Tag Archives: Everyday stuff

Go Farther Strategy #2: Make Time #gofarther

Posted on January 5, 2017 by Scott Sambucci | 3 comments

You’ve got to make time for what you want to do. Then schedule it. (See yesterday’s post – “Go Farther Strategy #1: Schedule Everything.”) Being “deliberately emergent” helps with this.

As part of my morning routine, I wake up early – usually somewhere between 4am and 5am, intentionally… ???? This morning I felt angsty while writing Morning Pages. Yesterday was a day off to go skiing, and even though we spent five hours in the car getting up to Tahoe and back, we never got on the slopes (too much snow!). The kids got to play a bit and it was a heck of an adventure, but I was fairly edgy hanging out near Donner Summit, nervous about getting stuck overnight should Caltrans decide to close I-80 (which they did…). Plus Tuesday was an easy run day and Monday was a rest day. All of this left me with pent up energy this morning.

Instead of diving into my daily writing practice after Morning Pages and meditation, I headed out for a morning run. It was dark and cold and crisp. The overnight rain disappeared. Stars dotted the sky between the lingering clouds and I watched my white frozen breath reflect the light from my headlamp. I love that feeling of cold air. I love seeing my breath. I love being outside and alive before the rest of the world wakes up around me. As I reached Putah Creek, I stopped to look at the false dawn rising over the Sierras. Yellow and orange splotches emerged over the horizon, mixing with the gray clouds sitting overhead. It was like a paint spill on an artist’s throw tarp left without care on her studio floor.

Glorious. And possible because I chose to Make Time by waking up early every morning, gifting myself 2-3 hours before the rest of the house and the world wakes up. Making time gives me the freedom to choose to do write or run (or neither…)

Make time…

When’s the last time anyone asked you – “So… are you getting enough time to do all the things you enjoy – reading, writing, training for endurance races, spending time with your family? Have you skied lately? When’s the last time you went on a 10-mile trail run?”

A few other examples of how I’ve chosen to “Make Time” for myself this week:

#1: Fitting in a planned workout. On Friday, I was at the park with my son and friends. Around 4pm, we all decided to wrap up and meet around 5:15pm at the local pizza place. I worked in the morning and had been with Benjamin all afternoon, leaving myself without the chance to do the workout I planned for myself.

So… Benjamin and I scooted home, and in the time between getting home and going out for pizza, I fit in a workout in my garage – lifting, followed by a 10-minute CrossFit workout, then a 1.5 mile fast run around the neighborhood. We were about 15 minutes late for dinner, but I got in my workout. Instead of resigning that I “didn’t have time,” I made time to do what I needed.

#2: Adding in an unplanned workout. Two days later on New Year’s Day, we were scheduled to fly to the coast. The morning weather was rainy and we decided at 8:30am to make a call at 9:30am as to whether or not to go. I had planned to take a rest day, but my body was twitchy after too much yummy cheese and charcuterie on New Year’s Eve (and a bit of wine…) I needed to work out the jitters, so I headed to the garage for a quick workout in the time that I had – shoulder presses, burpee box jumps and kettle bell swings. Short and painful and done in the time that I had.

#3: Yesterday’s ski day. Many schools are closed here in California this first week January. Talking with my friend Tim before Christmas, he was trying to figure out what to do with his kids during this extra week, so we booked yesterday as a ski day and I blocked it my calendar.

This decision was not without some effects and planning. I stayed up late on Tuesday night to clear out client questions so that I could take the day without any pending obligations, and I needed to push out a few last minute tasks in the morning before we left. I work with a team of virtual assistants that are now trained to run more than 25 business operations for me – everything from sending out emails to setting up new clients to posting announcements to setting up appointments. Creating this team around me gives me more flexibility to make time, because I know they can handle most daily tasks.

In the end, it would have been easy to treat Wednesday, January 4th as just another workday (besides it being my mom’s birthday – Happy Birthday, Mom!), and instead I made time for the trip because if I didn’t, I had a feeling it could be weeks before we were able to try again.

#4: Lunchtime Runs. When I look at my output throughout a workday, I know I have a limited daily capacity – there’s just only so much I can do. And because I wake up early, I’m often pretty fried by 11:30am. Making time to do a lunchtime run allows me to knock out the training I want to do plus gives me a mental and physical refresh for my afternoon work.

Being at work doesn’t mean you’re working. Too many times we let precious minutes and hour escape our day that could otherwise be used for activities – whether that’s running, writing, reading, painting or anything else that brings us joy. Instead of getting home at 6pm wishing I had time to go for a run, or worse, taking away family time.

David Hatch trained for an Ironman aboard the USS Hatch as a US Navy commander in the Arabian Gulf. JK Rowling wrote Harry Potter from cafes as a single mother. These are extreme cases with extreme outcomes.

I followed this daytime training program for Uberman and for my most recent Ironman in 2013. I kept my road bike at the office to get in an extra ride or two every week along the American River Trail.

#5: Going to bed early. As soon as my son hits the pillow, I’m headed to my own bed. The sooner I get to bed, the sooner I can wake up and start the day. A long time ago, a former self joked that “nothing good happens after 2am.” Now my mentality is “Nothing productive happens after 9pm.” Sometimes this means hopping in the shower before we do bath time or even occasionally going to bed before my son gets down for the night. (Thanks, Lena!).

I have a hunch that if you look at your days, you can make time to do at least one or two activities you really, really want to do. Do it, because no one is going to do it for you.

Now what?

Head over to Upwork.com and post a job for a virtual assistant to complete a low-risk task for you.
Schedule your alarm for 20 minutes earlier than user, and have a plan on how to use those 20 minutes. It can be anything you want – just use the time for you.
Go to bed 30 minutes sooner.

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Posted in Business stuff, Life stuff

Tagged Everyday stuff

Go Farther Strategy #1: Schedule Everything #gofarther

Posted on January 4, 2017 by Scott Sambucci | 5 comments

In yesterday’s post – “10 Strategies To Do More, Be Happy & Surprise Yourself” – I wrote:

If you don’t plan your day, the world will do it for you. You can’t always be in control, so the more you own your day when you can be in control, the happier you’ll be.

I swear by this. I have one calendar for my life, and for convenience, it’s housed in my work calendar because that’s simply where I have the most number of obligations each week with calls, meetings and work with clients. I’m looking at that calendar several times daily, so it makes sense to make this the hub of my activity coordination.

This means that I add EVERYTHING in my life to one calendar, including “meeting invites” to Lena for personal things to make sure we’ve communicated about what’s ahead that affects us both.

Here are a few examples of what I schedule in my calendar, outside of daily meetings with clients and partners:

“B breakfast/to school” & “pick up B” – I block out from 7:00-9:20am in the mornings to have breakfast and take my son to school, and I block out 5:00-6:30pm on days that I’m picking him up from school. This assures that I don’t schedule an early or late call on these days.

“hold for prep” and “hold for long” – These are times I block before and after key meetings. Every week for example, I have three coaching standing calls with for clients to help them with their sales work. I have a placeholder both before and after these calls – “hold for prep” and “hold for long” – so that I have time to prepare and so if we need to run long, I don’t have another obligation booked right at the end of the hour.

“Work sprint” – Each week, I establish time for focused work on key projects. These work sprints are usually 50 minutes, with a 10 minute break at the end to recharge before the next sprint or the next upcoming obligation (calls, meetings, etc.). Blocking this time assures me proactive time to work on key projects so that my days aren’t spent buried in email or reacting to situations.

(More on “work sprints” in a future post…)

“Scott in SF” / “Scott in LA” – For the occasional day trips to San Francisco or overnight work travel for workshops, I book these well ahead and block out those days so other people (clients, my team) nor I will schedule obligations on those days. I add Lena to these calendar invites so that I know that she knows what’s ahead.

While she and I often talk about schedules and what’s coming, it’s really easy for one of us to forget because these conversations might be in the morning as we’re coaxing our son to school or while we’re making dinner. (Read: Scott forgets to tell Lena or forgets that Lena told him about a day trip she has…)

Booking the event in the calendar assures that we know of each other’s schedule. Sometimes I’ll even send a reminder email from my calendar a few days ahead – “Just a reminder about James’s party on Sunday afternoon…”

“Blocked” – This is designed for long blocks of time where no one can schedule time to talk or meet with me, nor do I allow myself to schedule time with others during this time. For example, Mondays are typically one of my “Blocked” days – days where I am 100% focused on building content and developing ideas for myself and my clients. Often times, I’ll add “Blocked” in 2-3 hour time blocks before noon because that’s when I am mentally the sharpest and most creative. I leave the afternoons for calls with clients and project work sprints.

ProTip: I use Calendly as the way for others to schedule time with me. It syncs with your Google calendar and you can set times when other people can schedule a call or meeting with you. Whenever I receive a request for a call or meeting, I just send my Calendly link to the person with a note – “Here’s my calendar. Just snag a time that works for you…” In that calendar, I’ve blocked out the morning hours so that no one can schedule a call with me before noon.

“lunch” – I need to eat, and I either walk to Whole Foods for a fresh salad and to buy fruit and snacks for the afternoon, or I’ve packed a lunch that I’ll eat outside of my office in either the common area or outside on a park bench. If I don’t book time to eat, I’ll end up eating while I’m working which isn’t productive work time and it robs me of the opportunity to enjoy the wonderful flavor of beets with bleu cheese or a crunchy, sweet apple.

“Workout” – Another must-do for me.I am unapologetic about this to myself and to clients. Yesterday, I went for a run with a friend (thanks Doug!) at 8:30am, so I blocked out from 8:30am-11am to give myself time for the run, time to eat and time to change back to work mode.

My schedule becomes very full if I let it. I maintain the Calendly calendar that anyone can use to book time with me, so I need to schedule my workouts or they don’t get done.

“Lena [insert event]” – These are work obligations or important events that Lena has – whether that means travel for her research or flying airplanes. I put these in my calendar so that I know why certain days are those days I’m required to drop off or pick up my son at school.

I’m now in the habit that whenever Lena tells me about an event she has – work trip, Angel flight, flying lesson – I will stop and immediately add it to my calendar. This also is a double-check for us that we’re covering important daily activities like taking Benjamin to school. For example, on days that I head to San Francisco, I usually take the 4:45am Amtrak, which means Lena would need to take Benjamin to school. If she has a flying lesson at 8:00am that day, we know there’s a conflict so either she will change her lesson or I’ll look at taking a later train and moving morning appointments to the afternoon.

“Hiking days” – Last year, Lena and I decided that we wanted to do at least one nature activity each weekend, whether that’s taking a long hike or just walking along Putah Creek together. We don’t always do this, but receiving a reminder a few days ahead is a good way to think ahead to the weekend and what we might do together.

“[INSERT] Party” – When you have a four-year-old, you receive an endless number of invitations – to birthday parties, Halloween parties, holiday parties and more. To make sure we don’t forget one, I book these in my calendar with reminders. From there, Lena and I can decide if we’re both going, or if one will take party duty while the other works, works out or simply takes some personal time to recharge.

The byproduct of “Schedule Everything?” Once you schedule EVERYTHING, you see how little time is left to get done what you want outside of your required obligations. This forces you to prioritize where you focus and what you do.

Now what?

Go through your week right now and add a few of these suggested time blocks like “hold for prep” and “hold for long,” and “Work Sprints.” Layer in personal plans – workouts, date night, family plans.
Add important events you know are upcoming for your spouse or partner, and if you’re not sure, you might want to have a conversation with that person… 🙂
Stick to it for a couple of weeks and let me know how it goes…

Go Farther.

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Posted in Business stuff, Life stuff

Tagged Everyday stuff

10 Strategies To Do More, Be Happy & Surprise Yourself #gofarther

Posted on January 3, 2017 by Scott Sambucci | 1 comment

Yesterday, I wrote about being “deliberately emergent.” In that post, I talked about the foundations and structure in my life that enable me to be “emergent” – to take advantage of opportunities as they arise.

As I reflected on what I tend to do each day and week, and what advice I give to others that ask me how I “get stuff done,” I discovered ten strategies and principles that I try to follow daily and weekly. (I say “try” because while I generally do a good job of sticking with these, like everyone, I fail at maintaining the discipline to apply these every day to every situation.) I’m sure there are more than ten – and these may not even be my top ten – they’re simply the ones that revealed themselves as I reviewed myself and my actions.

In the coming days and weeks, I’ll follow with a deeper description of each, and specific ideas on how you might to implement them.

Here’s the list, with links to detailed posts for each:

Schedule Everything 
Make Time 
Work in “Sprints” 
Put Your Self First
Find Your Routine 
Find Experts 
Read 
Sleep
Mind, Body, Spirit 
The Journey is the Joy

1 – Schedule Everything: If you don’t plan your day, the world will do it for you. You can’t always be in control, so the more you own your day when you can be in control, the happier you’ll be.

I have one calendar for my life, and for convenience, it is housed in my work calendar because that’s where I have most of my obligations each week – calls, meetings, work with clients, work sprints, etc. I’m looking at that calendar several times daily, so it makes sense to make this the coordination hub of my activities.

I schedule EVERYTHING, including days that I’m having breakfast with my son and taking him to school, when I’m picking him up, lunch, holding time before and after key meetings to make sure I have time to prep and time allocated in case the meeting runs long, workouts and when others can schedule time to talk or meet.

The byproduct? Once you schedule EVERYTHING, you see how little time is left to get done what you want outside of your required obligations. This forces you to prioritize where you focus and what you do.

2 – Make Time: I am unapologetic about scheduling time to write and train. These are two things that bring me joy and help me maintain an even keel across my mind, body and spirit.

When’s the last time anyone asked you – “So Scott, are you getting enough time to do all the things you enjoy – reading, writing, training for endurance races, spending time with your family? Have you skied lately? When’s the last time you went on a 10-mile trail run?”

You’ve got to make time for what you want to do. Then schedule it…

3 – Put Your Self First: “Self” is the being in the mind that is happy or sad, stressed or relaxed, present or elsewhere, accepting or resisting, while controlling the physical body that others know as “you.” The most challenging aspect of “Self” is its responsibility for self-awareness – it exists in the mind as an entity while also responsible for acknowledging feelings and regulating behavior.

Don’t allow others to trespass upon and trample on your Self. Anxiety, distraction and committing to obligations for unappreciative others will bury you. Doing for others too often without doing for your Self will crush your mind, body and spirit.

You’re better than that. Care for your Self, because it is you deserve it, and no one else will do it for you.

4 – Work in Sprints: The completion of small tasks is required to accomplish bigger outcomes.

”Sprinting” is an idea taken from a style of work productivity called Scrum – popular in the software world – in which a team decides on the set of outcomes for a given 1-2 week work period. Within each week, individuals and smaller teams set aside “sprints” that break down these outcomes into smaller tasks.

When you Schedule Everything and Make Time, you can complete at least one 30-60 minute “sprint” every day or week without interruption on whatever outcome you want to achieve.

Say you want to do your first 50-mile ultra marathon this year… A good “sprint” would be spending an hour researching race calendars or training programs. Say you want to start blogging… Spend a “sprint” setting up an account on GoDaddy or BlueHost to buy a URL and set up WordPress.

Say you want to write a book… Block off an hour a day to write every day, even if it’s garbage that you throw away.

5 – Find Your Routine: Read this post from Maria Popova on BrainPickings: “Daily Routines of Great Writers.” Successful people have routines and stick to them no matter what.

The more disciplined and regimented you are throughout the day, the more room you have to be creative and productive. This is all about reducing the number of small decisions you need to make so that you brain has the time and space to create new ideas, and your body has the energy to take action.

6 – Find Experts: You can’t do it alone, and the glut of bad information requires you to find real experts in whatever endeavor you choose. Most experts are experts because they’ve made tons of mistakes. Learn from them because it’ll save you decades of time and anguish.

7 – Read: Stretch your brain.

I’m reading Stephen Pressfield’s “Gates of Fire” right now. I’ve never been interested in his novels, but I read his book about writing – “The War of Art: Break Through the Blocks and Win Your Inner Creative Battles.” (see: Find Experts) and I thought I’d give one of his novels a try. I’m glad I did.

Being Deliberately Emergent #gofarther

Posted on January 2, 2017 by Scott Sambucci | 2 comments

I’m not a resolution kind of guy. If I really want to do something, I’ll do it whether it’s January 1st or July 29th. Setting expectations on January 1 hinders my ability to make decisions and seize new opportunities. I think it’s important to have goals and outcomes, and those should be set as they become important and available, never set just because it’s January 1 when the world tells you that it’s time to set your goals for the year.

Clayton Christensen describes “Deliberate vs Emergent” strategies in his book – “How Will You Measure Your Life?” Setting goals on January – identifying specific outcomes to achieve and how to achieve them – is a “deliberate strategy.” Taking advantage of opportunities as they arise is an “emergent strategy.”

I guess you could say that I’m “deliberately emergent.”

Disappointment comes from having expectations. Instead of establishing specific outcomes, I’ve found it more useful to focus on creating a foundation on which seizing opportunities becomes possible. Uberman is the best example I can think of on this. In January last year, I was less than a month removed from finishing my first 50-mile ultra marathon. Competing in any type of long-distance endurance wasn’t a priority for me, and it wasn’t until March 31 that I even knew about Uberman. But because I set up the foundations of my life accordingly, I was able to take advantage of it as an emergent opportunity.

In my Morning Pages yesterday, I recounted the past six years of my life. What I learned from this exercise is that one constant in my life is change:

2011: Ironman #2; Starting SalesQualia as a side project while at Altos Research.
2012: Birth of our son; Leaving Altos Research to work at CoreLogic.
2013: Ironman #3; Leaving CoreLogic in August to be a full-time consultant, leading me to accept a full-time position at Blend.
2014: Focusing 100% on Blend to see if we could make it grow, then realizing that my self-established shelf life there would be no more than two years.
2015: Deciding in January that I’d make SalesQualia my full-time work; Finishing my full-time work at Blend on September 30th (two years to the day I started…); Lena finishing her PhD.
2016: Building SalesQualiia; Uberman.

Arguably, every year has been a “transition year.” The job changes and endurance races were done with thought and care, but with the exception of 2015, I never started the year with a set of specific outcomes in mind. The only year in which I had an extended “deliberate strategy” was 2015, when I decided early in the year that I wanted to step away from Blend and focus 100% on SalesQualia. This was a momentous life decision for my wife and I considering we had a young son and she was still in graduate school (read: health insurance + mortgage payments). This step required significant planning and methodical execution in the plan throughout the year.

But… even in that, I chose to be emergent on how I got there. For example, Hult International Business School offered me a teaching spot for the Fall 2014 and Winter 2015 modules that eased that transition, and even when I gave notice to Blend of my pending departure, they provided health insurance and a small base salary to stay on as an advisor through the end of the year. No way I could have predicted either of these support mechanism in January.

Whenever I’ve tried to plan several specific achievements at the start of a year, I’ve rarely reached them. For example, I posted a number of desired achievements in 2014 – learning martial arts, a new language and standup comedy, and moving back to San Francisco. None of this happened.

The empirics reading this are thinking – “This is a sample of N =1 with no control group.” Yep, I know it. This doesn’t work for everyone for every situation. I get that.

But for me, I think that being “deliberately emergent” has served me well. I feel happy and right now, today, I have the ability to do almost everything that I want to do:

Making time to stay fit and eat really, really well.
Sleeping at least 7-8 hours most nights, even getting 9-10 hours on the weekends.
Spending lots of time doing fun stuff with my son – going to the Farmer’s Market, playing soccer, hiking, ice skating, skiing and traveling.
Supporting my wife’s love of flight.
Traveling as a family to Tahoe, Portland (twice), Lake Tahoe, Death Valley and Boise.
Building my business’s success, as measured by client quality and outcomes and business income.
Donating a significant sum to charity in 2016. (We chose Mercy Corps for a number of reasons…)

This year, we have trips booked or planned to Las Vegas, San Diego, Orlando, New Jersey, Montana, Portland and Australia. Maybe all of those trips will happen, and maybe they won’t. I’m okay with either. Yes, I am very, very fortunate. This is also why we donated a significant amount of money to Mercy Corps – because we highly sensitive to this.

What if I was more deliberate in life?

I don’t know. I guess that’s gamble…

I can’t really think of much else that I really want. I drive a 2002 Saturn that has a “check engine light” that comes on sporadically. We live in a two-bedroom, 1100-square-foot house that feels small sometimes and needs it’s share of work. But it’s home. I can afford decent coffee at the local coffee shop everyday. I just spent more than three hours writing this post, plus early drafts of several others coming in the next two weeks. Later today, we might go flying or go to the movies.

Tomorrow, I’ll wake up and do my Morning Pages and meditation. I’ll officially start the new work year happy and motivated for what I’ll deliver to my current and future clients. I’ll go for a run and pick up my son from school. On Wednesday, we’ll go skiing, I’ll work some more on Thursday and Friday, and next Saturday I’ll take my son to the Farmer’s Market after I go on a 9-10 mile run. I know what I need to do with my business the next three months to continue building and growing – I have a plan for that built around the theme – “Build Stronger, Sell Better, Launch Higher.” It focuses my day-to-day work and daily outcomes.

And eventually this year, a new idea or opportunity or situation will emerge, and I’ll be ready to hop on and take it for a ride. I expect the something new will be positive, and if it’s not, then may I have Serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the Courage to change the things I can, and wisdom to know the difference.

Love, peace, happiness and acceptance in 2017.

Go Farther.

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Posted in Life stuff

Tagged Everyday stuff

What I'm up to lately…. February 2015

Posted on February 9, 2015 by Scott Sambucci | 1 comment

Read Time: 4-5 minutes What I’What

If we haven’t chatted in a while, feel free to pick-up the phone and call me. If there’s anything I can do to help you with anything, please please please let me know…

Work Stuff:

Blend is the focus of my work life. Lots of travel to and from Dallas, with occasional travel to NYC and Washington DC. It’s been more than a year since I joined the team full-time, and we’ve grown the team about 3x since last January – 30+ people now.
The work is challenging, mostly because of the complexity of the projects and our target clients. We sell software to banks and lenders in the residential mortgage market, which in today’s world of regulation and compliance, plus the path dependency of existing systems and models, makes the decision and implementation process highly complex. In one implementation, I’ve counted more than 75 people on the customer side that have been involved with the process. That’s just one project at one customer.
It’s not particularly difficult work, just challenging from the standpoint of balancing the self-interest of everyone involved with each specific sale, plus the extenuating affects on other systems and people not directly involved.

Daily Practice:

Morning Pages: I wake up every morning and journal three pages – a practice I learned from Julia Cameron’s book “The Artist’s Way.” I’ve been doing this for more than a year now. Very effective to figure out what’s going on in my head before the day gets going, and writing out three full pages is enough to talk myself through whatever is bugging me.
Meditation: This started with 15 minutes of simply sitting still and focusing on my breathing. After about a month, I’m now able to go 30 minutes and about 25% of days, I do a guided mediation. Tara Brach has been my go-to on this so far. I download the podcasts so I can have little session even on a train or plane.
Evening Journal: The evening journal is a quick sketch of the day – what I accomplished. This is a very short exercise – 5-10 minutes. It’s been super useful to bookend the day, and offers some closure so that I’m not waking up and writing my morning pages about stuff that happened yesterday. I learned this from a Tim Ferriss podcast with Josh Waitzkin.

Helping Others:

I’ve made it a sort of personal challenge to seek and find people to help in achieving their professional goals.
Just before Christmas, I downloaded my LinkedIn contacts and I’ve started pinging 2-3 people every couple of days that I haven’t spoken with in a while. I send them a personal message to the effect: “It’s a been a while. Looks like you’re doing great. Need help with anything?” Pretty interesting to see the types of responses. A few (just a few…) haven’t responded. A couple people respond back with – “Great to hear from you. Hope all is well.” And then a good chunk of people send back specific requests, most of which are things for which I can actually help – connecting them with people I know, sending them articles and ideas, etc. Check out this James Altucher blog post on how to be a “super connector.”
Coaching, Workshops, etc. – I’ve gotten involved with lots of different groups over the past six months, mostly around entrepreneurship and startups. Meeting really great people from all over the world, literally. A few groups with which I’ve worked recently – The Nordic Innovation Group, BelCham, Startup Weekend, Social Venture Partners, SAGEGlobal, Women’s Startup Lab, Hult International Business School, and UC-Berkeley Extension.

Life Tips:

Free days – I almost always take a “free day” on the weekends – one day when I don’t check email, or even think about work, an idea I learned from Strategic Coach, a coaching program I tried out about a year ago. It takes some real discipline to avoid checking my phone during idle moments – whether short moments in line at the store or longer stretches like my son’s nap time over the weekend.
Naps – Yes to these. I try to nap every Sat and Sun when my son goes down.
Decluttering – Been tackling areas of the house to get rid of stuff I don’t need or use. Worked through laundry room, living room, and kitchen so far. Started on my closet. Found receipts and documents going all the way back to the mid-1990s. WTF… Liberating to throw stuff away, and give away that which might be useful to others – clothes, office supplies, etc.

Training & Racing:

Coming off knee surgery back in September. Took me much longer to recover than I expected (which is why professional athletes retire at 40…) I’m finally back to 5-6 mile runs and nearly 20 miles a week.
Planning on a half-marathon this Spring, a short triathlon or two this summer, then a marathon and ultra-marathon in the Fall.
Ironman? I get asked if I’m doing another. I usually tell people that I have another 1-2 in me, just not this year. But soonish…
Learned lots of cross-fit exercises over the past year – has really helped me with balance and running with more of my body, not just legs. Here’s an example workout from New Year’s Day.

What I’m feeding my brain:

Podcasts: Tim Ferris, Tara Brach
Blogs: James Altucher, Jason Lemkin
Books (recent & current):
- “The Art of Asking,” Amanda Palmer – Indie punk musician that figured out how to ask people for help. Great lessons in here that you don’t have to do everything on your own. Here TED talk is a good summary, and thought I do recommend the book for the full story and context.
- “Annals of a Former World,” John McPhee – A book about the geologic history of the US. It’s a tome that I don’t plan to finish. It’s really five books consolidated into one, and the book that’s most interesting is “Book 4 – Assembling California.” Big focus on Northern California and researchers based at UC-Davis. It’s good bed-time reading. Three pages and I’m ready to snooze. I’m amazed at the amount of research and learning that went into this book.
- “Influence,” Robert Cialdini – Re-reading. Good airplane/business read on exactly what you’d think from the title. Research based – not a “manipulate people” book.
- “Principles,” Ray Dalio – Dalio is the founder of Bridgewater, a huge hedge fund. Super interesting read on how he approaches learning and communication.

And a huge thank you to Matt Slater, a friend and former student for the inspiration for this post.

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Posted in Business stuff, Life stuff, Writing & Reading

Tagged Books & Reading, Everyday stuff, Ironman

Don't troll me man

Posted on July 13, 2011 by Scott Sambucci | Leave a comment

That’s the response I got when I told one of my new housemates that he can my leftover pizza. He stood there with his T-shirt pouching 10-15 random Clif, Odwalla, and Nutri-grain bars that he swiped from a buddy’s office.”We’re fucking poor man. We need to get some funding.”

He’s one of three guys running a start up from the downstairs, who are a few of the 12 of us living here that includes another start-up crew that I haven’t met. They have technology, customers that aren’t paying them, and kind of a product that they aren’t quite able to articulate in a reasonable way. I suspect my rent is a little higher because I get the back upstairs bedroom complete with a private bath.

They’d rather run on high-fructose corn syrup and Diet Cokes than have someone providing the creature comforts of a meat-lover’s delight from Round Table handed to them by some random guy. Silicon Valley is alive is well.

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Tagged Everyday stuff

Davis 4th of July Criterium

Posted on July 4, 2011 by Scott Sambucci | Leave a comment

These guys sustain a higher heart rate over 40 minutes than I ever get to in my races.

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I guess '12345' would be too obvious

Posted on June 13, 2011 by Scott Sambucci | Leave a comment

From Evernote:

Screen clip – Gogo Inflight Internet – activate service – Windows Internet Explorer

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My Birthday Run

Posted on May 25, 2011 by Scott Sambucci | Leave a comment

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Tagged Everyday stuff, Ironman, Travel, Triathlon

The Return of Pedro – Protected & Served

Posted on May 3, 2011 by Scott Sambucci | 1 comment

At 7:15 last night, we pulled into our driveway with our mission accomplished. Pedro, my Jamis road bike, had come home. Score one for the good guys.

It’s a just bike – an organized compilation of nicked up aluminum, carbon, and steel. I rode Pedro in my first Ironman and it’s a symbol of accomplishment and drive for me. I deserve to have it.

Larceny

A couple of weeks ago, a fellow Mad Cow that lives down the street announced through our team distribution list that a couple of no-gooders swiped his commuter bike from his front porch. I saw Keith later that week and expressed my sympathy. As only Keith can do, he said – “Susan thinks its good karma because maybe the frame had a crack in it or something…” I keep Pedro in my carport, away from plain sight and locked with a steel gauge cable. After Keith’s episode, I thought about moving him to the backyard or inside. The backyard is hugely inconvenient and I already keep George (my racing bike) inside with full cooperation from Lena. A second bike would be a little much to handle, let alone the clutter.

Last Wednesday at work, I looked down to my cell phone to realize I’d missed three phone calls and had two texts. I read the first text from Lena – “Pedro stolen.” Fuck. I felt like a real dumbass. Could have been easily prevented with minimal work and instead I chose the lazy route. After a couple of phone calls, Lena learned that the Davis police ask you to fill out an online police report for stolen bikes and Beth at B&L Bike Shop where I bought Pedro, emailed me the invoice with the serial number to verify ownership.

I registered Pedro at www.stolenbicycleregistry.com and started a Craig’s List watch. Thanks to an email story posted to Keith’s group announcement, I’d read how someone had recovered their bike by scouring Craig’s List and ultimately confronting the seller. When I chatted with Keith last week, he’d mentioned that he heard stolen bikes often end up in Chico. I checked every Craig’s List from Redding to Humboldt to San Francisco to Fresno. Wednesday afternoon I saw a post from Chico for a used bike shop so I called up there. No luck. Saw another post in Monterey that a bike was found. I called. It wasn’t mine.

I wanted to be optimistic, but I already felt this would be fruitless, but still I hoped… (“C’mon 10!”) My work environment is busy and we had a big Pints and Paint party that night. I didn’t want to seem out of sorts so I pushed this bad news out of my head. I kept on my Craig’s List search Thursday and into early Friday, but by Friday afternoon I was busting with work stuff and prepping for my half-ironman race on Saturday. After yardwork chores on Sunday, I plopped on the couch and gave the Craig’s List search another run, starting from Chico and working down the list. When I got to San Francisco, there it was! On a Fairfield post from Friday! No question. The photo even showed by Ironman sticker on the seat post that I never removed.

I called the Davis police immediately to report my findings. The case that I entered on Wednesday still hadn’t shown up in the system so the dispatcher sent an officer (Sean) over to my house in a matter of minutes. I showed Sean the ad and explained the custom components of the bike to verify ownership. He told me that he would log the case and it would be up to the detectives on Monday morning as to whether or not they wanted to take the case.

Huh?

But there’s my bike. I can verify it’s mine. The post is from Friday and he’s selling a $2500 bike for $800. We need to move on this.

I asked Sean about confronting the owner. According to him, some people just go and buy their own bike back.

Really?

He was very clear that he was not suggesting that I do this, and that I should be careful should I decide to take action on my own. The challenge is that the seller can simply tell them that he bought it a day ago from someone else for $400 and is a savvy business guy turning a profit, so then he can claim ownership without reservation. Then the bike ends up at the courthouse as evidence until trial and adjudication. I told him – “I don’t care if it sits for three years as long as that guy doesn’t have it.” Sean was very patient and sympathetic and said – “Hey if it was my property, I’d want it back too.”

But that’s the system. I called my sister, an officer in New Jersey and who has been a detective. She suggested showing up to the station on Monday morning “because then they have to deal with you.”

Now what? It’s Sunday night. The ad is already 2 days old and the bike is selling for 33% for a new replacement. Well, Lena and I set up a phone number through my Skype account with a (510) area code. We figured the thief would Google inbound phone numbers if he’s selling hot items and my phone number is everywhere because of work. I prepared a story about myself – I was Steve and lived in Berkeley. I was just getting into cycling and it looked like a good bike. I wanted to check out the bike on Monday afternoon.

From my computer, I called the number on the ad and got a generic voicemail so I left a message around 6:15pm on Sunday. A couple of hours passed and I received a voicemail notification on my phone. The dude called back! He still had the bike! I called him back and we agreed on Monday afternoon around 4pm for a meetup, and that I’d call him on Monday to confirm. Then he gave me his home address in Fairfield. Wow – this was going to be easier than I thought. I sent this additional information by email to Sean to append to the case for the detectives. I did some of my own snooping online to see if I could do a reverse look-up on the home owner. I paid $2 for a report that was worth about $2… But at least I knew where my bike was with a plan to see it tomorrow afternoon.

Davis Police, Monday AM

8:15am – Arrive at the Davis police station.

8:20am – I’m told by the clerk behind the glass that Detective Pham can’t do anything until the case has been logged by the officer. Sean was on his way back to the station.

8:45am – Sitting in an interview room, Sean thanked me for this additional information and when the detectives were finished with their morning meeting, he’d let them know. Once he had more info from them about whether they’d take the case, he’d update me. Huh? Yes, hugely frustrating. I understand the system and resources and that it’s just a bike. There are assaults and more important crimes on people that take priority. Just seemed to me that this one would be an easy one to knock off the list. I told him that I felt compelled to take action on my own and perhaps endanger myself, potentially causing a much bigger incident for the police to handle. He said he understood and told me that if I do go that route to be careful. I left more frustrated and feeling that I needed to handle this one on my own.

9:30am – Back home and starting to think about what I needed to do next. < /div>

At this point, I was resigned to the fact that I needed to handle this myself. I spent time Googling for bodyguards and executive protection. If you’re ever rich and famous, you’ll need to plan ahead for such services. Hard to find and there are knuckleheads running these operations. Many of these are single person shops brokering transactions with guys they know in other parts of the county. One guy was particularly helpful though and suggested that I call the local police department to request an off-duty police officer.

The Plot

I called the Fairfield police and spoke to Gabrielle in administration to request an off-duty officer, who transferred me to Stephanie in dispatch. I explained to Stephanie that I was purchasing an expensive item from Craig’s List and that I would like to an officer there with me. I didn’t want to get into the whole stolen case because I worried about jurisdiction problems with it being a Davis case and the goods in Fairfield. (I figured I’d just tell the guy when I met him for the bike that we both know this is stolen and either he can give my bike back now, or we call the police. And oh by the way, this guy with me is an off-duty police officer.) Stephanie said they couldn’t provide an off-duty officer, but could possibly provide a “civil standby” and that I should call back about an hour before and she’d do her best to arrange this. She was careful to manage expectations though. Afternoons were busy and it’d already been a busy day.

I was skeptical that resources would be available to provide a standby and so I began plotting. I reserved an SUV from Enterprise. My plan was this – Lena and I would drive to the neighborhood and she would park around the corner. I’d walk up to the house and check out the bike. Then I’d change into my cycling shoes and ride off with the bike to Lena’s location. Throw the bike in the truck and we’d go. I was stealing it back. My main concern was that the guy would chase us in a car or do something else stupid to me. Risky, but I thought if planned correctly, could work out.

1:30pm – Sean phoned to update me on the case. The Davis detectives would not be able to work on the case today and tomorrow was questionable. He did contact the Fairfield police to ask about the neighborhood and he shared that neighborhood was a good one – not shady or seedy. I’m not sure this is what Sean was saying, but I certainly heard from him was this situation require my personal intervention and I should consider taking this on my own.

2:30pm – I talked to the seller to confirm for 4:00-4:30. Said I’d like to take it for a little test ride if that was okay. “Sure” he said. I called Lena to let her know the plan. Turns out that Lena separately called the Fairfield police and was more truthful – she said that needed a civil standby to recover stolen property. She was instructed to call about an hour ahead of time. We agreed I’d pick her up at school at 3:15 to get the rental car and head to Fairfield.

3:30pm – Sitting in our rented charcoal gray Dodge Durango, we called the Fairfield police to arrange the civil standby. Stephanie instructed me to call again when I was close to the location and she would have officers meet me if they were available.

On the way to Fairfield, we discussed contingencies. If the officers weren’t available, I was going to very peacefully confront the guy and if there was any resistance, I’d walk away. I can’t confirm nor deny I’d keep with this should things pan out this way, but that was the plan. We also thought we should know where the Fairfield police department was located in case the seller pursued us or we needed to get there.

4:00pm – From a school parking lot about a mile from the house, we called Fairfield police again. Stephanie said to hold tight and she would send over an officer somewhere in between 5-30 minutes from now.

4:28pm – Two!! officers arrived. From the drivers seat talking to the first officer, I immediately knew this plan was going to work. This dude looked determined and tough. He asked me directly – “Are you SURE this is your bike?” “Yep – I custom components make it very easy to verify.” I told him about the police report and actions I’d taken in Davis. That Davis PD wasn’t able to do much because of resource constraints, so we discussed the plan.

I would drive up to the house and check out the bike. I wanted to get the bike out in the open because if I showed up with police, the seller would simply say – “there’s no bike here” and without a search warrant, we’d be stuck. Once I saw the bike and verified it was mine, I’d call the officer’s cell phone and act like it was a friend or my wife and say – “Hey honey – this is a sweet bike. Is it okay to spend the money?” Then, the officers would swoop in on the scene. Whatever happened to that guy didn’t matter. I would have been just as good with a good talking to and a slap on the wrist. I just wanted my bike back. (Not exactly Mel Gibson, you know?)

It’s go time

I left Lena back at the school parking lot and I was on my way.

4:40pm – The seller answered the door. Let’s just say he didn’t have a cyclist’s physique. He said to meet him at the garage. The door opened. Ahhhhhhhhh! There was Pedro. Or so I was pretty sure. He cleaned it up and adjusted the seat height. For a moment, I had doubts – maybe this wasn’t Pedro.

He walked out the garage and started chatting before I could get next to the bike. I said – “Man, this is a nice neighborhood with the hills and trees.” “Yeah – I like it. Secure too with cameras and gates and everything. I live here with my girlfriend.”

I looked at him and said – “Wel- this is her huh?” “Yep – there she is.”

“You said in the ad she was light.” I walked over and then I saw the scratches on the frame and derailleur. Then I looked at the right side gear shifter. He pointed out – “Yeah – my kid knocked it over so it’s a little bent but it works great.” I looked down for the registration sticker but couldn’t find it. I was a little nervous but I knew right about now that this guy was going down.

“OK to take it for a little spin?” “Sure.” I walked back to the truck, grabbed by cycling shoes and put them on. Clipped in and said – “the neighborhood just winds around right?” “Yeah.” So I turned right and off I went. As I was riding away, he was walking across the lawn watching me and I heard him say – “Are those police cars?” I turned the corner so he couldn’t see me and called the officer – “This is it. This is the one.”

I turned around and headed back to house to watch two police cars come screaming around the corner and they had the guy sitting on the curb in a matter of seconds. I rode back and unclipped. The first officer asked the guy – “When did you get the bike?” “About a month ago?” “That’s funny because this bike was reported stolen three days ago in Davis.” The officer looked at me “Is that your bike?” I looked down and saw the registration sticker this time. He moron left it on!! My name was still on the bike. “Yep – it’s mine. My name is right here!”

The next thing I heard was – “You’re unde
r arrest for possession of stolen property.” One officer cuffed him, the other stood with taser in hand.

The officer instructed me to put the bike in the truck and go back to where we met earlier and wait.

I looked at the guy and said – “I mean you no ill will. I just wanted my bike back.” He looked strangely confused. Driving away, I tried to snap and picture and ended up with a crappy 3 second video of the officers. Heading back to the school lot, I felt an exhiliration and satisfaction I’ve never experienced. I realized I’d won and that bastard lost.

Back at the lot, I pulled up and opened the hatch to show Pedro to Lena. We smiled as she was talking to her Dad on the phone explaining the story in real-time. Then my sister called for an update. I hadn’t talked to her since last night. Gave her the good news.

We waited about 30 minutes, with some mild paranoia that some gang banger was going to come get us. When the officer arrived and hopped out of his car before he could say anything, I said – “I can’t express to you how appreciative I am right now.” He just smiled and said – “I love getting those guys.

“You should be proud of yourself. A lot of people get stuff taken and just figure there’s nothing they can do. The fact that you scoured Craig’s List to find it. This guy doesn’t even know what just happened. And to get nabbed by the actual owner of the bike? That awesome!”

I looked the officer straight in the eye and said – “He fucked with the wrong guy.”

We did some last reports and a couple of pictures. My favorite is me in front the bike with the officer telling me – “OK – now smile nice and big on this one. This one’s for the court.” (Lena snapped a side picture of this one.)

We did some last reporting and I learned that this guy is looking at prison for grand theft. Turns out this sort of thievery ring is rampant. Guys like him pay teenagers to work all night stealing cars, bikes – anything. He pays them pennies then resells them for dollars. This guy own an Escalade and hasn’t had a job for more than five years. And he was fired from his last job for stealing. Shocking. “The little guys that we catch stealing the stuff is no big deal. You got a big fish here.”

As we pulled out of the lot to head home, I looked and Lena and said – “We’re going to be telling this story for a looooong time. ‘Grandma – tell the story about the bicycle thief again!'” Pulling on to the highway, Lena said – “I feel protected and served.”

The drive home to Davis was still a little nervous. We joked about getting a speeding ticket. We talked about how freaking stupid this guy was and how we got him. Between stories, we sat with silent satisfaction, both kind of grinning and thinking about how the good guys won for a change.

The thief has a 9-year-old son. I wonder what happens to kids like that. Seems unfair that they have a douchebag for a dad and I get my parents who taught me right and wrong.

Many thanks to everyone that chipped in to bust the case – Sean at Davis PD, Beth and B&L, friends I emailed and called to see if anyone knew a detective with Davis PD that could call in a favor, the Fairfield police department, my sister, and of course, my wife. As Monday progressed, Lena became more and more convinced that we needed to confront the seller ourselves. That made me proud. She’s tough and I’m glad she’s on my team.

We returned the rental car that we probably didn’t need but were happy to have and headed home. The Colbert Report and Family Guy were just a little bit funnier than usual and I slept really well that night – we were protected and served.