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Welcome to Stuff I Learned Yesterday. My name is Darrell Darnell, we got a ping pong table for Christmas and I am undefeated so far, and I believe if you are learning, you aren’t living. In today’s episode of Stuff I Learned Yesterday I talk the importance of simplification.
Today’s fun fact:
Here are some fun facts about table tennis, from PongWorld.com.
- Table tennis was banned in the Soviet Union from ca 1930 to 1950. The sport was believed to be harmful to the eyes.
- Table tennis became a medal Olympic sport in the 1988 Summer Olympics in Seoul.
- Early table tennis paddles were normally made of cork, cardboard, or wood, and covered with cloth, leather or sandpaper.
- Table tennis is the most popular racquet sport in the world and ranked second overall in terms of participation. Over 10 million players compete in sanctioned tournaments each year.
- A modern table tennis match at the elite level lasts on the average about 30 minutes. Top players often smash the ball at speeds exceeding 100 miles per hour.
- How many balls can two players hit back and forth in 60 seconds? The current record is 173 set by Jackie Bellinger and Lisa Lomas in 1993.
- A modern table is 9 feet long, 5 feet wide, and 2.5 feet high. The net is 6 inches high.
What I learned yesterday.
As I mentioned on Friday, I’ve had a hard time coming up with a topic for today, and I’m sure it’s because I’m overthinking it. This will be the last open topic format episode I will host until February 29, 2016. Because of that, I wanted to make this episode a memorable one. Of course, I really don’t have a secret on what makes an episode of SILY better than any other. In fact, there have been many times when I published an episode that I thought was kind of blah, only to get above average comments saying that the episode was really good.
So after a lot of thought and consideration, I decided to just speak from my heart and talk about what’s on my mind right now. I’m not going to overthink it, I’m just going to go with it. It should come as no surprise to you that my mind is full of reflection and planning right now. After all, it’s the end of the year!
The end of the year means that I’m wrapping up my financial records, making plans to pay taxes, get new health insurance, and make any last-minute tax deductible purchases that need to be made. Those same thoughts put me in planning mode. How do I need to prepare for the greater amount of taxes I’ll be paying this year? What is the best course of action since my health insurance premium more than doubled over the price of last year? What purchases are going to meet my needs for my 2016 plans?
What are my 2016 plans?
Now that is a good question. That is a question that has been constantly on my mind for the last few months, and even more so over the last couple of weeks. 2016 is a huge year for me. Nearly every entrepreneur I’ve spoken with has told me that their third year was the year that their business exploded. My CPA told me 2 years ago that it would take 3 years for my business to hit its stride. Incidentally, she also told me that when I told her I was quitting my corporate job to do podcast production, she thought I was making a huge mistake. But after she saw my numbers after the first year, she was confident I’d be one of the entrepreneurs to beat the odds and be a success.
On May 4th, 2016, I will hit my 3 year anniversary as a full-time entrepreneur. I don’t know the exact date I became a part-time entrepreneur, but I do know that I passed that date earlier this month. So the 3 year mark is looming large over my thoughts. In some ways I feel pressured by it. In other ways I feel like I’m already exceeding expectations.
It’s impossible to compare the economics of being an entrepreneur to the economics of being a salaried employee. I now pay a lot more tax and my health care is not subsidized by a corporation nor is it discounted due to being part of a group health care plan. I’m not currently contributing to an IRA, and I certainly wouldn’t have a corporation matching a percentage of my contributions even if I was putting money into a retirement account.
So with those caveats in mind, I still think it’s cool that in each of the last 3 months, I earned more than I would have if I was still working at my corporate job. I’m still landing new clients nearly every week, and the only marketing I have is word of mouth. There are days where I’ve thought about running Facebook ads, Twitter ads, or Google ads, but I know that I need to be prepared to handle the type of unpredictable growth that those ads would bring.
Growth. That’s a fun word, isn’t it?
Is it a good word? I guess it depends on the context. If I say, “My 11 year old is in the middle of a growth spurt,” then that’s a good thing! If I say, “I have a growth on my leg and I’m having a doctor run a biopsy on it,” that’s not a good thing. So I’ve been thinking about what healthy growth looks like for me in 2016.
Other words that are weighing on my mind are: ambition, freedom, family, responsibility, fun, team, friends, margin, delegating, and trust.
So what have I learned?
Well, if I’ve learned anything over the last year, it’s that I tried to do too much. One of the great people I had the pleasure of meeting this year is Desmond Adams. I don’t know him all that well, he’s more of a friend of a friend. But he and I are Facebook friends and we have a lot of common interests. We also share a lot of the same outlooks on life and the world around us.
A couple of days ago Desmond said something on Facebook that I am going to print off and hang in my office this year. It is such a powerful truth and I need to hear it every single day. In fact there are days that I need to hear multiple times. Here’s what he said:
If you climb 20% of the way up 5 different hills, you’ll not reach the top of any of them. Focus and finish…
When I’m laying out all my ideas and I want to do them all… I’ll read that statement.
When I have a lot of things due at once and I’m trying to multitask… I’ll read that statement.”
When I’m trying to wear too many hats… I’ll read that statement.
When I need to make the hard decision to say no to something… I’ll read that statement.
In a way, it’s like asking the question, “Would I rather be average at a lot of things, or be really, really good at just a couple?”
So my goals this year are going to be simple. I mean, crazy simple. I will give more opportunities to others. I will not take on something new unless I give something up. I will grow by giving.
These may seem like they are too open ended to be effective, but I disagree. These are three powerful filters. Through these filters I can make quick decisions. I realize that I am in a position that I can not grow, my business can not grow, and my family will not meet its full potential, unless I am giving to and empowering others. I will train, I will mentor, I will equip, and I will trust. Most of all, I am quite certain that as I do those things, my life will be richer, my business will grow faster, my clients will be be more successful, my family will fuller, and my future will be brighter. What’s even better is that those who I work with and live with will be able to say the same. I don’t know about you, but I can’t wait to see what this year brings.
I’m Darrell Darnell and this has been stuff I learned yesterday.
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