Nine Years Down

As is tradition, I'm doing a quick review of the past year and what is coming up in my life in my opinion for the next year.

Where I Was A Year Ago

Angelina and I had just moved from Dallas to the "Emerald Coast" of Florida. We had only been in our home a few weeks before it was time for our annual Christmas trip (Jordan and Istanbul in 2021). The world had just been provided ample COVID-19 vaccines and it seemed everything was going back to the "new normal".

I was starting to get into the swing of work. I had acted as a Manager on several projects and had even more opportunities to grow as the new year began.

Overall, I was optimistic that 2022 was going to be a good year since I could travel again, had recently moved to the beach, and was starting to hit my stride at PwC.

What I Expected Of 2022

Travel, work, and big life decisions.

Travel: I checked off a few travel bucket list items (and have one upcoming which is why this is being written early). I continued to expand my knowledge of the Caribbean with a trip to St. Thomas for a beautiful wedding and another visit to Tulum (where I tried spearfishing for the first time) for a great wedding too. Overall, the Caribbean is one of my favorite places in the world and it is hard for me to upset with any trip in the region. My wife and I headed to Paris during the July 4th holiday, which was my first visit to the city. Overall, loved the surrounding areas around Paris (Versailles and Mont St. Michel), and the Louvre was unreal though.

Of course, this brings me to my big trip (and probably the most exotic trip of my life, unless we can get moon tourism up and running before I die), Antarctica. Angelina and I will be heading to Argentina and then Antarctica (our final continent) this Sunday. At one point, this trip was iffy due to COVID resurgences, but I am extremely happy it is ready to go with no issues (other than normal travel issues) in the way.

Work: I was up for early promotion this year and got it. As of now, Manager at S& is the best job I've ever held. It leverages my presentation, planning, and delegation skills. Additionally, I get to focus more on projects I truly care about and less on projects where "we need another body". Since my promotion in June, I've had the chance to work on some awesome projects for some amazing clients. I am starting to build out a strong "growth strategy" skillset inside of the Consumer Electronics, Media, & Entertainment industries. As I continue to grow, I want to become "The" guy for growth strategy in these areas, specifically gaming / entertainment consumer electronics and live entertainment, which is primarily aimed at the underlying live event venues and fan operations. Luckily (I guess), I'm not up for promotion anytime soon, so I have the chance to just sit and focus on my work instead of playing the politics game.

Big Life Decisions: Angelina and I purchased a home. It's a great place and we got lucky. We were able to lock-in a 4.5% interest rate before they truly skyrocketed, and now have a place which is a 10-ish minute walk to the beach which I don't think we'll ever sell. Both of our neighbors rent out their homes for $400 to $600 a night, so worst case, this becomes a vacation rental if we ever get pulled somewhere else geographically.

What I Learned in 2022

I relearned some of the lessons I had been taught before, and learned a few new things as well:

• Old: Focus on your strengths.
• Old: A good plan will get you a long way.
• New: There are very few risks not worth taking.
• New: Sometimes distance is the best thing to add in certain relationships.

Both of my "old" lessons learned, I originally learned in college. During college, I found myself as someone who could organize efforts to create real change. I did this primarily by meticulously planning out my semester, weeks, and days.

In 2022, I learned that I should ignore "developing" my weaknesses into strengths and should just focus on what I kick ass at, this is what got me promoted. By honing my efforts on getting staffed for growth strategy projects (an area I hyper focused on during MBA school), I was able to create fantastic deliverables and results for clients, who then were more likely to hire me and PwC again. I was able to sell three new "additional" projects this past year because my team just did fantastic on the initial efforts. The ability to sell additional work to happy clients is a key skill set for Directors and Partners at PwC.

One of my strengths which helped me a lot this year was planning. The ability to walk into a project and plan what the next 90 to 120 days will look like to ensure the team can hit the required targets and deliverables is something Managers at PwC have to be able to pull off. Luckily, I have this skill and it got used a ton during this past year. Personally, I need to take this same approach with my goals and non-work efforts, which I plan on implementing in the new year.

My new lessons are helping me be happier with myself, my life, and my friends.

There are a lot of risks in life. However, most decisions are easily reversible and with just a smidge of prudence you can limit your losses. While the financial world is in pain (e.g., definitional recession, stock market drops, FTX / Crypto explosion, interest rate spikes, etc.), the day-to-day businesses that run most of America (e.g., gas stations, house cleaners, cash washes, grocery stores, etc.) are all doing just fine. A lot of the world is focused on the next get rich quick scheme like startups and Web3, but I think the real winner for the risk/reward relationship lies in the working businesses which are built around quality of service in a local area.

My wife and I have started a small side hustle around cleaning homes along the beach here. It cost us about $10,000 to start in September and we've already made our money back already. It is easy to automate and outsource and there are a ton of resources (both free and paid) online to help new owners in this area. Additionally, my wife has focused her social media and blogging skills to grow beyond travel and focus on books and helping authors reach their target audience. While this pivot was a bit of a risk for her, the downside was minimal (especially since COVID killed travel for 2 years) and the rewards have been strong. Overall, if you have something you want to try, go do it because the downside isn't that bad once you run the numbers.

I have isolated myself a bit with the move to Florida, both personally and professionally. The closest PwC office is about 5 hours drive and no one I work with is located in the SE of the US. My nearest close friend is in Dallas, a 9-ish hour drive. Instead of having the chance to just text someone to see if they want to watch a football game, I have to plan months ahead of time to see when they could visit us or visa versa.

However, this isolation has actually helped a lot my relationships. I have fewer expectations of others as the distance makes it unlikely I will need any of my friends' help. Now I can look at friends are purely friends and not individuals I should rely upon for certain things. I think this has helped me reevaluate relationships and who I want to invest additional effort into as I grow into my life.

BTW, if you do know anyone who lives nearby, we are looking for friends to grab dinner with and watch football haha so please feel free to introduce us.

What I'm Looking Forward To In 2023

Focusing on my personal / non-work goals. Since MBA school, I have either been wondering if consulting / PwC was the right fit and/or trying to get promoted. I now know that PwC is a pretty good fit and I don't need to make another big promotion push for 18 to 24 months from now. I also have been on the move (adding a new address twice in the last 12 months and 4 times in the last 4 years). With a new long-term house and a relatively straightforward career path, I can finally take some time to focus on building my personal life to be the best it can possibly become. During our Antarctica cruise I plan on building out my 20, 10, 5 and 1 year plan, something I haven't done since pre-MBA school.

Finishing the travel bucket list. Angelina and I had always said we want to see all seven continents and all seven wonders of the world. Assuming the Antarctica trip goes smoothly, we only have the Taj Mahal left, which is our target for Christmas 2023. We also have a mediterranean cruise planned for July. We went on a mediterranean cruise before MBA school and it was one of our favorite trips we've ever been on, so I have high expectations. Overall, I will feel extremely accomplished after our travels next year.

Career wise, I'm just gonna grind through 2023 and see what happens. No big milestones or anything. I hope to continue to grow my side investments, Angelina's business, and the home cleaning efforts, but none of those drive our monthly budget or anything, so it is pretty low pressure at this point in time.

Overall, I hope 2023 is scripted to be a year of personal growth and focus, which I always enjoy.

Thank you for reading a quick update about my life and I hope you and yours have a fantastic 2023 as 2022 wraps up in the coming weeks.