Hey folks,
Had quite the adventure trying to get home from a trip this past weekend (read below) hence the major delay in this email (as you know it usually goes out Monday morning).
Let’s jump in:
An adventure back from America
So this past weekend I spent in New York visiting some very good friends. We usually go for a visit every summer.
The problem?
Airlines kind of suck these days. And last weekend, 2 of my friends had flights cancelled to/from New York due to weather. Not a good sign.
Our flight there was totally fine, but our trip home was a bit of a mess.
As I always insist on, we got to the airport early, but our flight was quickly delayed. First they said it would be 4 hours (!), then they moved it down to 1.5 hours, then pushed it to a 2.5 hour delay.
Not great, but considering how bad air travel has been lately, not the end of the world.
Then they cancelled the flight…
Something to do with weather, who knows, but we were stuck at the Newark airport at 730pm and the next available flight on our airline was the next day at 6pm.
It only took me about 2 minutes to suggest that we (my fiancé and I) rent a car and drive home. Now keep in mind, it was only a 1.5 hour flight, and the drive is about 7.5 hours… but based on all of the cancellations i’d seen over the last week, plus the 100+ other people trying to rebook for Monday, plus the risk that flights on Monday might also be cancelled…
Made me confident that we should just rent a car and drive home.
Sure, it would suck (driving 7.5 hours, mostly in the dark, and getting home after 3am), but at least we’d be home.
So we did. We rented a car, got on the road and made it home around 330am.
I wouldn’t recommend doing it for fun, but it wasn’t the end of the world. We got to sleep in our bed, I didn’t have to reorganize my whole day of work and there was no traffic (woo).
Anyway, that is why this email is 2 days late… please forgive me?
Key takeaway: rip the bandaid
Since getting home I’ve thought a lot about that decision we made and how I may not have done the same thing a few years ago.
But one thing I’ve realized is that it’s worth short-term pain for long-term gains.
In that example, the “easy” but risky thing would’ve been to just stay overnight in New York, get on a flight the next day and hope that it worked out.
But I don’t like that kind of risk, and I also trust myself more than others to get stuff done. I knew I could drive home (I did the full 7.5 hours of driving myself) and that I could salvage the next day of work, I didn’t know if the planes would takeoff the next day/how long we could be stranded there.
Good application in business and life too: sometimes it’s better/less risky to suffer some short term pains (driving 7.5 hours overnight) for long terms gains (being settled at home to start the week properly).
Book of the week
I took a break from The 48 Laws of Power by Robert Greene to do a re-read of Shoe Dog by Phil Knight.
Because Greene’s book is a long one I felt I needed to break it up, and I usually read Shoe Dog every couple years (yes, it’s that good). I’ll chime in on it next week when I’m done, and/or you can read or watch my last review on the book here.
That’s it for me – have a great week, don’t miss getting my weekly updates right to your inbox, and keep grinding,
– Josh
