It's Time for a Pivot.... Part 3

If you haven't already read them, please go back and read Part 1 and Part 2 of this post which you can find here and here respectively.  When we left off, I was taking a critical look at the decisions I've made over the past few months, and staring to look ahead to our upcoming plans.  With that, here's part 3:

I have barely played any poker over the past month because I have been planning and preparing to go with Katie so we can pursue our Divemaster certifications together.  We plan to leave in mid to late February or early March, and hope to spend 3-6 months out of the country.  We would like to start in Costa Rica, where it will be possible for me to get set up playing poker online and possibly build a network with the relatively large community of poker expats that live in the Playas del Coco area.  We have already been in touch with a dive shop regarding Divemaster internships, and we hope to nail down those details in the near future.  Our next step after achieving Divemaster in Costa Rica is completely up in the air, but we are excited to plan that step together while we are there.

I can't even begin to describe how excited I am for this next journey, because it brings me back to the reason I left my job in the first place, allows me to pursue something that I already know I love to do, and allows me to share my experience with someone amazing.  Not to mention it gets me into tropical weather in the winter and let's face it... fuck New England winters.  It also sets us up well for our "long term vision" which may be a complete pipe dream right now but who cares, pipe dreams are the reason we are taking this risk in the first place.

Our "long term vision" is really just a vision for the next 3-5 years.  We both love diving, we both love travel, we both love warm weather, we both love each other, I still want to make a living for myself as a professional poker player, and Katie wants to use her skills to make a difference and help people (she is clearly the more right-minded person between the two of us).  We envision ourselves finishing our stint in Central America with the certifications and experience we need to be hired by dive shops where needed.  We're picturing us finding a place in the Miami area where we are within striking distance of some of the best diving in the country, as well as some of the best poker games in the country, all while living in a vibrant culture that we both love.  We plan to spend about half of our time there, while the rest of our time is spent traveling to dive destinations around the world that have either live or online poker scenes that I can play in.  Katie will focus mainly on earning income through her dive certifications, and I'll supplement my poker income when needed by picking up diving work during busy seasons.

I know this all sounds crazy, and that's because it is, and that's what makes it awesome.  Those same things can be said about pretty much every entrepreneur's dream before they started the next big thing, and that's exactly how we're treating this.  What we end up doing probably won't look anything like what I wrote down in this blog post, and that doesn't matter.  What matters is that we're embarking on this journey together, and that we are risking everything along the way.  I really look forward to keeping you all posted as we get going, and I can't thank you all enough for the support you've shown so far.

And to kick off this whole ordeal, I finally got around to putting together a video of the trip we took to Roatan in September that got the ball rolling:

P.S. Silly me for thinking I could use this part of my lap for my laptop....

It's Time for a Pivot.... Part 2

If you haven't already read it, please go back and read Part 1 of this post which you can find here.  When we left off, I was battling with Katie's decision to to leave her job to pursue her Divemaster certification.  With that, here's part 2:

We started to plan our lives in different directions, and for a while it was really looking like we were going to be going down completely separate paths.  Katie was going off to Central America and I was headed to Vegas to "realize my dream" of becoming a poker pro.  Then everything came crashing down and I finally had my wake-up call.  I remembered that I started this whole journey with the purpose of not being tied down to one option, and I realized that tying myself down to poker was likely going to cost me the person I love most in the world.

While everything was going south, I listened to a podcast where Bill Perkins was being interviewed by Joe Ingram.  Those names probably mean nothing to most of you, but Bill Perkins is someone I've respected the opinion of ever since the first time I heard him talk.  He was asked how he is able to get the most out of life, which is an interesting question to ask of a millionaire who spends like a billionaire.  He told Joe that the formula is simple.

- Step 1: Figure out what is the biggest amount of risk you can possibly handle, and then add a little more.
- Step 2: Whatever risk you take, treat it like your life depends on it, because it does.

At first glance that statement sounds reckless.  When I interpret it, the first thing I think is that that can't be a recipe for success, and that's because it isn't.  In fact, in most cases it is certainly a recipe for failure.  When I think about it a little more, I realize that it doesn't matter if it's a recipe for failure, because the question wasn't about how to achieve success, it was about how to make the most out of life.  Regardless of whether you succeed or fail, this answer guarantees that you will make the most out of every experience, good or bad.  This advice also doesn't just apply to our professional careers either, it applies to every single aspect of our lives including our relationships.

So where wasn't I taking enough risk?  Let's start with my move to poker.  This is going to sound stupid to most of you, but in a weird way I prepared myself too well.  I saved up more than enough to live for over a year on no income, and I built my resume so much that I wouldn't have to worry about finding other work in the meantime.  Even if it came to driving an Uber for cash I was never even remotely worried about failure, and that lead me to never treat poker like my life depended on it.  How about my relationship?  I was so stubborn in convincing myself that I quit my job to become a professional poker player that I was afraid to take the risks I needed to take to commit to us building a future together.

This past month was spent taking a deep, honest, and critical look at the decisions I've made over the past few months, and where I saw myself going over the next year or so.  It was excruciating, and still is at times, but it has helped bring me clarity and an insane amount of excitement for where things are headed next.  So what's the plan?

I hope I haven't lost everyone's interest by now, so if you're still hanging in there, Part 3 of this post will be up tomorrow evening.  Thanks for reading so far!!

P.S. But seriously, isn't she adorable???

It's Time for a Pivot.... Part 1

What. A. Month.  That might just be the understatement of the year.  I haven't posted in over a month and that has been for good reason.  This month has been a mixture of some of the shittiest moments of my life blended with some of the most amazing.  I felt completely lost and hopeless for a good part of it, but at the same time I've been able to renew my passion and excitement for my journey and the next steps I plan to take.  It all came back to remembering what the point of my hiatus was in the first place, and getting back to a place where I could confidently say that I'm on that path.

So let's back up a little bit.  All of my posts until now have mainly been about my pursuit as a professional poker player.  I've told stories from the tables, given a taste of what the lifestyle is like, and given my take on what it takes to get started.  I had committed myself to putting in the work necessary to become a world class poker player.  Before I go into what is happening next, I want to make it clear that I am not wavering from that commitment... yet.

When I first decided to take a year off from my 9 to 5 engineering job, it was never with the intention of becoming a professional poker player.  The reason I left was to take the time I needed to explore my curiosity, discover new passions, enjoy myself fully, figure myself out, and try and make something of myself from scratch.  I always knew poker would be in the picture; it was my main curiosity at the time, and I knew it would be the first thing I tried doing.  I never intended for it to be the only option, but at some point along the way, I fell into the trap of treating it like I had no other options.

So when my girlfriend Katie suggested to me that she wanted to leave her job to go to Central America to pursue her PADI Divemaster / Instructor scuba diving certification, I was not completely supportive at the time.  Part of me worried that the decision was made too hastily, part of me didn't understand what the certifications would ultimately be used for, and a huge part of me was just super jealous that she was going to be spending months doing one of my favorite activities in the world while I was stuck crunching numbers and hanging out in casinos all day.  A lot of my resistance was hypocritical, and all of my resistance came from a place that didn't have our future together in mind.

This blog post turned out to be way longer than I expected it to be, so I'm breaking it into three parts.  I'll release Part 2 tomorrow, and Part 3 on Friday.

P.S.  I got a cat.  Here's a picture of her being unhappy about the fact that I'm writing a blog post right now and not paying attention to her.  Say hello to Bruschi!!