"One Step at a Time"

All of my emails sign off with “One step at a time.” I lost it all so I could learn this lesson.

I got my first taste of real failure when I was 20.

I agreed to use my inheritance to help a family member buy a business. My parents both passed away when I was in high school and now the money that was meant to help me become an adult was gone. House, car, college paid for - gone. I don’t know that I ever really considered how risky that was or what would happen if it failed.

I dropped out of Auburn at the time when everything went under to try to help out, but the damage was done. No money, no degree, no job, no idea what to do next. So frustrated with life. I hated life.

I stared at the night sky, asking it questions about what to do next, but the sky never answered me back.

The problem was that I didn’t know where I wanted to go. There wasn’t really much of a choice, though. You have to just keep going, regardless of where you’re going.

So, I took it one step at a time, not needing to know where I’d end up.

• I found a programming job writing some non-glamourous code
• I went back to Auburn and finished my degree
• I lived on a tiny island and loved driving over that bridge at sunset
• I connected with smart people on the internet and built a network
• I started a new company that took me on a path I never would’ve believed was possible

Knowing where you’re going or not really doesn’t matter. The only goal should to make generally good decisions, one at a time. If you do that, then good things will happen.

Ask yourself this one question: “what’s the best that could happen?” If there’s a ton of upside to that answer, then take one step forward. If you can only see a tiny positive benefit, sit back and think about it some more.

It’s so easy to get caught up in the process of making good decisions and allow them to turn into roadblocks instead. You want them to be “forever solutions”, but it’s an impossible task. There’s no plan that is immune to the future.

And even though I’m sitting here writing this out, consciously demonstrating that I have learned a valuable lesson, I know I still need to be reminded of it every day.