Why Entrepreneurship is NOT for everyone
March 1, 2019
I turned 50 today.
More for myself than anything else, I want to reflect on my journey thus far, and then the road ahead. This is a LONG post!
The year of my birth
I was born in 1971. This same year …
- Salyut 1, the first-ever space station was launched into orbit
- Walt Disney World officially opens
- United Arab Emirates – UAE Established
- Nasdaq debuts
- Greenpeace formally comes into existence
- Federal Express is started by Fred Smith
The story so far
I am not going to bore anyone trying to summarize 50 years of life, but, do want to bullet point a few highlights …
- Been married for 27 years to the love of my life. She is an amazing woman, a wonderful wife, and a fantastic mother
- Helped (a little) to raise two phenomenal children
- Lived for more than a few months in FIVE different countries … South Africa, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, the United Kingdom, and the United States. My poor wife married an international gypsie who’s not done moving yet ;-)
The future
Generally speaking, my family is very healthy and lives long lives. My grandmother was mid 90’s when she passed away. My dad is 75 and still working.
Looking at my family, and assuming no major medical issues or anything unnatural happening, I can expect to live to around the 90-year mark. That means I have about 40 years or so left to live. I know some people will see me predicting my demise as morbid, but I do not see it that way. I have things that I want to accomplish in this life, and having an idea of how long I have left to live, helps me to better plan for everything I still want to do.
Thinking about 40 years left … 40 years ago I was 10 years old
- There was no Internet as we know it. Yeah, I know ARPANet was around, but not the generally available Internet we have today.
- There were no Cell Phones. Not as we know them anyway.
- Personal computers were unheard of
- Too many things to even mention were not a reality yet.
The ~40 years I have left …
- Just because there is still a lot of time left to live, does not mean I can take it slow and waste time
- Generational wealth has been created in MUCH less time by MANY others <– I want to leave generational wealth to my descendants!
- In the past 40 years, I have spent WAY too much time worrying about absolute nonsense. ENOUGH!
- I have also wasted WAY too much time on zero to low-value activities. ENOUGH!
- I have bought WAY too much crap that I REALLY don’t need. ENOUGH!
- I will probably never fully retire even if financially I could easily do it. I love working. I get bored quickly
This year
My plans for the next 365 days …
- Launch 3 different new brands inside my business
- Spend more time doing things with my wife that does NOT include watching TV!
- Spend more quality time with my adult children and my grandchild (yeah, at 50, I have a grandson that is over a year old already)
- Spend more time reading
- Eat a LOT healthier!
- Exercise at LEAST 4 days per week. Some in the gym, but can also be outside or home exercise, as long as I substantially increase my heart rate for a minimum of 20 minutes
- Meditate a lot more consistently
- Post on this blog at least once a week!
Just to round out this post, a photo of five generations in one photo. My grandmother, my father, me, my daughter, my son, and my grandson. This photo was taken in October 2020. Sadly my grandmother passed away a few months later from complications related to Covid-19.
Five Generations of Killian
