The physical journey has been to take the concept I have for a mobile geolocation coupon app and make it a reality.
It has been three months of near day and night and weekends to get it completed. It goes well beyond putting a business plan and numbers together. I've had countless meetings with investors, mentors, potential customers and employees and vendors.
To say it's been an emotional roller coaster is an understatement. To say it's been a learning experience is another understatement. To say I've done the best pre-planning work of my life is an understatement. To say I wouldn't have traded this experience to this point for anything is an understatement.
And to make it a little more challenging, I did it with a broken right hand. Not easy or fast to do write emails or presentations.
As of today I'm entering into the next phase of the journey. To recap, I now have the presentation finished and the numbers finished. The numbers alone between myself and my financial guy we have spent over 350 hours pouring over the numbers and validating.
It might seem anal, but when you are going out for money to investors you better have your ducks in a row. You better know your stuff and you better be able to defend your plan and assumptions. I can say with complete confidence and without question I can.
The good news is that the numbers are great. All I need to do is execute on the plan and without sounding egotistical, executing and scaling is what I do. It's my comfort zone and I'm chomping at the bit to get there.
BUT there is one more step and it's the next part of the journey. It's now all about raising money and it's time for me to start my "dog and pony" show. I realized that today. I was so focused on getting the plan to where I felt it was 100% complete and now that it is, I realized I now need to get on the road and raise money.
I already have a commitment from a very large investor, a guy that has done over $50 billion in leveraged buyouts before he retired, and I have a number of friends that want to invest. With that said, I'm only about 30% towards my goal.
I realized finding the money in Canada is possible but a slow and arduous process. I've built every business I've had in the U.S. and this will be no different. I'm sure the money will be raised in the U.S. and my prediction is after it's all done the Canadian investors will then say they want to go to the next level and it will be too late.
So what does this mean? It means I'll be travelling down to Silicon Valley, probably the send week of February and stay as long as it takes to find investors. My goal has always been to have the money committed by the end of February.
On my run today I realized I need a video presentation. I need to take the power point and speak to it so I can send it to people in advance. In today's world it's all about time and people have so little of it and don't want to waste it, nor do I want to waste my time if they are not interested.
This week as been a very special week for me. I may be the most focused week I've had in as long as I can remember. There was days that were really intense and all I wanted to do was relax and have a beer. But I didn't.
I didn't. Instead I trained. The reason I didn't want a beer was because one leads to a few and that leads to me not being at my best or as sharp as I wanted and need to be this week. And it was worth it. I just felt I was at my best.
I also felt that I was up to my old ways by training. There was a few times I didn't want to train and I pushed myself to do it and there is no greater feeling than finishing a training session when you didn't want to do it and it was tough to get started.
This is so much starting to feel like 2009, the year I had a turning point in training for Ironman and I was a man on a mission. There was so many times this week I could have zigged when I zagged and derailed and sabotaged my efforts. I took the more difficult and rewarding path.
The mental state I'm in is much different than ever before. I'm truly living my life day-to-day and in the moment. If I find myself drifting into the future I pull myself back and tell myself to let the future unfold accordingly and then respond accordingly.
There has been a difference physically. I'm feeling very bloated and it shows. It's the tough part of getting back in the training groove. Your body needs to adjust and it does that by retaining water to repair muscle and it feels like you are taking a step backward. I do know it's feels like a step backward that is really a disguised step forward.
Although I'm trying to stay in the moment, there was one thing that I have been thinking about all week and is going to happen tomorrow. Alice and I are going to the "Fleetwood Mac" concert in Buffalo tomorrow. It's the original band and I'm pumped.
We have never went to a lot of concerts and the last one we did was about 25 years ago in Winnipeg where we saw Billy Joel. I'm so looking forward to this one. It's on a Saturday and it's a Saturday after a great week. I'm pumped.
Today I was invited to join a Google Hangout with a group of Catholic School Teachers and Administrators about 21st Century learning. It was my first Google hangout. A google hangout is when you connect via the computer and everyone in the hangout can see each other and when you talk your photo becomes the main photo.
It's cool, but I find myself looking at myself all the time. I don't like the video. I like snacking when I'm on the phone. I like walking around the house. I like getting a coffee and when you are on a google hangout you have to be on your best behaviour, no nose picking.
With all that said, it was an interesting experience. It was a cool experience. Here where about 7 or 8 people from around the U.S and they are educators who care deeply about being the best educators they could be and sincerely want to create an environment to help students fulfill there potential.
I've never liked school, even now I have a tough time sitting in any classroom setting. It's not me. But I found this inspiring. It showed me that some people, regardless of what they do, are working to make the world a better place. They had incredible passion and I think they have a tougher job than any business. They are trying to move and institutional mountain.
My hat goes off to them. They are the change agents. They are really everyday hero's.
Run - 1:12 / 11.12 km
207 lbs
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