I just got back from a 10-day family vacation with friends to Italy. We stayed in Venice, Florence and Capri. We also visited Tuscany, Positano and Naples. We traveled on planes, trains, boats, taxis, ferries and private cars. We ate pasta and pizza every day. We also ate gelato twice a day. We took tons of pictures and tried to speak in Italian. It was an awesome trip. It was our first trip outside the U.S. in years, and it made traveling to a foreign country not seem so daunting.
This vacation made me stop and reflect on life. It made me think how short life is and how we often accept the routine and mundane. We waste time, days and years doing things we don't enjoy only to find ourselves later in life full of regrets because we didn't have the courage to chase our dreams.
I watched the movie, "The Founder," on the plane ride home from Italy. It's about the founding of McDonald's. I recommend it strongly for any entrepreneur. Ray Kroc was persistent and persevered. Some may argue that he became ruthless and a bully, but what I took from the movie is that he was a big thinker, willing to take risks and to go after the "dream." I really like the part that shows him struggling and having to give himself daily motivation to push himself not to give up. That is what it takes. Most people don't try. Those that do try, often give up. Without his drive, we would not have McDonald's in every city on practically every corner. In fact, there would be no McDonald's.
I also watched American Sniper. I hadn't seen it. I really liked it. I thought it did a good job of showing the human side of war and how he struggled with separating the war from life back home. It made me think about how fragile life is, and how men and women have died to give me the freedom and liberty to pursue life. I don't want to waste that life just dragging through it - do you?
Some people have been living each day like a zombie for so long, doing what comes, that they don't even know what they want. You can't pursue something if you don't know what to pursue. So I ask you, "what do you want?" That is the first question you must answer. Then pursue it. Do the work. Don't give up.