“Your future hasn’t been written yet. No one’s has. Your future is whatever you make it. So make it a good one – Doc Brown

“If Time Travel is possible, where are the tourists from the future” – Stephen Hawking

Dear Shawn –

Throughout your life you have been fortunate to be exposed to lots of new things and with that lots of memories and even more lessons to learn from.

In your early years, you spent a lot of time fishing with your dad and grandfather. One of the annual highlights was getting down to Black River in Watertown, NY for the fall salmon run. Oh, the thrill of hooking a 50+ pound fish was the stuff your dreams were made of when you were 13. One year, you hooked an absolute beast of a salmon and spent over 2 hours trying to bring it into the boat. After one quick glimpse of the beast at the surface, the hook dislodged, he swam away and you were left dejected, thinking about what you did wrong and blaming yourself.

• Maybe I didn’t set the hook correctly?
• Maybe I pulled to hard?
• Maybe I didn’t let the fish run long enough?
• Maybe I should have been on the other side of the boat?

For months the “one that got away” ate away at you. You begged for a time machine to take you back to that day so you could go one more round with the beast!

These kind of experiences carried forward into your working life. Whether it was chasing business deals or chasing that epic powder line on the ski slopes, there was always a post-mortem where you asked yourself “what did you do wrong?” followed by the though of “If I could only turn back time and do it again I would…..”

These reflections are important but let me offer some advice on how to better manage and learn from them –

1 – Look forward not back – Hindsight is always 20/20; of course you can imagine a better plan after you know how it all plays out. The point is, rather than thinking about what you did wrong, think about what you will take forward to your next adventure. Bring these learnings like a set of reference books to your next adventure and continue to build this library over time

2 – Eliminate regret, it’s the price of entry – Don’t ever regret an experience even it was a negative one. Life presents a ton of opportunities to experience all sorts of new things and to build relationships with new people. Often, you won’t know what’s behind the door until you open it.

4 – Take more chances but fail fast – Try lots of different things early in your career and maximize the opportunity to meet new people asking asking what they have learned. Ask them about risks they took in their career that paid off and those that did not. Take calculated risks but measure them carefully and have an exit plan.

5 – Share your learnings and laugh lots – Share your stories with family, friends and colleagues using them as an opportunity to not only reinforce learnings but also to laugh at yourself and relish the memories as positive ones.

Embrace what comes at you; you never know what can happen. In 1995 you received late acceptance to your dream university (Queen’s). At first, you were beyond excited, but then you started thinking about how late in the process it was and how you were already set to attend a different school, and how you had a job nearby, and friends, and how moving out of town would disrupt all of that. In the end, your mom convinced you that it was never “too late” to do something you had dreamed of and that every obstacle could be overcome. That university experience not only delivered a great education, but served as a launch pad for friendships, a business you founded and most importantly the place where you met your future wife.

“Opportunity is a bald man with a long beard – when he knocks, grab him by the beard because once he turns around he’s gone”. – I credit this line of thinking to my parents who has always supported me but also been there to remind me that “there is only path….forward”!

If you enjoyed this write-up here are direct links to the rest of the series.