Archive for vacation
How Lucky We are to Have Free Enterprise
Posted by: | CommentsHola mis amigos!
Long time no chat, hope you are doing well… did you miss me?
It’s been a busy month and I decided to take a little breather by heading out to Cancun, Mexico for a week.
I got to do quite a few adventures including ATVing through the jungle, speed boating through the lagoon, snorkeling on the reefs, soaking up the gorgeous sun, mingling with the locals (I had some of the BEST tacos EVARRRR in a little hole in the wall street shop off the beaten path), getting second place in a banana-eating contest without even having to eat a banana (poor winner had to eat four, lol!), ziplining into the cenotes, haggling with the local merchants, and one of my favorite experiences of the trip – getting my open water dive certification. (Pictures will soon be found on my FaceBook, so be sure to add me if you haven’t already!)
That's Jesus
I learned a great deal on this trip… as I tend to do when I travel. I just love experience other culture and learning more about other culture’s customs. The thing is, as I learn more about other cultures, it also sheds light on our very own.
Amidst all the stories I heard and the discussions I had with the different folks I met, the one that stuck out to me the most from this trip (this is ironic…) came from my scuba diver instructor, Karl. Why is this ironic? Well, Karl is as American as you can get.
He looked like a surfer dude straight from California (but he’s actually from Alaska, I know, weird eh?) He’s been working in Mexico for 6 years, running his own scuba operation where he instructs and takes folks for pleasure dives. He use to have a huge operation but now runs a relatively modest one (more on that later) and employees a few locals, has an office space, a boat, etc.
Being the marketer I am, I struck up a conversation with Karl talking about his experience as a business owner in Mexico. What came out of his mouth for the next 10 minutes absolutely shocked me.
See, like I said, Karl use to have a huge operation, a successful one at that. He had his own dock, a fleet of boats, quite a few employees, big store front. And the difference between him and his 3 main competitors is that he actually gave a damn about the quality of his service. He was getting so much business that the 3 competitors felt threatened by him… Even though they’ve been in business for much longer, have a LOT more money in the bank, and run much bigger (although questionable at times) operations.
So guess what those 3 competitors did? They ganged up on Karl. Because they had lots of money and shady ties to the umm… local authorities, they shut down Karl.
Yep, one day, Karl and his crew woke up, drove to their work at the dock as usual to find everything taped up. They were refused entry into their own dock! The same went for their fleet, they got confiscated. The same thing happened back at their office and storefront. The local “authorities” made up some B.S. story about how they don’t have the “license” or whatever for them to be doing business.
And just like that, they shut down Karl’s operation overnight. All because the 3 competitors had loads of bribing money.
There was no arguing, no reasoning, no logic. They told Karl that he can’t run his business and took away everything he worked so hard to build up.
Karl and his crew literally had to break into their own offices/docks/ships to “steal” back their OWN equipment and supplies – an act that could’ve landed them in jail had they gotten caught.
Reflect on That Story For a Minute
Holy gazooks! That would never happen in the States, thank goodness! In our land of opportunity, we are so well protected by our laws, our governments, our infrastructure, I think we tend to take it for granted. We can run successful businesses without worries that others in other countries have to.
We really all should be more appreciative of that, don’t you think?
Be grateful that we live in a nation where we encourage free enterprise and we PROTECT that privilege every day. Let’s all give thanks to that and don’t ever take it for granted k?
Now, back to gearing up for our first live event ever, “No Excuses Summit”, be on the look out for more information, it’s going to be EPIC!
Hasta luego!
P.S. Karl had the persistence and the determination to keep going, he was able to resetup his operation, despite such a huge loss and setback, although to a much smaller scale, through some other local businesses who have the power to protect him from the 3 competitors and their evil ways. Go check him out on Mayan Aqua Dive whenever you visit Cancun, I highly highly recommend him! Oh, and tell him I sent you 
Raymond Fong’s Hawaii Trip 2009
Posted by: | CommentsAs promised, here are my Hawaii pictures, enjoy!
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Vacationing for the Entrepreneur is *NOT* Optional
Posted by: | CommentsI just got back from an amazing “vacation” to Waikiki, HI (which was in part why I was absent on this blog… you’ll see why else later, so keep reading )
Boy was it a blast!
I got to go:
- Snorkeling in the warm water
- Lie on the beach
- Boogie boarding in some nice waves
- Off-roading in a rented Jeep
- Sneak a peek on the site of “Lost” as they filmed future episodes SPOILER ALERT!»
- Scuba dive with a bunch of sea turtles
- Dive with some scary sharks (and by “some” I mean over 50 of them…)
- Sip pina coladas on the beach
- Stuff myself silly with some amazing Hawaiian food
- Sail the awesome Hawaiian waters
- And on and on and on…
No doubt it was an adventure filled vacation and I got some nice R&R in as well. Now, don’t get me wrong, I took my “office in a laptop” with me for sure along with my trusted USB modem! I mean, can you imagine me going on a 7 day excursion without being connected to the web? Oh the nightmares!
So yes, I did connect to the internet and I did get my daily fix. However, I am proud to say that throughout the whole trip, I checked my email less than 70 times a day
And I did sneak in to check on my SEO Networker students via our live forum. And I even managed to check in on our live webinar that took place on Tuesday (although to be honest, my good buddy and business partner Fernando took care of that for us all )
But all in all, my work level was at an all time low… Heck, just a quick peek at my Twitter activity is a testament to that! (I.e. I hardly “Tweeted” at all…)
Don’t get me wrong, I had plenty of opportunity to “work”. I had a lot of downtime in my hotel as we recuperated. But I chose not to. The bottom line is this…
I Didn’t Get Much Work Done, and I am Darn Grateful and Proud of It
Now, I imagine that you are either thinking:
- WHAT? You didn’t work? But you are an entrepreneur! Aren’t you guys working 24/7 – never able to stop thinking about your business? (You would be with the group that’s read the “E-Myth” by Michael Gerber)
- Of course you didn’t get work done, you were on vacation! (You would fall in either the group that only sees “vacation” from the Jobber’s perspective or think that by being an entrepreneur, it’s all cake walk… and that money just falls from the trees for you.)
Well, whatever you may be thinking, I’ll tell you that I didn’t NEED to work on my “vacation” In part because... » but that I am sure it wouldn’t have hurt had I done a bit more work on my trip. In other words, I didn’t NEED to work, but probably should have.
But I didn’t care.
Loving What I Do, But…
Truth be told, it was atypical of me to have done so little on my trip. I am the type of entrepreneur whom some might say is “married” to my business. I can’t stop thinking about it.
And I don’t say that like it’s a bad thing. I can’t stop thinking about it because for one, I am ambitious as heck… I am always looking for ways to improve on myself and my pursuits; and for two, because I actually ENJOY what I do! I know, what a concept right?
The last few times I went on trips, I couldn’t help myself but think about work none stop. Even when I was visiting Australia for a week and a half with my family – I carried my laptop with me thousands of miles around the world and I managed to stay connected even though the closest thing I had to internet was a 15 minute walk from my hotel.
I just can’t seem to get away. Maybe it’s ambition, maybe it’s obsession, and heck, maybe it’s even fear (fear that if I take my attention away from my entrepreneurial pursuits for even a split second, that everything will fall apart).
Know what I learned from this trip? Being like that can get really tiring really fast and it can be dreadfully unhealthy. You should not lose yourself in your “business”, ever.
Finding a Balance
With the urging of my wonderful girlfriend, Iva, I did my best to “relax” on this vacation. To realize that this is indeed a “vacation” (Whatever that means right?) I forced myself to not take all the emails flooding my inbox so seriously So... » . I stepped back from the everyday grind of running a business. Every time I felt the urge to even THINK about work, I forced myself to chug a pina colada (kidding of course… well, sort of).
And you know what? At first it was hard. At first I felt guilty as heck. But that guilt slowly gave way – day by day. With each day that passed, I felt more and more weight lifted off of my shoulders, I felt my head clearing. I felt refreshed! I learned a big lesson from this trip. I had an epiphany.
And you’ll have to wait till my next post to learn what it is since this post is already getting darn long!
For now, enjoy this short video I put together of my dive with the “sharkeys”
Raymond
P.S. Pictures are being uploaded soon! Stay tuned. Until next time.
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