Why

I’m probably not just late to the party. Starting a blog now is more likely arriving 10 years after it ended. But one thing I want to do is to share what I’m learning with people who are interested. If you’re not, thats fine, there’s another blog for you. If you are, feel free to come along for the journey with me.

In the summer of 2021, my world was turned completely upside down. If you know what it was about, you know. If you don’t and want to, feel free to reach out. But regardless, it gave me the opportunity to take a step back and really think about what I wanted to do with the second half of my life. The first 1/4 was spent learning and growing in a great organization. I took that learning, and moved on to form my own company, and continued to learn and grow. I made a lot of mistakes along the way – enough to fill another entire blog – but somehow we came out the other end with a strong company and a great group of people. Even so, I was ready to try something new. Maybe it’s just how I’m wired, maybe it was circumstances, maybe it was opportunity. Whatever it was, I was ready for it.

I’ll get to that. There’s going to be many opportunities here to delve into the details. Lately I’ve been inspired by a movement of people my age – about half way through – who are ready, determined, and able to take the risk of living our second half on OUR terms…. and that is what I’m doing. There’s a ton of risk in this, but I’m going to take it. A few years ago I set a monumental challenge in front of myself and committed to achieve it – to fly across the North Atlantic. Once I committed (and made it public) there was no turning back. Now I’m back in that same spot. I did something very different – almost radical – and left my own company to become an employee again. Now I’m committed, all in. I think that the benefits outweigh the risks, and I’m going to do my best to harvest the rewards of this adventure.

From the summer of 2021, my turning point, until now, I’ve made a lot of changes in my life. I’ve backed away from my companies, I’ve delegated and hired experts. I’ve learned to let go, to empower people, to step back, and to let things happen. I moved across the continent to a very foreign place, and left family, friends, and my community behind. To many (if not most) people, this seems absolutely crazy. But crazy has kind of been my modus operandi, so why not. I see myself as a front runner in the expedition for our community. A trail blazer maybe. I’m not that smart, maybe I’m actually quite a bit less than smart! I’m just dumb enough to be the curious one that goes out ahead to see what’s there. If we were nomads, I would be the one that would say “hey, let me run ahead and see what’s beyond that ridge” and I’d come back to report if it was worth going there. That’s just who I am. I want to learn, grow, and stretch myself to be able to bring back to my community the best of what’s out there.

Maybe no one will want to read this rambling, but at least my mom and dad will know what I’m doing and this will save some group texts. But if you choose to come on this journey with me, I’ll share what I learn to help anyone who is interested to learn as well. Some will be from my experiences, some from my successes, a lot from my failures. It may be a bumpy ride at times, and maybe it will be over long before I had imagined. The future is yet to be written.

I want to share from all my experiences. You’ll hear about my transition from leadership at the PLS group of companies, which we still own and operate based out of Winkler, Manitoba, Canada. I’m in the midst of making the transition from managing day-to-day operations to being the Chair of the Board of Directors – and the challenges of not being hands on. You’ll hear about my new role at Tasteful Selections, based out of Bakersfield, California. I won’t be able to resist talking about my experiences flying my Cessna 210 throughout most of North America, and of course how everything I need to know about business I learned from dirt track racing. And without a doubt, I’ll try to help you learn from the myriad of mistakes I make daily as a dad and husband. If nothing else – and I hope this isn’t some kind of bad omen – I hope to leave some good solid guidance for my kids, if they would ever choose to read this some day.

As usual, if you have ever watched me live life, this is going to be exciting. It’s either going to be a massive success or an epic failure – which one is to be determined!

CU

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