Absolute drivel. Haha. I started my blog 16 years ago as just an experiment and it has evolved into an expression of my life and creativity. My interest in writing posts has come and gone through the years. You’ll see big gaps in my writing or sometimes I would just post a YouTube video. Earlier posts were trying to be “TechCrunch like” and then later evolved into more thoughtful writing about my family, our move to Utah and my stroke. My blog has become more for me than anyone else — a public facing journal and expression of creativity.
As a child, my focus was on math and science. I joke that I barely passed the “Test of English as a Foreign Language” (TOEFL) and English was sort of my second language behind Tagalog. (Or, if you saw me as a kid you might think my first language was “eating”). Writing did not come naturally to me but I do find enjoyment in the expression of my thought through writing. I’m sure any English major would laugh at the run on sentences and random drivel being throw around like spaghetti on a wall. (I think I subconsciously married an English major as a ying to my yang.). But, as I have gotten older I’ve cared less about what others have thought. Or put another way, I find it liberating to limit how much I care about what other people think especially when it comes to being creative.
The photos on my blog at 98% taken by me. I’ve always enjoyed taking pictures. My father passed that passion down to me and I think I passed it down to my daughter. I still own an old Nikon D90 camera with several lenses but have since moved to taking pictures on my phone. The Apple iPhone camera is simply amazing. My dad handed down a bunch of Leika gear to my daughter. She has developed her own passion for photography and has one some photography competitions. We share the joy of being in a dark room with some Pink Floyd playing and being alone with your thoughts.
Being creative is a unique and elusive thing for me. Growing up Filipino, we became doctors or lawyers. As a technologist, I’m at the fringes of an acceptable career. I’m pretty sure my parents think I’m a “Chief Train Officer”. My parents encouraged I learn piano like any good Asian child but no way did I ever consider a role as a traditional creative. But, I always highly appreciated the ability to come up with unique ideas, perspectives and approaches. As a child, I picked up playing the guitar. My first guitar was an inexpensive black Fender Squire Stratocaster in honor of Eric Clapton. I would sit for hours working on scales and imagining different patterns and riffs.
So, lets take take a step back and reframe why I write this blog. I enjoy telling stories. I enjoy expressing myself. I enjoy sharing knowledge. And I enjoy sharing what’s on my mind. Family, work, technology, life, whatever. I’ll write about it.
Every year I go through an exercise of defining my personal yearly goals and I track them throughout the year. My system is a combination “stuff I made up that works for me” and OKR’s**.
**Objects and Key Results (OKR) is a is a goal-setting framework used by individuals, teams, and organizations to define measurable goals and track their outcomes. The development of OKR is generally attributed to Andrew Grove who introduced the approach to Intel in the 1970s.
I tweak the process every year so it’s been an ongoing work in progress. Guess what? We are approaching 2024 and Its about that time of year again so let’s roll through my process.
The rough methodology is as follows —
Take in the bigger picture
Define goal categories
Define directional / motivational statements per category
Define category objectives with key results
Define how to track the key results
Simplify and simplify again
Lock in and revisit throughout the year (repeat monthly)
Let’s dig into the steps!
Step #1 — Take in the bigger picture. Before I get into the tactical details, I like to make sure to spend some thinking time taking a step back and answering a few higher level questions.
How were things in 2023? Who am I? Where am I in life? How are Sarah and I doing? How are Molly and Brooklyn doing? Where an I with my family? Where am with my friends? Where am I in my career? What are next 2-3 career moves? Where are we with our finances? Where am i with my health & fitness? How much risk can I take this year?
Yearly goals need to be motivating and aspirational for me. The bigger picture helps me craft goals that get me out of bed in the morning. Plus, its just nice to reflect on things every year.
One of my favorite questions is how much risk can I take this year? There is no reward without some risk. Risk can define you as a person like it does with Elon Musk or Alex Honnold but I think they are “calculated risk takers”. I believe it’s important to take calculated risks in life because it pushes you beyond your limits. Plus, isn’t life boring without some risk and adventure?
Step #2 — Define goal categories. The categories help me shape the areas I want to focus on. They have stayed fairly consistent from year to year but there have been times when new categories make it on the list or the priority order changes. For example, after my stroke I had prioritized recovering from my stroke as a category. Below are the categories I have for 2024 —
Family & Friends
Career
Health & Fitness
Knowledge & Mental Health
Creativity
Step #3 — Define directional / motivational statements per category. Each category needs definition and statements that get me motivated. Motivation is a fuel that can come from external and internal sources. An external source might be getting fired from a job or being told you can’t do something. An internal source might be a statement like “Disrupt an industry”. A statement like that motivates me to power through the headwinds.
Family & Friends
Be the best husband I can be
Be the best dad I can be
Be the best friend I can be
Career
Keep building
Disrupt an industry
Solve meaningful customer problems
Take risks
Work with an amazing people
Innovate & be creative
Make money
Health & Fitness
Find excellence in my health & fitness
Knowledge & Mental Health
Constantly expand my knowledge
Find balance with my mental health
Creativity
Create new things and introduce them to the world
Step #4 — Define category objectives with key results. Within each category you define an objective and a measure able key result. This is where we can start to overthink traditional goal frameworks and come up with a big mess. My suggestion is to keep things simple.
Example: Knowledge & Mental Health
Objective: Elite mental conditioning
Key result: Read 15 books throughout the year (Track in Goodreads)
Key result: Journal/Meditate/Reflect once a week (Track with habit tracker)
Step #5 — Define how to track the key results. Tracking is critical. You need to form the habits that support key result which in turn supports the objective. Habit trackers are great tools to build positive habits. I use Today but there are so many habit trackers it’s hard to keep track of them all. Find one that works for you and start building those positive habits. Alternatively, I use Evernote to track more coarse grain key results.
Step #6 — Simplify and simplify again. Every time I do this, I end up with too many categories, too many objectives, too many key results to track. Now it’s time to create maniacal focus. Cut out 30-50% of the categories, objectives and key results. Focus is absolutely a super power for any person or organization. Save the ones you cut for later.
Step #7 — Lock in and revisit throughout the year (repeat monthly). Done. Lock it in. Track habits daily. Check in on broader progress monthly. Update with comments on how things are going. Make it part of your existence.
Few addition comments —
Stick with it. You need to have the discipline to keep at it. This is isn’t once a year activity.
Find your Zen. Life is series of interconnected problems to solve. Some in your control, others not. Focus on the things you can control and be mentally ready for the unknown.
Setbacks make you stronger. Use it as motivation.
Things can change. Don’t be afraid to adjust as you go but keep pressing forward. Keep making progress.
Life is short. Don’t waste it. Find your happiness. Continue to be a better version of yourself every day.
Hope you enjoyed the post. Thank you for reading. Leave a comment or reach out!
It’s impossible to ignore the staggering reality of alcohol consumption in the United States. Recent data reveals that nearly 70% of American adults consumed alcohol in the past year, with a notable percentage indulging in heavy drinking. This national inclination towards alcohol isn’t just a social norm but a lens into the complexities of our relationship with this ubiquitous substance.
My parents didn’t drink alcohol much growing up. We had the customary liquor cabinet but we rarely opened it. The liquor bottles were so old I used wonder if they were still good. There was a light layer of dust on all the bottles. I remember there were few warm cans of Budweiser in there. When by chance a guest would come over and want a drink, my dad would grab one of these old cans, crack it open warm and pour it over ice. Haha! The cans were definitely past their born on date.
I would categorize myself as a casual drinker with a love for good craft beers. I love me a good IPA which can have 300+ calories per pint. I don’t drink brown liquor much. I prefer a good tequila or gin with a lime. COVID caused me to drink more mostly because I was bored. Moving to Utah didn’t help because the lack of good beers made me want it more. I drink mostly on the weekends but I was picking up the “I need a drink after a hard day” midweek drink more often. My casual drinking was adding up mostly around my waistline. Plus, hangovers were progressively becoming a problem. I would feel hungover consuming less booze and the recovery times were getting longer!
It all started when my wife said to me “if you cut back your drinking I bet you would lose 10 pounds”. I responded, “No way but I’ll give it a try.”. Of course, she was right. She’s always right.
I’m 70+ days into not having a drink and I feel great. Partially as an health experiment but also because it seemed like a waste of time and money.
I have lost 12 pounds.
I have higher energy levels.
I have better mental clarity and focus.
I feel more hydrated.
I have better workouts.
I sleep better.
I saved money.
When people notice, they usually ask me —
“Are you ok?”
“You’re kidding right?”
“How about just one?”
“What do you do wrong?”
To which my responses are —
Yes, I’m ok.
No, I’m not kidding.
I’m good but don’t let that stop the fun.
I did nothing wrong or I don’t think I did. Haha.
Through this process a few things surprised me —
The social pressure to drink is real. “Let’s go grab a drink” was my go to phrase to hangout with someone.
Business trips involve lots of drinking. So much drinking. A drink on the plane. A drink at the bar when you get to the hotel. Couple of drinks at dinner. Maybe a few more drinks after dinner with colleagues.
Waking up without a hangover is amazing. Hangovers are they worst!
The marketing around booze is overwhelming. I found myself noticing the ads more. We are bombarded by booze ads all day long!
I feel better without booze. I’m not advocating that everyone quit because everyone should live their life the way they want. I’m going to continue on my sobriety experiment into 2024. Let’s see how this rolls! More updates coming.
“San Ramon, Calif. (September 6, 2023) – Accela, the trusted provider of cloud solutions at the heart of government, today announced a strategic growth investment from Francisco Partners, a leading global investment firm that specializes in partnering with technology businesses. Berkshire Partners will remain a significant investor with an equal equity holding in Accela. Financial terms of the transaction were not disclosed.”
Accela might have been one of the messiest turnarounds I’ve had to do through the insanity of a global pandemic. I am so proud of what the broader company and specifically the technology teams have been able to accomplish in the time I was at Accela.
Responsible for all technical aspects of the business.
Rebuilt technology organization, resourcing model, and software development lifecycle (SDLC).
Represented the company at industry events and with the media.
Most of my experience is classic high growth, venture capital. This was my first private equity owned from the start businesses. I learned a tremendous amount through this process. Here is a brief list.
Companies move as fast as their customers move.
Remote work can be ok for some businesses but you lose the edge in highly competitive markets.
State & Local Government is a vertical all on its own and even very different from Federal
People, team and culture are priority one in a turnaround.
Turnarounds are not sexy, but can be fun and fulfilling.
When in doubt, pick up the phone and connect directly with customers, prospects and your team.
Most technical debt is manageable but products/platforms over 10+ years are approaching a tipping point requiring larger investment proportion to maintain.
All private equity is created differently. It’s hard to generalize across them. Look at the make up of the portfolios and operating partners to get a glimpse of what they are made of.
Private equity cares deeply about risk management, profit and cash flow regardless of what they tell you.
Change is absolutely Ok and in many times during a turnaround, required.
Assumptions at a turnaround can be highly toxic.
Let me know if you have feedback on any of the above. I’m excited to see the what the next chapter yields for Accela + Berkshire Partners + Francisco Partners.
My dad called me out of the blue several years back and said to me he was clearing out their office where my parents ran their medical practice for probably 25+ years. I sort of grew up in that office. My parents worked a ton so I ended up spending a lot of time there entertaining myself there and in the later years, as their IT guy setting up the computer systems. I built computers in the basement from parts I sourced from Computer Shopper Magazine and setup a Novell NetWare Network including running cat5 between all of the offices. It was a fun. I since dropped it from my resume but I was Novell NetWare Network Certified! Haha.
Apparently, I had left 10-15+ boxes of comic books in my old office in the basement. I had forgotten that before I left for college I brought my entire comic book collection to the office basement because it was cool, dry and clean. 30 years later, my comic books have reappeared! Each comic book long box was filled with individually bagged with acid free backing comic books. I think i had about 10,000+ comics in my collection total.
My dad didn’t mince words. He was a man on a mission to clear out the office. He had loaded up all 10-15+ boxes of comic books on a pallet destined for California and was delivering the tracking number.
Holy smokes. I was being reunited with my childhood passion! I loved comic books. The characters, stories and art took me to all new places. I used to daydream about various superpowers and argue with my friends which ones were the best. I lived the Marvel Cinematic Universe before it had made its way to the big screen. Meanwhile, my wife wanted to know what the heck this pallet of boxes were that just arrived in our driveway.
My favorite character was Tony Stark / Iron Man. He didn’t have super human powers like the others but simply applied his intelligence and scrappy thinking to solve hard problems. Ok, he had his own character flaws but I always felt he was pretty damn cool at the time.
Ok, there are no mutants with super strength or folks with the ability to shoot laser beams from their eyes however, I’ve always felt that there are actually modern day “super powers” that humans are actually capable of. Below are some that I have seen. Some might not feel super by comic book standards but to me, they feel powerful. You be the judge.
Leadership — I’ve seen this done very well, very poorly and in very rare cases, legendarily well. When done well, it feels like a super power.
Example — Bob Iger. CEO of Disney resulting in an increase of the company’s market cap from $48 billion to $257 billion. Pixar acquisition, Marvel acquisition, Lucasfilm acquisition, 21st Century Fox acquisition, Hong Kong Disneyland Resort, Shanghai Disney, Disney+.
Team — A team is a group of individuals working together to achieve their goal. Some folks are just better at bringing the best out of a group of individuals.
Product visionary — We all know of the products that have changed our lives. There are usually product visionaries behind them.
Example — Steve Jobs. Macintosh, Modern Computer Typography, iMac, iPod, iTunes, iPhone, iPad.
Creativity — Creativity is a phenomenon whereby something new and valuable is formed. No standardized test is going to measure this. The creative process is amazing.
Work Ethic — Can you work harder than everyone else? I told myself at a young age that whatever I did in my professional career, I was going to outwork the folks around me to get to where I wanted to be.
Execution — Arguably a foundational skill for any leader but some folks are better at getting things done than others.
Example — Jim Sinegal, Co-Founder and previous CEO of Costco
Grit — Perseverance, hardiness, resilience, ambition, need for achievement and conscientiousness. I love grit. Will you persevere? Will you power through obstacles? Will you find a way? Will you rebound from failure? Will you keep going until you reach your goal?
Communication — do you communicate with a high level of fidelity, simplicity and passion to others?
Example — Bill Clinton, 42nd United States President
My list kept going but these are my favorites. What do you think? Are there a few that I’m missing? What are better examples that have the above super powers?
We all have a super powers. What are yours?
As always, thank you for reading. Please leave your thoughts or comments below.
The Winter 2022-2023 Season has been truly epic and its not over yet. The fresh powder has been overflowing all season long. Alta Ski Area and Solitude Mountain Resort both reported hitting the 500+ inches of snow at the earliest point of the season in years. We have been absolutely spoiled here in Utah especially compared to the east coast where NYC just received its first significant snow this past week and ski resorts are light on the white fluffy stuff. Best of all, the deep snowpack will be good for our reservoirs. Let’s keep the pow days rolling! The season isn’t over yet.
My first job out of college was with a company called Scient. Scient called itself the “The e-Buisness Innovator”. I could not have dreamed of a better place to land out of college. A truly transformative place to work. The leaders I worked for. The friends I made. And I ended up meeting my wife there. We worked long hours, hacked with technology together and felt like we could transform the world. We saw the future through technology — mobile devices, peer-to-peer networks, cloud computing, etc. The cohort of college graduates joining Scient in 1999 came from the best schools, were unbelievably talented and became some of my best friends. In the evenings, we would continue the technical conversation at the Buddah Bar in China Town or Vesuvio Cafe in North Beach. Drinks were usually involved. Sometimes we would bring some dice and just hang out playing games. It was true embodiment of Silicon Valley for me.
My time there didn’t last very long in the grand scheme of things — I only worked there for about 2-3 years before the company was consumed by the DotCom 1.0 implosion. Regardless, I look back at those years fondly. During my time at Scient, a small group of engineers started the “Any-to-Any” club. A group that felt that the future was through mobility. The future was through the plethora of interconnected devices like mobile devices and what is now called the Internet of Things (IoT). Keep in mind that in 1999 — the Motorola StarTac phone was all the rage, the BlackBerry had just been released, getting the weather through your Mobile WAP browser was cool and most Americans got their internet via America Online. Little did we know, it was early and we were way ahead of our time.
Fast forward 6 years, Steve Jobs first announced the iPhone in January 9, 2007 — the beginning of a new mobile revolution.
I remember a buddy of mine worked at Apple and invited me to lunch to check it out. At that time, I worked on the Bay Area peninsula so we went to a restaurant just outside the Apple Campus in Cupertino. He showed me the new phone, raving about it. I played with the phone for about 5 minutes and thought this was definitely a game changer. There was something so elegant about the lock screen that felt different than the Blackberry in my pocket. Then he showed me a “jail broken” phone and all of the developer built apps leveraging all the iPhone sensors. Wow. It was like looking into the future. Everything we believed in 1999 was coming true. Then I focused on knowing everything about the iOS Platform and soon to be released Android ecosystems and building mobile experiences. Little did we know, it was early and we were way ahead of our time.
Fast forward 2 years, we looked into the crystal ball again and saw a world where the mobile phones could create immersive experiences overlayed on the real world visually and physically. We were calling it “Location based Augmented Reality” — leveraging the camera and GPS sensors on the phone to create new experiences. In 2009, several of my friends and I decided to try and start Augmented Reality company way before Google Glass (2013), Pokémon Go (2016), Meta (2022) and Apple’s future augmented reality products (TBD). Little did we know, it was early and we were way ahead of our time.
MotiveCast is described on my LinkedIn profile as —
MotiveCast produces fun, social and addictive games at the crossroads of traditional social gaming and mobile — our games represent a generational shift in traditional social game play that will capture the imagination of players by making the world their game board. MotiveCast was the winner of the PepsiCo10 2010 start up competition.
Before it was MotiveCast, the company was named “Kranky Panda Studios”. We had originally founded the company to make immersive mobile games. And then we discovered the fun with Apple’s new mobile location API’s and hand rolled our own location server. And then discovered a future where Augmented Reality ruled the world and hand rolled our own Augmented Reality SDK. So, we were building immersive location based, augmented reality mobile games. We were Pokémon Go in 2009. Pokémon Go was initially released in 2016 and by 2020 grossed more than $6 billion in revenue.
We raised capital. Found a CEO. Brought on advisors. Got the attention of Venture Capital. Won a couple of start up competitions. We even made Fast Company Magazine. But, we ultimately failed. And we didn’t even do what lots of failed starts up do now — claim to have been acquired by another company even though they were just hiring the team. Yup, we just folded. Little did we know, it was early and we were way ahead of our time.
Failing at my own start up was a crushing blow to my ego. It’s one thing to say you embrace failure but its another to tell the world you were taking over the world and then just failing. It took me many years to get over it. Looking back, I cared too much about how others perceived my career. Plus, life isn’t kind to the entrepreneurial journey. So, I found shelter in the comfortable confines of an already established company for the years that followed.
I learned many things through this entrepreneurial journey. Let me see if I can articulate some of them here —
Be aware of being too early to market — we were so early and the augmented reality market still has not fully come into focus.
Make sure you wife and family are on board for the journey — your family is a unit. Your unit is going into adventures together. Make sure everyone is on board because the entrepreneurial journey can be very stressful.
Don’t be afraid to try new things but be aware that failure is part of the process — this may feel obvious but there is knowing this rule theoretically and then practically. You will fail. Be ready for it and focus on what it looks like getting through it.
Care less about what others think — caring too much about what other people think is wasted energy. Their opinion usually doesn’t matter.
Building technology is not the goal — we surely built a lot of cool technology, haha.
Sales and marketing are critical functions — find someone that knows how to do this or be ready to figure it out.
Iterate faster and more frequently — in hindsight, our iterations were too coarse grained. We needed to find shorter, faster tests.
Find your focus — we tried to be good at too many things.
Start up competitions don’t mean anything and can likely be a distraction.
Fast forward to 2023, Apple and Meta (previously named Facebook) are pressing hard into the augmented reality and virtual reality space. They are trying to be that foundational platform that powers these new immersive virtual experiences. Our biggest learning coming out of our experience was that a large company like Apple or Meta would need to crack the space open for others like the iPhone did for the mobile revolution. We saw several points of friction to wide scale adoption —
Adoption of sufficiently powered devices — in 2010, iPhone penetration was only at ~20%. Now, its closer to ~75%. Huge difference. Meta has to figure out this problem with their new virtual reality rigs. Their latest rig is pricing out at $1499.00 (https://www.meta.com/quest/quest-pro/). This is likely way out of the price range for most casual users.
Identification of the killer use cases that out weights the awkward social experience — its strange to see someone using their phone in an augmented reality experience. It’s strange to see someone in a VR rig. The value of the experience has to outweigh this awkwardness.
AR and VR Developer Ecosystems with better defined monetization opportunity — the platforms need the apps and it needs to be easier to build. At the time, we had to hand roll our own AR SDK.
Motion sickness — early AR and VR experiences were making people sick.
There is no lack of negative press on Meta’s strategy. But keep in mind that Meta is trying to do something very hard and its very easy to pile on there with negativity. I’m more interested in Apple’s AR offering which is set to come out soon. They have had more success creating these huge technology shifts than any other company in recent times and seem to be laying the foundation with their spacial sound and AR SDK. My gut says that Mark Zuckerberg’s Meta won’t be the company that turns the corner with AR and VR but will surely help to move the ball forward. There is too much investor pressure to maintain Meta’s core business and it feels like this shift needs Apple’s thoughtfulness. Apple has a good shot to make it happen. That being said, it could be one of those things that never turns the corner because people actually don’t want it. The real world is actually a pretty nice place to be.
I find blogging to be just as useful for me as it is for those that read my blog. This is one of the first times I’ve been able to thoughtfully reflect upon this journey. I wouldn’t trade my experience for the world and hope to give it another swing. But, I’ll share that for a future blog posts.
Thank you for reading! Please share your thoughts and comments.
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2022 has come to an end and 2023 is upon us. 2022 zoomed by so fast. A strangely benign year when compared to the few years before. We had inflation reach all new highs, the war in Ukraine, the overturning of Roe vs. Wade and the stunning images coming back from the James Webb Telescope just to name a few events.
Generally speaking, 2022 was a great year for myself and my family. No complaints. Everyone is healthy. Park City, Utah is amazing. The family is thriving. I am grateful for my health, family, friends and the opportunities ahead on all fronts. Sure, there are setbacks but thats life.
Here is a link to my end of year post from last year. I’m going to try something different and provide my “Best of 2022”. All different categories. Why not? Here we go!
The return of more in office behavior. Companies will come to realize they are less effective working remote and will slowly ask employees back to the office. Some industries will just flat out tell folks to come back.
The economy begins its recovery but slower than expected — inflation begins to flatten, technology remains in a slump and we should see jobs begin to soften from its hit levels.
The Yankees will make it to the World Series but will not win.
Happy New Year from my family to yours. Here’s to a great 2023!
Thank you for reading. I’m really hoping to “create” more in 2023 — writing, code, music, whatever. Stay tuned. Please share you thoughts and comments below.
Holy macaroni! Sarah, the girls and I are enjoying our two year anniversary in Park City, Utah this week! Oh, what an adventure it has been. I’ve documented many of our move observations through my blog —
This will be the final installment of this series of blog posts — the two year check in. I guess I could do a five year check in but that feels like a long way away. I’m going to try something different this time around and make this an “ask me anything” type of format. I’ve collected the various questions folks have asked Sarah and I throughout.
Just as a recap, in August 2020 — Sarah, the girls and I decide to uproot ourselves out of Danville, California (Bay Area) to Park City, Utah in the middle of COVID. I had originally moved to the Bay Area in 1999 with the first dot com boom. 20+ years in California with a brief stink in Seattle, Washington for two years. Sarah moved to California back in the 1980’s so many more years living in the Golden State. Change and action can be hard so this was a big decision for us. It’s amazing how fast life goes looking back but can feel slow when you’re in it. I thought I would be in the Bay Area for a couple of years and then I would move back to the east coast.
All great changes are preceded by choas.
Deepak Chopra
This week two years ago was absolute chaos. The house was sold and half packed. Realtors were coming in and out of the home getting the staging furniture out and the final fixes in place. The buyers were gigantic pains in the ass so we were dealing with 100 different details. And, a leak sprung in the kitchen that took us a week to figure out that that HVAC guy had screwed up the condensation lines.
Moving is the absolute worst. I had PTSD looking through the old photos.
Sarah and the girls left via car earlier in the week ahead of me so that I could deal with clearing out our old home and the movers. We had sold or thrown out half our stuff but we still had a ton of things to move. Sarah later told me that the car ride was full of tears from the Bay Area to Sacramento. We had to have a family meeting later that evening to discuss, “are we doing the right thing?”. There I sat outside Sarah’s sisters home with a beer in my hand going through the seven stages of grief in about 2 minutes.
Shock and denial — “What was going on? How did we get far into the journey and suddenly have second thoughts? It is not possible that this is happening!”
Pain and guilt — “Did I do this to my family? How could I have let this happen?”
Anger and bargaining — “Ok, we can fix this. Maybe there is a clause for me to get out of selling our house?”
Depression — “Oh, this makes me very sad.”
The upward turn — “No big deal. We’ll figure this out.”
Reconstruction and working through — “This change is the right change. We just need to get through this first week.”
Acceptance and hope — “Ah yes, we will get through this first week and it will be great.”
Well, we made it through that moment and I guess the rest is history. It was one of the best decisions we’ve made as a family unit together. And I think we’re stronger for having gone through it together. Folks have asked us so many questions along the way so here are just a few of them.
Q: Who brought up the idea of moving first?
A: Sarah. She started talking about leaving California probably back in 2015, maybe further back. I was the hold out because I cared deeply about staying in the Silicon Valley community. I had identified with Silicon Valley since I moved to the Bay Area in 1999.
Q: How much did COVID play a role in your decision to move?
A: Some. COVID definitely opened my mind to something different. I think for Sarah it just added fuel to her interest of leaving California that started a long time ago. Plus, the technology sector went 100% remote after COVID and for the most part continues to be remote. It helped that Park City, Utah is the most accessible mountain town in the United States. We’re < 30 minutes from the Salt Lake City Airport so jumping on a plane to get somewhere is very easy.
Q: After two years, how are things going?
A: We love it here and love our decision to move. No regrets. Park City is one cool little mountain town.
Q: How have the kids enjoyed Park city?
A: I think Molly and Brooklyn have thrived here. New school. New friends. New sports clubs. New activities. Lots of new things and they have responded. I don’t think moves are for every kid but I think ours have really enjoyed the change.
Q: How have the winters been?
A: No harder than the winters in New York/Connecticut but the last two years have been mild winters so it’s tough to say yet. There are some differences though. The snow is light, fluffy and dry. I could use a leaf blower to clean my steps. And as soon as the snow stops, the sun comes out. The dry humidity and altitude makes the winters unique.
Q: What have been your biggest surprises — either good or bad?
A: I’ve got a few —
The people are amazing.
The scenery and nature is out of this world.
It is magical living 10-15 minutes from world class skiing, hiking, mountain biking, etc.
The snow is more amazing than i thought.
It is equally as magical being less than 30 minutes from Salt Lake City and the Salt Lake City Airport.
Everything is just more accessible here as compared to California or New York/Connecticut.
University of Utah is a hidden gem.
Sundays are actually days off in this state. Kids sports are discouraged. Lots of things are closed.
The taxes are materially less as compared to California or New York/Connecticut.
The restaurants / food in Salt Lake City and Park City are not great. Specially, the Asian food scene is absent.
The booze laws in Utah are messed up and overly complicated.
The soda shops are unique. They combine Mountain Dew and Pepsi then add pixie stick flavoring in a 64 oz cup. What the heck?
There are less people and working class here which makes standard services or contractors harder to get.
Backyards in Park City don’t have fences.
Q: What would you have done differently?
A: I should have listened to Sarah and considered a move sooner than we actually moved. It really has been great for us.
Q: Factoring everyone – personalities, ages – how hard was it to start over? How long did it take to feel settled?
A: I didn’t find it too hard starting over but I’m a unique soul. Starting new challenges is fun for me. I’d say it took 6-12 months to really feel settled. There we were lots of moving parts.
Q: How has the work transition been?
A: There really wasn’t a transition. We just picked up in a different state. But, that might have been a problem in itself. We just fork lifted our lifestyle into a different state. It took until the second year to make some real lifestyle changes.
Q: What was the hardest part of the transition?
A: Leaving our friends and family.
Q: Would you do it again?
A: Absolutely!
It is not the strongest of the species that survive, nor the most intelligent, but the one most responsive to change.
Charles Darwin
So, what is the moral of the story? Change is good. Embrace adventure. Choose to do something different. Get comfortable being uncomfortable.
Thank you for reading and listening in on the journey. Please don’t hesitate to reach out or leave a comment. Sarah, the girls and I hope to see you in Park City, Utah sometime soon.
This year I turned 45 years old. Not sure if that is a good thing or a bad thing. Haha. I should be happy that I made it this far. If I am lucky, this is very likely my half way point in my life. I can’t imagine myself beyond 90. Wandering around the local Costco trying to get my steps in. Maybe treating myself to a chicken bake afterwards if I made it far enough. So, I’m at the 50 yard line of the my life on the way to the end zone. What a weird analogy. Haha.
When I was younger, I used to be self conscience about having my college graduation year on my resume or LinkedIn profile because I didn’t want people to wonder who was this young kid managing all of this stuff. Well, its probably the other way around now. I don’t want people to think, “Whoa, who is this old guy? Does he eat dinner at 4pm?”
FYI, I do not eat dinner at 4pm but it does sound intriguing.
What’s new with you?
I’ve taken some time recently to reconnect with old friends. Some I had not spoken or seen for years. You might be surprised to hear that being social for me takes effort. So, I’ve done a terrible job keeping up with old friends. Thats totally on me.
When I reconnect with folks I find it fascinating the arc of responses when asked the question, “What’s new?”. If you don’t lead the witness and keep it absolutely open ended You should get a 10,000 foot sense of what is important to this person or what this person wants you to know is important. I had one friend of mine give me a 1-hour detailed updated on everything going on at work but forget to tell me how his wife or kids were doing.
How would you answer that question? What would your top three categories of responses be? When I was 25 years old my responses would have been —
Work
Super secret side work project that will be super duper awesome when its ready and you’ll see it in TechCrunch
I don’t love work less. I’m still a workaholic but I don’t think it defines me as much as it did when I was in my 20’s. Time has gone by and I’ve come to enjoy the broader aspects of life.
What are your top 3 categories?
Musings of a 45 Year Old
I thought I would collect some ramblings as I ponder 45 years of life. Here we go!
Being married for 19 years and having 2 smart / beautiful / healthy girls is a gift — it’s easy to take for granted a solid home unit. There are rarely articles in the Wall Street Journal about the entrepreneurs that have been able to keep a healthy family unit together. It’s usually about someone that made a billion bucks yet just got a divorce … for the 2nd time. I‘m really proud of our family unit and everything we have been able to accomplish together. Plus, Sarah is everything to me. There is no Renato without her.
Family & friends are everything — they put a smile on face. Make me laugh. Help me during hard times. Invest in them. It takes work. I’m amazed by how many family or friend events I missed in my 20’s and 30’s for reasons I don’t even remember anymore.
Find your passion and work hard at it — finding something you are passionate about in life is a gift. You can’t stop obsession about it all times of the day. Many go through life never finding that passion and/or do things in life because society told them that was the right thing to do. You’ll know it when you find it and when do you, work at it like your life depends on it. It’s life’s flywheel.
Master something — Be the best you can be at one thing. Anything. Maybe something you are passionate about. The journey to being the master at something is very fulfilling.
Be comfortable being uncomfortable — it means you are pushing yourself and learning.
Setbacks are opportunities — what comes up, comes back down. Those downs are usually ripe for opportunity.
Find a way — I love this rally cry. There is always a way. Find it.
Take the road less traveled — society’s predefined path in life is bunk. Well, its not terrible but don’t follow everyone else down this path like a lemming. Make your own path. When you can take the road less traveled.
Care less about what other people think — We spend our entire life giving a shit what other people think — our physical appearance, the clothes we wear, the car drive, the college your went to, the job your have, etc. Care less about what others think and it will set you free. Social media thrown gas on the fire. Be careful.
How much money do you really need? — Society and the news will tell you that you need to collect as much money as you can until it starts coming out of your ears. It surely is a choice in life to make this your life’s goal but find the balance. Being rich is relative. Find your richness in life because that isn’t unlocked by more money.
Be a leader — Be a leader in whatever you decide to do. Most are looking for someone to follow. Help them.
It’s all about the Team — My teams are everything to me. They are not my family but they are high performing teams. It’s how anything at scale happens.
Find perspective — there is always a bigger picture perspective. Find it. Evaluate with that lens.
Have empathy — empathy is a magic word. It creates perspective from another angle that likely isn’t your own. Empathy and Perspective will help you make balanced decisions.
Be humble — no matter how good you get at anything, there will always room to get better or a perspective that widens your understanding.
Take care of your body — the physical side is just as important as the mental side. Be healthy. Take care of your body. Close the laptop, and go do “things”.
Be creative / Enjoy something creative — I am in awe of the creative process and creative people. They are imagining things that are absolutely new and unique. Go do something creative. Create something new in the world.
Appreciate nature — our surroundings are a wonderful thing. Enjoy it!
Enjoy the moment — Put the phone down. Enjoy where you are at in the moment.
Lastly, please find your joy. Life is too short to not be happy. And if you are not happy, explore and find your joy.
I hope you found my musings useful. Please leave a comment or share with your friends! Hope all is well. Talk soon!
Memory Leak 