Upon returning from my 20 year sabbatical, many people made a point to let me know this was the best email auto-responder they ever read, so sharing here for you to use in whatever way you would like, while also explaining the purpose of my sabbatical. <>
I will be out of the office for 3 months until August 28th achieving a decade long, life-changing goal. If you want to know what/why, you can scroll all the way down to read the novella below.
My executive assistant will be honoring my request of returning to inbox zero. I appreciate you sending this email, although I won’t have the opportunity to read it. With that, lots of great people that can help you:
- goBRANDgo! – Nicole Turner
- Conflux – Brandon Dempsey
- Modern Living – Jim Willen
- Personal + Carondelet Revitalization + EO (please don’t abuse for business purposes)
- …or you can resend your email in September and I’ll respond then
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If you care to know why I am taking 3 months away from my businesses, I will explain it all below…
I grew up on a 5th generation dairy farm where my dad only got 2 days off a month (each of the 4 brothers took one weekend off per month). Although 14 hour days, 28 days per month provided well for our family and created many opportunities, it did not leave much space for extended trips or travel.
Having never left the country, my parents were amazing enough to let me do a college semester abroad in Madrid in 2001, where I proceeded to visit 13 different countries in less than 5 months (we went to Egypt for spring break, pretty nuts).
I will never forget the moment when my thinking shifted from “that’s weird that they do that” to “that’s different that they do that…they would look at what we do as weird” then “oh wait, that means there are levers we all can pull to live the type of life we choose”. My world view went from really small to really big, really quickly. These were all pretty big thoughts for my 20 year old brain to comprehend.
I said back then, when I have kids, I want to give them the same opportunity I had and expose them even earlier to as many cultures as possible so they could start and build their life from that bigger, more empathetic world view. This is where the seed of this summer was first planted.
Fast forward to 2013 when my wife and I had our first child. When I asked what ages would be best for this type of experience for kids, the responses all came back somewhere in the 8-10 range because they are old enough to remember and be shaped by it but young enough to still want to hang out with their parents.
Then in 2015 with our second child, we looked out when they would be 10 and 8 and it took us all the way out to the summer of 2023…which just so happened to also correspond with the 20 year anniversary of starting the company, seemed pretty perfect.
…and now my kids are turning 10 and 8 and that far off summer of 2023 is upon us.
My family and I will be living out the vision created 20+ years ago spending an extended amount of time this summer immersing ourselves in Spanish culture in Barcelona and Palafrugell and then going full tourist in Paris along with a few smaller local trips.
I am entering this summer with very little plans, structure, or expectations, just these 4 priorities:
- Slow down enough to take stock and fully appreciate the joys and blessings in my life
- Reinvest time and energy into strengthening friendships and hobbies, both of which have been neglected due to the crazy pace of entrepreneur/parent life
- Regain my health and energy (which is a whole other TL;DR for another day)
- Create amazing memories and experiences with my wife and kids shaping the lens by which we see each other and the rest of the world
This vision has been the driving force of how our companies have been built for the last decade. Continually focusing on reducing individual dependencies, elevating out of the day-to-day, and hiring/coaching amazing people to grow with us and take on more and more responsibility.
Relinquishing control and letting go of the vine requires a whole lot of trust and courage. Trust in my team that they are so talented and capable of building and growing without me, and the Courage to step away knowing the 3 months will likely be as transformational for them as it will be for me and my family.
This is the power of clarity and purpose.
Here’s my challenge to you…
- Create a long term vision of the life you really want to live.
- Choose to pull the levers required to shape it.
- Work really, really….really hard for as long as it takes to create that life.
- Have the courage to actually live it.
See you in September!
Derek Weber