After working on a startup for six years, my friend decided he was done. He sold enough of his shares to be financially comfortable. To celebrate his departure, he decided to plan something crazy, memorable and epic. Read his full day below of driving race cars to jumping off a building-for real!
I have another friend who deposited a similar sized big check after a decade of startup work. How did he celebrate? He went and bought enough underwear for every day of the week to avoid the necessity of doing laundry. He retold me his depressing story and acknowledged that he needed bigger dreams than a stockpile of clean underwear. Fast forward five years and he’s living some amazing stories because he upgraded his dreams and visions. Now he can name what he loves, what he wants and he regularly celebrates his well earned freedom.
Do you know what you want?
A lot of people know what they don’t want, but very few people can name what the DO WANT. If I handed you a big check, the kind where you don’t have to go to work tomorrow or next year, would you know how to celebrate?
Here’s my friends email to me about his big day.
“I decided to do something cool on my first day post-company, so, as a male that remembers the 80s fondly, I planned a crazy day and did it.
I drive Lamborghini and McClaren supercars on a racetrack at full speed (well over 100 mph). It was quite scary and very cool. It took some getting used to, since a normal car would spin out on turns and flip over to go that fast, but I started to get the hang of it a tiny bit. Ever since the 80s, those exotic cars have intrigued me on some level. I am not even a car guy, but it was really cool to actually touch and drive them in person instead of just on a poster.
I also rode along with a professional drifter that basically ran the track full speed, mostly sideways. Definitely an experience. Ever the analyzer, I remember a significant portion of my stress being “this cannot be good for the tires or the suspension!”
Then I went to a gun range that had every weapon known to man it seemed. I shot fully automatic guns enough to lose the use of my shoulder where the butt of the gun sits heh. They included an Uzi, AK47, and several other interesting firearms.
Then I went to the top of a building that was ~100 stories or so and jumped off (with a cable attached to my back). The moment that you stand on the outside of that perfectly good building looking out at the city is an interesting one for sure. But I didn’t hesitate and that was cool too.
Overall, the day was sort of a sensory overload, but successful in being one I will remember.”
How will you celebrate your big accomplishments?
