The Road Less Travelled

Each one of us is travelling on our life’s road. Sometimes it feels like the open freeway and you’ve got your right foot firmly planted on the accelerated while other times you feel like your four wheel driving and dodging potholes.

In my own life I’ve had many off-road journeys and most of them were times that I really don’t want to repeat. For example, I woke up one day to discover that I was not going to be paid $1.5 million that I was due. That was a moment that I’ll never forget… When I look at my time in the domain industry I must admit that I feel like it’s been the open road the whole way…..got to love domains!

In my times in Los Angeles I’ve learned a number of things about getting from point A to point B. It’s either 20 minutes or 3 hours, depending upon the traffic. If your life feels like you’re in the middle of an LA traffic jam and every light seems to be red then this is my recommendation.

Take the road less travelled. Take the side streets and back streets….don’t stay in the jam. In other words, if you can’t get through your problems then go around them.

I see people stuck in traffic jams in their businesses all the time. They believe that if they just keep on doing what they are doing long enough then something will break for them. This may be the case, but you may want step back and take a look at why your business has reached an impasse. I’m all for persistence but I don’t believe in keeping on doing the same thing over and over again and hoping for a different result. It’s easy to be so busy working in your business that you completely forget to work on your business.

For example, about 18 months ago both my ParkLogic business partner and I took a step back to more fully understand what was happening in the domain industry. With the knowledge that we had gained over the last 8 years we made the huge decision to invest in rebuilding our entire platform from the ground up. ParkLogic is now positioned to take advantage of the changes that will be made shortly to mobile advertising.

My wife knows that every couple of years I get really irritable and just plain unpleasant to live with. After being married for 28 years she now kindly ushers me out of the house and tells me to go and do some thinking and get a fresh sense of “rightness” about life.

I typically go down the beach with a notepad and pen, sit and watch the sunset and just think. I get away from the freeways and just park my “life’s car” on the side of the road. I think about where my family is headed, businesses, investments and finally what I’m doing to become a better person.

It’s a lot of introspection but after a day or so I return home refreshed, reinvigorated and with a smile on my face…..much to Roselyn’s relief!

So what’s on my notepad? Typically a lot of action statements and tasks. Things such as, take my daughters out on a date, spend more time with a particular friend going through a rough time, donate my time to a particular worthy cause, investigate domain sales platforms, finish book two of my scifi series, make sure that I ride my bike each day, go on a diet (I hate that one), investigate a new technology to add value to ParkLogic clients and the list goes on and on.

Now that the items are written down I feel that I don’t have to worry about them but just work through each of them and get them ticked off the list…..it’s much less stressful for me. I can then pull my life’s car out of the viewing area and back into the fray.

The danger with driving your life’s car without taking some time out for a few checks is that you could end up either broken down or in a crash. Being broken down typically results in trying to get some help from a friend but if you’re involved in a crash then it can be a lot more serious. So take some time-out to take stock of your life prior to racing down the road.

I have a few questions for you. Where’s your car going? Are you stressed? Are you powering down a road that leads to nowhere? When was the last time you just stopped and took a hard look at your life? These questions and many others like them are ultimately what drives us forward….my advice is to make sure you get the answers before your car is damaged.

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Michael Gilmour has been in business for over 32 years and has both a BSC in Electronics and Computer Science and an MBA. He was the former vice-chairman of the Internet Industry Association in Australia and is in demand as a speaker at Internet conferences the world over. Michael is passionate about working with online entrepreneurs to help them navigate their new ventures around the many pitfalls that all businesses face.