Where do I begin?

With today being the first day of a new decade, it felt appropriate to write about some of the feelings that come up at the beginnings.

I have started more companies in my life than I ever imagined. I've spent time on additional products that I never even made it to the official company stage of life. And I'm right in the middle of starting something again.

And almost always there's been this question of "where do I even begin?"

There's so much to build, read, write, create, explore, learn, grow, and do that it can feel overwhelming. I've found this simple formula that has served me well, and I'm writing about it now as a reminder.

In solving any complex problem or building anything signficant, I've found it's best to look for the building blocks to unlock the next level.

Break down the situation into the significant and major accomplishments that make the rest of the game easier. Level up each step of the way to accomplish bigger and better things.

Here's a quick real life example of this.

When we started NY Tech Day, neither myself nor my partner had any connections in the NYC tech community. We didn't have an audience to jump start this. We were literally started from scratch with a powerful idea and a lot of skeptics.

I knew to hit the massive numbers we were promoting and expecting, we needed to up level quickly. I started by getting two prominent startups to agree to attend as featured startups. It took a list of 50 dream startups to get there: 48 no's to get to 2 yes's. With those two on board, we were able to get some initial press. Now with 2 featured startups and a few press articles, we were able to attract investor interest. Then the attendees started flowing. Then the sponsorship sales became easier. And finally the rest of the startups jumped on board. None of that could have been done without executing at each level of the game. Building blocks.

All told, we ended up with 200 startup exhibitors, 4000 attendees and over 10 high dollar sponsors for a first year event in a brand new market.

As I sit here at the beginning of this new year and with this new venture contemplating where to start, I'm reminded of the simple and powerful answer.

Start on Day 1. Level 1. Figure out the skills required to complete this level and move on to the next.

What happens when I don't leave time to integrate?

As we are gifted with a deeper understanding of what it means to be ourselves in this lifetime, new opportunities and challenges present themselves that were not available at previous levels of the video game.

Sometimes we get stuck on the same level for a long time. Some times we don't even realize we are still on the same level. And other times we try to use the Magic Whistle to get to more advanced levels only to realize we needed the skills from that previous level in order to advance further.

Yes, video games were an important part of my education helping me develop problem solving and critical thinking skills, but I digress.

This plays out in real life all the time.

The universe has a funny way of presenting us with similar lessons over and over again until we fully learn and integrate them. I have a handful of repeating themes that have continued to show up throughout my lifetime, and it is only very recently that I've started to notice these patterns.

One of these lessons that I haven't fully integrated is ironically leaving adequate time to integrate.

The world we live in does not reward us for integration. We must achieve and do and create and learn and advance. So we skip over the stage of integration immediately moving on to the next thing. Sometimes, we don't even wait until one thing finishes to start the next.

This repeating pattern in my life has always led to a similar outcome: when I don't leave time to integrate, life forces me to stop and integrate.

This has shown up in so many different forms, but it's always about getting me to slow down and notice what life is presenting to me. I might get sick after running myself into the grown physically. Some form of family emergency might pop up. A company might dissolve or blow up in spectacular fashion. An intimate relationship ends abruptly. Sometimes it's a new form, and other times it's an eerily similar form. Every time though I suddenly have space to step back and revisit what was being revealed at the previous level.

I used to be unaware and unconscious that this was happening. Just plowing through life from one thing to the next. More achievement. More information. More clients. More employees. More books. More conferences. And then, BAM! Something happens to force a hard reset.

I do my best now to allow for more time to integrate, so life doesn't have to be so forceful. And when it's time to slow down again, it feels more like gratitude than pain as I have the opportunity to revisit the previous season and gain greater perspective and understanding.

Bottom line: you either create adequate time to integrate or life will, often unpleasantly, force you to do so.