April 1, 1983. It was the day I crossed the Arizona border into California. The Welcome to California sign greeted me after 7 days of driving cross country from college graduation to start my new life.
It was a sign from the heavens that the song “Walking in LA” by Missing Persons played on the radio as I crossed the state line. It would become my annual mantra song. Coming from a car town to a town made for cars was not lost on me. The lyrics spoke to that irony.
I had been driving to Los Angeles from Michigan in my drive away Chevette, with my worldly belongings - like the Steve Martin movie “The Jerk”. All I needed was my stereo, my albums, a lamp, a plant, my clothes and a pillow. That was all that would fit in a Chevette.
I had sold my car for a whopping $400. I combined that with graduation funds and set off for an unknown destiny. Looking back, I suppose that was my “burn the boats” moment. I didn’t know that metaphor then but I can smile today at my youthful innocence and optimism.
Every year on April 1st, I take stock. It has become my day to reflect on where I have come from and where I am. Ironically, several moves over the years have also landed on April 1st. A move to Chicago. A move to Napa. Each happened on April 1st. Not with intention, but somehow that date has a special place for my actions.
When I think about that young kid who learned how to navigate a massive Los Angeles freeway system and launch a career after sending out 300 resumes while down to his last $40, I reflect on the power of having good friends who supported and encouraged him to keep going. Those lifelong friends all moved out from Michigan and are still part of my DNA today.
Resistance, hurdles, and obstacles were all just temporary. The invincible 20s were a time of just living and exploring the boundaries. No dare too great. No experience too daunting. A “just do it” mentality was the je ne sais quoi that got us through the day and evening - many, many late evenings.
It is hard to believe I am on the third act of a three-act career. But, that acknowledgement would suggest an old way of framing a life and career. If you were to subscribe to Lynda Gratton and Andrew Scott’s amazing book The 100-Year Life, Living and Working in an Age of Longevity - you would soon realize that the three-act career is a relic of prior thinking.
I find myself reading more books, diving down new rabbit holes (Generative AI), and listening to my intuition more than ever. I like taking on new challenges that push me out of my comfort zone more than ever.
I find inspiration in studying human connection. I say yes to projects that fuel the curiosity to find a better way forward, to enable a deeper connection, and to figure out how to pull us back together as a human race.
I like to dig into my acquired wisdom to find and create a point of differentiation. To design the break-out position that shifts a brand out of one swim lane to another. To find that unique nugget of authenticity that represents an unbreakable truth. To seek out that sense of clarity that establishes a narrative north star to serve as a guidepost.
I didn’t intend to design narratives for others when I set out 41 years ago, but in reflection, I can now see a pattern for how I got here. I changed my major from Civil Engineering to Advertising. I TA’d for a professor who taught Consumer Behavior. I was a nightclub DJ who thrived on mixing beats and moving the floor to my will.
I played roles in the evolution of the media world, joined ambitious startups, and launched several entrepreneurial visions with varying degrees of success, with a large sprinkle of humble failure thrown in for good measure.
And, today on Apr 1, 2024, I find myself looking at that kid in the mirror and remembering the entire journey while I walk my 14-year-old Weimaraner - Frieda, whose birthday is today. I am a lucky man, with a beautiful wife, three amazing children, and a life full of memories, with many new ones on their way.
NOW (How you are realizing this today)
What is your special day?
How do you celebrate it?
What have you learned along the way?
NEW (How you will realize this tomorrow)
How will you shape your new intentions from that date forward?
What will you keep, discard, or reshape going forward?
Can you make that day a fiscal marker of some kind?
NEXT (I see a world in which)
I see a world in which we need to reflect on what got us here, for there are history lessons that mirror our present-day actions.
THE PAYOFF
“Look ahead as we pass, try and focus on it.
I won't be fooled by a cheap cinematic trick.
It must have been just a cardboard cut-out of a man.
Top forty cast right from the record stand.
Walkin' in L.A.
Walkin' in L.A., nobody walks in L.A.
Walkin' in L.A.
Walkin' in L.A., nobody walks in L.A.”
~ Missing Persons, Songwriters: Tim Peter Stahl / John Guldberg
I love Walking in LA!
Your memory about crossing into CA reminds me of The Grapes of Wrath. In every edition of the book, the moment the Joads enter California is exactly the middle page of the book!