Refocusing

The Legends Outdoor Mall in Kansas City, KS.

It was nice to have a week off in Kansas City.  The weather didn't cooperate as well as I would have liked, but it was still nice to get away.

When I take time away from my busy life here in Rochester, I like to travel to new cities to seek inspiration to bring back to Rochester.  This usually results in giving myself a lot more work when I get back as I am energized by new initiatives and people that I meet in that city.  

This time, I purposely decided to do what I should have been doing all along, spend time with my family.  This wasn't a fact finding mission, this was a time that I needed to be present for my family.  

These last eight months have been an amazing time for me.  I have launched Collider Coworking  and helped with numerous initiatives to grow our entrepreneurial community.  This has been the most difficult, yet rewarding time of my life.  

It took this long vacation to realize that I have taken on way too much in the last few months which has resulted in time away from my business, my health and most importantly - my family.  

Last year, I had the honor of spending an hour with Brad Feld, thanks to the always awesome Rachelle Oribio.  Something that Brad said during that chat has been rolling around in my brain for the last 6 months: "only spend about 10-20% of your time on your entrepreneurial community."  Now I understand what he was talking about.  

It's time to lighten my load.  Going forward, I will be shedding my commitments that do not directly relate to my businesses, health or family.  To mix it up a bit, I will have one "passion project" that lies outside of my normal routine to keep things from becoming too static.

My apologies to those of you that I have committed to help, but simply cannot.  If I don't refocus on what I'm trying to build and the things that I care the most about, any resulting community will be meaningless to me in the long run.

A quote by Robert Tew that I have been thinking about for the last few weeks has finally crystallized in my brain during my vacation.  

“Respect yourself enough to walk away from anything that no longer serves you, grows you, or makes you happy.”