Reflections of a Jiujiteiro: Affirmation and Gratitude

Thirty-nine years ago, on Aug. 29, I was born at St. Anthony’s Hospital in Chicago, Illinois, to Juan Clas and Helen Constance. My old man was out celebrating, and I entered the world as my mom was making her way to the delivery room on her own two feet. I’ve always been told the nurse caught me before I hit the ground. I’ll take my parents word for it since I am where I’m at in life.

It’s been a very memorable and even historic past few weeks. We were finally able to make it home to Chicago and see our family after a year of being abroad in Europe; the war in Afghanistan ended; and my son, Dominic, began first grade. The weather’s changing once again, and as I begin to turn my pallet to more stouts than pilsners, I remind myself that I have so much to be grateful for each day I’m on this earth.

Your accomplishments in business will not be on your tombstone. But your family will be.” ~Frank Lautenberg

https://www.inc.com/dave-kerpen/19-quotes-that-highlight-importance-of-family.html

Affirmation and Gratitude

My wife, best friend, and best-half, Claudia, has been crushing it in your newfound passion for real estate. She closed on her first property as a Real-estate Professional, a three-unit property in Crete, Illinois, and she did it all from Germany, all on her own.

My wife’s success, however, did not come without a significant amount of challenges and setbacks. She faced a number of real estate agents, lawyers, contractors, property managers, and investors of whom preferred not to work with someone overseas. She dealt with the current hot property market giving sellers most of the leverage in negotiation. One of which chose to renegotiate their deal while in escrow. In short, she dealt with enough to turn the page and start a new professional chapter because staying the course was becoming more and more fruitless.

While in her pursuit of success in the real-estate game, Claudia turned to podcasts, books, and networking opportunities to help keep her on her chosen path. During her literary prowess to help frame her mindset toward positive thinking, she came across some advice by Hal Elrod, author “Miracle Morning”, who advises individuals to work in affirmations and gratitude into our daily battle-rhythms. It’s been infectious and has helped me to realize how fortunate I am.

This advice is not a call to action for everyone reading this reflection to go join a religious cult or fan club, but to take small steps to remind yourself what you have achieved and to show some thanks for those people, or experiences, that helped get you where you are. This routine will help you get over those low-points and attract like-minded individuals into your social network. We are what we eat, and we believe what we consume from the relationships we foster and the media we digest.

Gratitude brings joy, satisfaction, and peace into your life. It also helps you to realize your goals and dreams. Positive affirmations reprogram your mind for success. When you combine positive affirmations with gratitude, you get dream life manifestations and superpowers.” ~Thrive Global

https://thriveglobal.com/stories/gratitude-affirmations-that-you-should-repeat-every-day-to-express-your-gratitude/

ABZ Planning

Speaking of literary prowess, I am back on track with my life-coach centric consumption of all things to help me transition into the next chapter in life. On the docket today is “The Start-up of You”, by Reid Hoffman, co-founder and chairman of Linkedin. Hoffman suggests we are all entrepreneurs living in a much different era than that of our parents and grandparents whose focus was more on the industrial career model which resulted in a pension after decades of commitment to one organization.

Hoffman gives a convincing argument on how we must adapt as a society as well as in industry if we are to overcome mental traps which claimed the futures of the industrial models of Detroit “Motor City” and Blockbuster Video. If we fail to adapt, we will become obsolete. One of Hoffman’s concept that resonated with me the most was his ABZ Planning framework.

ABZ Planning consists of turning your passion into a livelihood by first and foremost finding what it is that takes most of your free time outside of work and developing a way to turn your dream career in reality. Plan A is taking what you truly desire to create or service to provide and generate an investment thesis which lays out all the logistical, finance, and additional resource requirements necessary to bring your idea to fruition. Plan B is the “Break Glass” what if x goes wrong, what needs to be done to guide Plan A back on track? And if all else fails, your Plan Z serves as your lifeboat. What paradigm shift can be done with the resources available in your war-chest?

But as the Prussian strategist Helmuth von Moltke the Elder famously said, ‘No plan survives contact with the enemy.’ No start-up plan survives contact with execution, with the market, with investors, with employees, and with competitors. That’s why you need a Plan B, or rather, Plans B.” ~Reid Hoffman

https://greylock.com/greymatter/reid-hoffman-abzplanning/

Some classic examples of companies that successfully demonstrated ABZ planning are: Netflix, Amazon, Flickr, and most recently Airbnb. Netflix transitioned to online-streaming, and Amazon’s web services are clear-cut examples of Plan B transitions, and Flickr is an example of a complete paradigm shift from an online-gaming site to overhauling their model to keep the photo-sharing and ultimately salvaging the company, or jumping on the lifeboat.

The Start-up of Me

After moving through the first few chapters of “The Start-up of You”, I’ve been feeling very fortunate to know what I want my Plan A to be. My investment thesis will be developed around opening up my own Combat Sports Academy back home in Chicago.

Plan B will consist of generating different services for my members to have at their disposal in the form of youth-leadership opportunities and life-coaching. The mark on the wall is to have initial operating capability (IOC) by summer of 2024 and to be fully operationally capable (FOC) by fall of 2024.

What dreams may come? I’m not sure, nor can I predict the future, but I do know my Plan Z will likely be a paradigm shift to help my wife’s dream grow bigger. That’s one of the beauties in my life, as long as I have my family by my side, I can’t fail. Until next time friends. One Team, One Family!