“All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us” J. R. R. Tolkien
As summit season comes to an end, I find myself reflecting on the Icebreaker I used at the outset of our annual summits. Here is how it goes:
I’m an engineer, and I need a calculator for this one so find that app on your phone. The average life expectancy around the world is around 80 years old -I get a lot of pushback on this number! It’s incredible the sheer number of members that are on the wellness/life-hacking/fitness/antiaging train. Now, take that 80 and subtract your current age. For me, that number is 39 years. Thirty-nine years seems like a long time. Now multiply your answer by 52 (the number of weeks in a year), it should look something like this: 39 x 52 = 2,028. Why do we do this? There is scientific evidence that when you think in terms of weeks instead of years, our brains get a much different sense of time. In my case, 2,028 weeks now seems like little time; I only have about 2,000 Mondays left and only 2,000 Saturdays left… The question is:
How are you going to invest your weeks?
Before I share with you how I will invest my time, I want to share how this Ice breaker was born.
At this year’s LAC presidents meeting, my friend Joaquin Cordero RC chair for the region asked me to facilitate the regional council meeting and to MC the general session with the current and incoming presidents. Joaquin, like me, is a fan of the Stoic philosophy, and he asked if that could be the recurring theme for the days we shared with the regional council and presidents.
Having recently read Oliver Burke’s book “4,000 weeks” just a couple of months before, I thought it would be a great way to mix some time management thoughts and Memento Mori (always remember that you are mortal and that you are going to die) which is a key exercise in the stoic philosophy.
Back to how I´m going to invest my 2,028 weeks! In my home country Nicaragua, the opportunities for the young are few and far between. Since the sociopolitical conflict in 2018, the country has had almost no foreign investment, and political spaces are dwindling by the minute. If my kids were of college age (they are 9 and 11), they would probably be graduating college in the US and their plans would NOT include coming back to work in Nicaragua. They would make their living in the US and visit Nicaragua for holidays.
I’m determined to invest my weeks in contributing to a change in Nicaragua so that when my kids are of college age, they will want to return to Nicaragua to live and work and consequently, contribute to a better country.
This is a bold statement and one that might get me in trouble in Nicaragua if I don’t explain myself further. The best way I can do that is by sharing an experience I had while on a phone call with Ken Majmudar. A couple of years ago, a forum mate of mine was raising capital for a new venture in the US and he connected with Ken, who is from the investment world. My forum mate listed me as a reference.
In the middle of that reference call I got from Ken, I was explaining the vicissitudes of running a seafood supply chain business in Nicaragua and my practice as a strategic facilitator for a select group of entrepreneurs; he said; “with your skills, you could live anywhere you wanted, your facilitation practice would take off, and you could probably hire someone to manage your business in Nicaragua. Why do you live in Nicaragua?”
They say that the two major factors determining your success in life are who you marry and where you live. Go figure!
When he asked that question, I blurted out, “because I’m committed to Nicaragua.”
That means that continuing to develop our seafood supply chain business is my number one priority, by choice, not by chance. I believe that coaching and training leaders and executives of our companies with the tools that we learn in this incredible organization (Entrepreneurs’ Organization) are patriotic duties that every Nicaraguan Entrepreneur should embark on.
Being true to our company’s purpose of “contributing to the socio-economic development of Nicaragua by being the dominant player in exports of seafood products out of Nicaragua,” I´m committed to sharing the lessons from a decade in EO with as many leaders as possible in Nicaragua.
I will continue to be the lead strategic facilitator for Stoic Mind for a select group of entrepreneurs outside Nicaragua. The experiences from these entrepreneurs keep me fresh with new ideas and experiencing what is happening outside of Nicaragua gives me hope that there is something better to strive for.
How are you going to invest your weeks?