Costa Rica, Family, Fatherhood, Leadership, Parenting, Simplicity

Our personal experiment in “simplicity”

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We have spent the last six months on a personal experiment in “simplicity.”  For us this meant “simplicity” from our accumulated stuff, consumerism (i.e., buying more stuff) and our typically busy schedules.  Not trying to suggest we led a monk’s existence while we were here in Costa Rica – we took some awesome beach trips and visited many parts of the country, but below are the intentional things we did as a family in pursuit of “simplicity”.

  • We moved here with two duffle bags per person, each weighing <40 lbs.  Each person’s bags included their clothes, electronics, books, personal items, etc.  This was to last each of us six months and needless to say, we left a ton of stuff at home.  And each of us has not only realized we don’t miss most of what we left behind, we can’t remember most of it.
  • We decided to drastically minimize new purchases that were even close to a “want” vs. a “need.”  We ended up repairing (e.g., shoes and pants) vs. replacing in many cases.  Our daughters were aware of this decision, and amazingly were able to all but eliminate “I want …” from their vocabulary during our time here.
  • We rented a relatively small furnished home.  I’ve spent less than five minutes fixing anything in this house since we arrived six months ago.  With relatively limited cabinet/fridge/freezer space, we simply don’t have the room to buy lots of food and therefore have thrown away almost no spoiled food.  At home in the US, we have so much more cabinet/fridge/freezer space than we really need and we always seem to fill it up.
  • Our girls’ sporting activities were limited to those at school, and when the bus dropped them off they were home for the night.  In contrast, my wife and I are basically chauffeurs for our girls and their activities every weeknight in the US.  Here, we have eaten dinner together as a family almost every night.
  • My wife and I shared one car.  This has been tough, although it is still a pretty blessed position by world standards where the overwhelming majority of people do not have even one car.  Regardless, there were things we simply said “no” to as one or the other had the car, we walked to the grocery store if need be, and in general, we just made it work.
  • Perhaps most important, we’ve had meaningful conversations with our girls throughout the last six months about simplicity and the options it affords you in life.

Without real intentionality, planning and family communication, I don’t think these things would have happened.  For us, temporarily moving abroad enhanced our ability to make this experiment a go as we started with a “clean slate.”  [For some awesome and inspiring examples of proactively living “simplicity” in everyday life, I highly suggest reading “More or Less” by Jeff Shinabarger.]

There is an inertia effect in our lives that seems to demand more “stuff” and more commitments and it is so hard to overcome.  I am hopeful that having “lived” the lessons in this experiment that we will be able to remember them when inertia once again begins to take hold at some point in the future.  And it’s my hope there are other aspects of simplicity we can bake into our DNA.  As Richard Foster describes so eloquently in his book “Celebration of Discipline” – “If what we have, we  (1) view as a gift vs. earned by our own merit, (2) it is to be cared for by God – I.e., we don’t get all hung up or anxious over losing it, and (3) it is available to others – then we will possess freedom from anxiety.”  And not be owned by our “stuff.”  That would be a pretty great place to be.

I believe our “simplicity” exercise will have a meaningful long-term effect on my family.  Not every day necessarily, but hopefully at some point when it really counts.

How are you simplifying your life?

Costa Rica, Family, Leadership, Learning a second language, Learning Spanish

What’s the return rate on an “experience?”

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images copyIn a recent national poll with two choices – keep your current debt level or gain 25 pounds and have your debt erased, 72% of Americans said they’d rather keep the debt than put on the pounds.  A fascinating statistic considering the average household’s debt is 112% of disposable income.  So for most of us, vanity trumps financial peace of mind.  What other financial trade-offs might we be willing to make?

Here is one for consideration.  What percentage of your current savings would you give up to spend a one-year sabbatical, family experience abroad complete with rich learnings?  This question hits close to home for me as we are trying to capture the following things on our experience abroad.

For some context to answer this question here is some food for thought.

A one-year excursion to a foreign country is very expensive.  Without real intentionality and financial planning, it will never happen.  And all the advanced planning and budgeting still doesn’t ease the pain of seeing investment dollars (and Colones) go through the drain (especially while the faucet is temporarily shut off).  There are the cash costs such as school, rent, a car, monthly expenses abroad, monthly expenses back home, etc.  Add on top of this new foregone savings (you don’t really give up salary on a sabbatical, only the savings/investment that would have resulted from that salary).

Assessing the value of an abroad “experience” is very difficult. It’s kind of an expense and it’s kind of an investment, but not exactly either.  Keep in mind that there will be storms along the way, so your notion of the “experience value” will likely shift throughout the experience and well after.  And the value placed on a particular experience will vary by as many people as you ask, so perhaps consider the questions below:

  • What would be the value to you in reclaiming a year with your oldest kids?
  • How about the value of your family knowing a second language and culture?
  • How about the value of personal reflection time vs. a never-ending to-do list?
  • How about the value of pursuing and mastering a long-desired hobby?
  • How about completing all of the above things at the same time?
  • Are you ready to weather the storms that come during the experience?

In our current situation, the immediate costs are much easier to determine than the collective long-term benefits, which makes the process a struggle at times.  Regardless, this was our dream and our gut feel is that it will pay off in many multiples over time, and likely even in some unexpected ways.

Entrepreneurship, Leadership, Start-ups

Got some start-up ideas in mind?

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Start-ups get into your blood.  My partners and I sold our last start-up a year and a half ago and my integration commitment was up five months ago.  Since then, many friends have said “You must have something in mind, what are you going to do next?”

With summer over and my girls back in school I have more time for reflection, and find my thoughts are more and more focused on – what’s next?

In the spirit of “experience is only the best teacher if it is ‘evaluated’ experience,” I thought I’d share some common themes from our (i.e., myself and two great partners) last two successful start-ups.  I deem them “successful” because we had lots of fun, created some cool professional opportunities for some great people, maintained a great life balance and earned returns over 55X invested capital on both.  I mention this last point not to be boastful but rather to establish some creditability for the points listed below.

Macro Considerations:

  • We didn’t create a business and then go look for a customer; in both cases we were asked to provide something from someone willing to pay.
  • Both businesses had asymmetrical risk profiles with significantly more upside that downside.
  • We didn’t quit our day jobs to pursue our dream jobs.  Both concepts were crafted on the tail ends of previous ventures.

Set-Up:

  • Trusted, proven partners with equal entrepreneurial bents, with a shared understanding each of us would play to our individual strengths.
  • Exit options were extensively evaluated as a part of the original planning.
  • Lifestyle balance was a non-negotiable item.
  • A willingness to simply get going and course correct along the way if needed.

Legal:

  • Before business was formally commenced, significant energy spent on legal operating agreements, and early on, equal focus dedicated to employee agreements, vendor contracts, etc.
  • Created (and defended in one case) intellectual property we believed acquiring companies would value in a sale process.

Operations:

  • The economic engine was very clearly understood from the outset.
  • Intentionally minimized support headcount, support procedures, etc.
  • We always priced our service based on value (unashamedly) and never pursued the pricing race to the bottom in order to “win” business.
  • Knowledge of how large companies run was critical to the success of each business, operationally and in the exit phase.
  • We managed our financial books like we were a public company from day one.
  • We hired A-players and took good care of them; and attempted to align with A-players at the customer.

Exit:

  • We helped drive the exit demand by creating the market – or as we called it “inception” type planning to spur identified acquirers to pursue a sale.

Again, these themes are simply what worked for us – there are lots of ways to put a start-up together as they are as much art as science.  However, there tend be to corollaries I’ve witnessed when certain of the above items were disregarded.  More about those examples next time.