100 paying clients. In a little under 2 years. Certainly nothing many in our industry would be jealous of but definitely a mini-milestone for us…one which we had predicted the time lines for for the previous couple months.  How did we get there. We came up with a plan, executed reasonably well, and made constant improvements on our service, facility and business approach.

My business partner recently sent me this article he found on the net. I found it was relevant to this blog since it has an entrepreneurial slant.

THERE ARE TWO KINDS OF PEOPLE IN THE WORLD

You’ve either started a company or you haven’t.

”Started” doesn’t mean joining as an early employee, or investing or advising or helping out.  It means starting with no money, no help, no one who believes in you (except perhaps your closest friends and family), and building an organization from a borrowed cubicle with credit card debt and nowhere to sleep except the office. It almost invariably means being dismissed by arrogant investors who show up a half hour late, totally unprepared and then instead of saying “no” give you non-committal rejections like “we invest at later stage companies.” It means looking prospective employees in the eyes and convincing them to leave safe jobs, quit everything and throw their lot in with you.  It means having pundits in the press and blogs who’ve never built anything criticize you and armchair quarterback your every mistake. It means lying awake at night worrying about running out of cash and having a constant knot in your stomach during the day fearing you’ll disappoint the few people who believed in you and validate your smug doubters.

I don’t care if you succeed or fail, if you are Bill Gates or an unknown entrepreneur who gave everything to make it work but didn’t manage to pull through. The important distinction is whether you risked everything, put your life on the line, made commitments to investors, employees, customers and friends, and tried – against all the forces in the world that try to keep new ideas down – to make something new.

I know what kind of person I am.

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For the past 15+ years of my life I’ve lived practically invincible. I drive too fast. I LOVE food and eat too much (~5-8,000 calories / day). I sleep too little (5-6 hrs / night). I work too much (currently about 80 hrs / week and never less than 60 over that time span). I rarely vacation or take time off. Most everyone I know is amazed or shocked by the lifestyle that I’ve been able to live and remain healthy. In fact, I’ve only been sick about 2 times in the past 10 years and other than a handful of speeding tickets I don’t have much to show for my hard lifestyle. I’ve never actually felt I was invincible….I’ve just lived that way because I never had a problem.

I’ve always gotten away with it just fine and it’s allowed me to be super productive. Last Friday, that all came to a screeching halt. Last week I had my first big health hiccup and it’s forced me to essentially become a different person. Some stomach problems have left me unable to hold down any food and I’m in constant discomfort. I’m hypocaloric (didn’t eat a meal for 4 days), weak, tired (sleeping up to 16 hours in one day), and generally unproductive compared to my usual self. I not only can’t eat the foods that I love (insanely spicy foods, coffee, lots of red meat, etc)…I can’t eat at all. I’ve been forced to eat foods I would never normally eat (crackers, soup broth) because it’s the only thing my stomach can bare. Consequently I’ve lost about 15 pounds in the 10 days since onset of symptoms. Driving fast is out the window too…it makes me sick.  And I’m sleeping (albeit not well) any chance I can get. Needless to say, I have to live as a practically a different person than I was just 10 days ago.

I point all this out to say that I’ve come to realize that there’s always a final straw. I had an endoscopy last week that showed significant damage to my stomach lining. The biopsy results have yet to come back but it could be a variety of things all with deep roots. The two months preceding the onset of these problems was particularly rough for work and travel. During this time span, my business has seen tremendous business growth, which is great, but it came growing pains that upped work levels and minimized the already minimal down time and sleep I’m usually able to take. I also had a crazy travel / speaking engagement schedule with 6 presentations in a row which compounded things. While I seemed to manage through this period just fine, I have no doubt that it must have compromised my immune function and ultimately lead to my current health issues.

I know the handful of faithful readers of this blog often push the limits like I do. Quick lesson – make sure you take the foot off the pedal every now and then.

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Today, as I walked out the door to head in to work, my wife asked me why I never take a day off. That’s a good question. I’ve gotten to the point where 6 hour work days feel like a day off. I’m not sure if that’s good or not. Perhaps good as an entrepreneur but not as a husband and dad. My blessing as a business owner (being tireless) is my curse as a family man.