One Life to Live
I’ve never been big on motivational speakers and literature. While I’m sure some of them are very valuable and insightful, for each useful example I’m sure there are tanks full of snake oil. Whenever I see someone post something on social media like a meme about “the hustle,” I assume they’re either trying to signal some sort of virtue or convince themselves of their own work ethic.
Nevertheless, a lot of people whose work ethic I admire seem to be fans of Gary Vaynerchuk, a former wine entrepreneur who is now known as an expert in social media and digital marketing. He’s a relentless promoter, public speaker and author as well as an aspiring owner of the New York Jets (I guess everyone has an Achilles Heel).
While I still don’t know much about “Gary Vee,” I’ve watched a few of his YouTube videos and I intend to learn more. I’ll reserve further judgment until I’m better educated. In the meantime, though, I came across this canvas artwork he’s selling which is simply a traditional red “admit one” style ticket, except the verbiage says, “ONE LIFE.”
I’m not sure if that’s hokey or over-the-top, and even if I wanted it we don’t currently have any available wall space, but it kind of sums up what we want this site to be about from a fishing perspective. Remember, Hanna and I are not billionaires. We both work full-time jobs. We have responsibilities to our families and communities outside of work. AND WE LOVE TO TRAVEL AND FISH. In fact, we can’t get enough of it.
We’ll only get one life to balance all of those realities and make the most of them, and as we reached 50 the fact set in --- we’re unlikely to get to do EVERYTHING we want to accomplish and see everything we want to see before we croak. I suppose we could quit our jobs tomorrow, sell everything we own, and take a stab at it, but then we’d be eating cat food in our eighties. The balance, as I see it, is to ensure you maximize every day as if you were going to die at 60, but also plan as if you’re going to live past 100. That’s a hard middle ground to find. Furthermore, the decisions that are right for us may not be right for you, and the uncertainties ahead of all of us outnumber the things we know.
Our goal here is not only to help you navigate those life decisions, but to explain our thinking openly and transparently, so that we can play our own odds as well as possible. It’s not an easy thing to do, but putting your head in the sand is the worst possible way to approach it.
