We stopped at a few places along the way, including this scenic vista at about 9200 ft.

And then again at the top:

Very cool drive, definitely recommended.

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What do I really want to do?  What if sales never get back to where they were?  How should I be spending my time?

The last one led me toward the idea of “highest and best use,” which is a term from the real estate world.  The first example that comes to mind is in the movie Up.  The real estate development company wants the bulldoze the house to make room for some modern high-rise, but the owner won’t sell.

The two parties have differing views toward highest and best use.  In purely economic terms, the real estate developer is right.  But in emotional, historical, and sentimental terms, the old house wins.  A similar situation recently played out in Seattle.

I think Highest and Best Use (HBU) can be applied to life outside of real estate, in how we spend our days.  Is doing comparison shopping for shoes my HBU?  Or is there something else I could do that might make me happier or have a greater societal benefit?

Should Angelina Jolie personally spend her time visiting and adopting a few impoverished children?  Or would it be her HBU to instead spend her time making movies and earning millions of dollars, and then using that money to help thousands of impoverished children?

There are a few ways to look at HBU for individuals: financial, societal, and emotional.  Each one could yield a different highest and best use.  Consider a genius physicist.  He could:

• Make a fortune as a Wall Street “quant” building smarter data models for big banks.
• Design a more fuel-efficient engine, reducing toxic emissions and foreign oil imports.
• Go fishing, if that’s what makes him happiest.

A micro-economist might say that everyone is already doing their HBU.  Given our need to optimize and maximize our utility, by definition, whatever we’re doing must be our HBU.  I think that over-simplifies it.

As someone still searching for their highest and best use, I don’t know the answer.

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The Other 8 Hours serves as a great reminder that everyone on earth starts with the same input (time), yet we achieve vastly different outputs based on how we spend that time.  Ideologically, the book falls somewhere between Robert Kiyosaki’s Rich Dad, Poor Dad and Timothy Ferriss’s The 4-Hour Workweek.  All three begin with the near-universal truth that nobody gets rich working a 9-5, and then branch off on their different paths on how to overcome that.  While Kiyosaki focuses more on investment strategies and Ferriss discusses automation and mandatory ignorance/isolation, Pagliarini offers some concrete actions that everyone can take to improve their personal and financial lives.  Since he’s not as extreme as Ferriss, I think this book will find a broader appeal.

I found the book full of inspirational stories from entrepreneurs and others who have escaped the rat race.  Pagliarini shares a lot of tips on how to free up more time, leverage your talents, and squeeze more productivity from each day.  He gets a little preachy toward the end, but it’s hard not to after 200 pages of rah-rah motivational, take charge of your life prose.  Even if you take away just one positive idea from the book, it’s well worth the read.

Every minute that goes by is one you’ll never get back.  Are you doing what you want to be doing?

And if you read nothing else, read page 183.

FTC Disclosure: If you buy The Other 8 Hours through the above link, Amazon will pay me 4% of the purchase price.

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Born to Run is a book about the Tarahumara people of the rugged canyon country of Northern Mexico.  But it’s also a book about history, business, nutrition, biology, evolution, individualism and community, motivation, and yes, even running.  The author describes himself as an oft-injured middle-aged journalist who sees men twice his age running hundreds of miles a month without any of the heel, ankle, knee, hip, and back problems he’s experienced.  How do they do it?

The quest for answers leads McDougall through the druglords’ backyard in Mexico, the mountains of Colorado, and to the plains of Africa.  He encounters an impressive cast of supporting characters along the way, including elite ultrarunners, doctors, Nike executives, scientists, and the mysterious Caballo Blanco.

I learned how humans are uniquely engineered for distance running, and why the more expensive running shoes create more injuries.  Intrigued by the supposed benefits of barefoot running, last week I left my Brooks behind and took to the sidewalks and office parks near our home “commando” style — and it felt great!  I’d gone shoe-less on the treadmill a few times but there was something special about going outside.

Even as just a one-time-half-marathoner who doesn’t particularly love running, I was really inspired by Born to Run.  It makes you want to get out there and hit the pavement and the trails.  In the end, the moral of McDougall’s story is that less is more and that as a reminder to enjoy the simple pleasures of life, even though we’ll probably never know what it feels like to run a 100 mile race.

Thanks Doug for the recommendation!

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Unfortunately I never wanted to use them for fear they’d run out of ink.  Yeah I clearly had some issues.

Well this came up last week when we didn’t want to take Mochi on a walk because he’d just had a bath and it was raining and wet outside, so he’d get all muddy and dirty again.  Thankfully we were reminded by the song at the end of the Avenue Q musical we just saw, something about whatever happens is “only just for now.”  So Mochi got his walk in, got dirty, and the sun still came up the next day.

It made me think about what other “Mr. Sketch markers” people might have in their lives.

• Not using the nice dishes. (They might break!)
• Not wearing your shoes in the house. (The floors might get dirty!)
• Not using your new skis. (I might hit a rock!)
• Not taking vacation. (I might fall behind at work!)
• Not moving to that new city. (I might not know anyone!)
• Not remodeling your house. (It might lose re-sale value!)
• Not calling your friends or family. (They might be busy!)
• Not asking for a raise at work. (They might say no!)
• Not starting that business. (It might fail!)

Yes, all of those things might happen.  But they might not.

It took me a while, but I think I’ve learned life is more fully lived when you take out all the “nots.”

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“Up $5k for the month.”

What?!  I knew immediately what he was talking about: affiliate marketing.  Here I was having just moved all the way across the country to start work at my “real job” when I get this message about a friend making way more money in way less time online.

At first I was jealous and anxious to know how he was doing it.  We’d both experimented with online marketing in college, but never made any serious money like that.  That text message was an eye-opener and a huge inspiration.  It wasn’t long after that I started work on the Shoes ‘R Us site.

When you share your success with others, I suppose you run the risk of bragging, but you never know what you might inspire.  Maybe even something life-changing.  Success can be fleeting, but there are always new opportunities to take advantage of.  So cheers to that, and thanks for sending that text.

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In the book, the narrator travels the globe in search of the secrets to happiness.  (Strangely absent: the “happiest place on earth.”)  The journey is both serious and funny, genuine and lighthearted.  I’ve been told it’s a guy’s version of Eat, Pray, Love, but I haven’t read that one so I can’t say.  The Geography of Bliss appealed to the globetrotter in me, and it will make you think about what makes you happy.  In the end, author Eric Weiner arrives at the inevitable conclusion that there is no single magic-bullet for long-term happiness, but he shares plenty of wisdom and insight along the way on what might help get us there.

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Over 100 years ago, Henry Ford was tinkering in the shed out behind his house.  He was building his first car.  But when he finished, he realized he’d made one critical mistake: it was too big to fit through the door.

Undeterred, Ford actually knocked down a wall of his shed to take his new invention for a test drive.

Moral of the story: If you’re out to the change the world, you might have to knock down a wall or two along the way.

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If that sounds familiar, it’s probably from a review of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs in Marketing or Psych 101.  The idea is that food, shelter, safety, money, etc are “extrinsic” rewards and they form the base of the pyramid.  To reach the top of the pyramid and the peak of human motivation, you have to get into the way more touchy-feely subjects of self-esteem and self-actualization — something very few companies do well.

Very interesting stuff.  Thanks Matt for sending.

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Last summer for example, I fell victim to the “Google Slap” and lost 75%+ of my traffic and revenue for three months.  Stressful.  Hopefully we’ll stay on better terms this summer… maybe I should have bought something from their gift shop.  Either way, that’s why I’m working on diversifying the business and investing for the future.

I miss the people I used to work with, and my company cars.  But the work itself, not so much.  The self-employed lifestyle affords too much freedom to go back.

With any luck, I’ll be able to add a “Celebrating Two Years of Retirement” post next year.  But I’m probably jinxing myself by writing this, so until then, I’ll just take it one day at a time.

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