Finishing strong

The bar is high for 2024

TLDR: Closed out 2023 very determined, grateful for all of you, and glad that we had goals big enough to fail at.

Truthfully, I could’ve used a break on MMM today.

But skipping the first Monday just seemed weak.

Instead, for those of you following along last year—it was a year of goals.

And I went into the last two weeks of the year having accomplished most everything I set out to do, including a few of the really big ones, but still haunted by a few others.

The two that really haunted me though were the Misogi challenge and the ski home.

Both very possible and yet still somehow out of reach.

The Misogi Challenge

Misogi is a term used for a physical challenge that is meant to be so hard it defines your year. Something to test your limits mentally and physically, and something to remind yourself that you are capable of hard things.

This past weekend, even though my legs were shot from putting 100K vertical feet and nearly 100 miles on the skis, I flew into Santa Fe—a week before our company offsite—to attempt the 4x4x48.

The 4x4x48 is simple—4 miles, every 4 hours, for 48 hours. The challenge is both physically demanding, and given the intervals, mentally exhausting as it requires you to persist through very little sleep and at crazy hours of the day too.

I’m proud to say I finished it last night.

48 miles and just over 8 hours of total running.

It was a good reminder that when you commit to something and persist with the mentality that “failure is not an option,” you can do whatever you set your mind to.

That said, I certainly will not be doing this one again!

The Ski Home

Last year, I dreamt of owning a ski home, and as each month of endless searching rolled on, it felt like it was never going to happen.

Then two weeks ago, I finally found what I thought was the one, and I put my first offer in on a home!

It got accepted, but unfortunately only as backup offer as someone else beat me to it.

Nevertheless, there was a glimmer of hope, and the dream will continue. And who knows, maybe the other buyer will still back out!

With Gratitude

Ultimately, I don’t think I would have pushed as hard on this goals list if it were not for all of you--the people who read this silly Substack each week, and the public accountability of it all.

We ended the year having completed 42 of 47 goals, and got really freaking close on those last five too!

When it was all said and done, I was not only proud of what we did set out to do, but I was glad that I had big enough goals to fail at a few.

Guess we’ll just have to push those limits in 2024 and see what’s next!

Thank you to everyone who contributed to 2023, and for reading each week. I do think it’s probably time to get back to our regularly scheduled programming though, and write a bit less about me, and a bit more about business. There is a lot going on in the venture world, 2023 was an absolute banner year despite the headwinds, and there is so much more to come! Stay tuned, and as always…

See you Monday.