The Pursuit of Happiness and Well-being

You know, I should have an answer. I. I don't. I. I've lived. I've lived an incredibly full life, and I have enjoyed things that many people only dream about. I've traveled to over 60 countries around the world. I've climbed mountains and I've safaried everywhere, and I've gone diving in the most beautiful water in the world. And I'm really now at a point where, you know, I'm not. I'm sure there are more things that I need to do before I die, but I'm not so attached to them that I think of them in those terms. I think the truth is the main thing that I want to make sure I do before I die is spend more time with my children and with the people that I love and the people that I enjoy. I want to laugh more before I die, and I want to. I want to. And I want to share more and I want to inspire more. But I'm not. There's not. You know, it's like. I wish I could say I want to climb Mount Everest before I die. You know why I don't want to climb Mount Everest? Because you die doing that. So, you know, I mean, I guess there's some sort of, you know, there's sort of some fun stuff like, you know, I. Okay, I'll give you one. I'd love to go on the moon. If that happens in my lifetime, I will figure that out. And if the compromise is that I have to go on. And by the way, no compromise. So sorry, Richard, but if the compromise is that I got to go on Virgin Galactic instead and just do a space flight. Yeah, maybe. Maybe that's one of those things that would still be for me, a bucket list item. You know, it's funny, I don't sort stories like that. It's really interesting because I've got normally quite like, I can recall stories, but I. They're in my head, related to problems or related to other stories. So, like, you know, of course I've got great diving stories, I've got great this and that, but I don't know, you know, you know, what it is. I'll tell you what the. Probably the problem for the question for me is, is that what makes it a favorite story has everything to do with why the audience needs to hear it. Does that make sense? Geez, there's quite a few of those. And it. And then. I. On a Tuesday one week, my controller came to me and told me that we were out of cash and we had a 70,000 pound Hear me again. Pound back. When we're talking almost two dollars to the pound. I mean, it was a serious situation. Payroll coming up on Friday, and no chance we were going to make it. And we were profitable. We just mismanaged cash. And she said, there's like, it's just not going to happen. And one thing I've learned about banks is that banks will give you money when you don't need it. The minute you need it, you're. Nope, nope. You walk in and go, hey, I've got piles of cash. Can I take out a loan? Yeah, no problem. I got to save all these people's jobs. Can I have some cash now? No, no, no, no. And so, I mean, I made all the calls. I did everything I could. And so I was at home and one of my. I'm a water person, so I like to spend the time in the water. So I ran a bath and I got in the bath, and I just started thinking about this, and I started realizing that I was going to go to business and that I'd been working all these years and I'd put no money away because I'd been reinvesting in the business the entire time, and I was going to lose it all. Probably have to file bankruptcy. I mean, all that stuff. And then I realized that all these other issues, like, I had my ex boss, who I had quit my job with him because of deplorable behavior, and I knew he wanted me to fail, and now he was going to get what he wanted. And I just. I had all these horrible demons in my head that day. And. And then, funny enough, I just. I. I picked up an audiobook off my shelf, and it was actually, it wasn't an audiobook. It was just so well written that I heard it, but it was a written book by Wayne Dyer. And in the book he was talking about, he tells this story. And I think the book was called There's a Spiritual Solution to Every Problem. And I was like, okay, I dare you. Find the solution to this problem, Mr. Dyer. Like, I was really. I was reading the book, maybe out of anger more than anything. And. And so in the book, he's telling this story, and I heard it. He's like, telling the story, and he's going, yeah, I was really stressed out about this thing, and it was really getting to me. So I called my friend Deepak. And of course, he and Deepak Chopra are really good friends. And so he. And he calls Deepak and he says to Deepak, deepak, Deepak, I've Got this major situation, and Deepak says, meditate. That's it. And Wayne's like, okay, yeah, it's Wayne Dyer, right? Okay. Don't think I don't know about meditating. It's just that right now I've got that meditate look. I will meditate. I just want to talk about it first. Meditate and call me back. And so, like, you know, and I'm reading the story, hearing the voices with the accents in my head, and I'm like, meditate? How the hell's that going to help? And then I remembered this little expression that I often use. I don't know where it came from, but, you know, like, you know, the less you want to meditate, the more you need to. That simple, right? And so I was like, oh, this is insane. I'm not gonna. So I. What do I do? I just. I decided to meditate. Had not for a long time. And I've been meditating on and off since I was 12, so it's not like I wasn't into meditating, but I did it, and I went in and my mind took me on a really incredible journey. When I hear people describing, like, you know, incredible spiritual, like, ayahuasca journeys and stuff. This was like, that. Like, I went somewhere, and. And where I went was, life really is happening for you all the time, especially when it feels like it isn't. And so you. This is happening, but it's not inherently good or bad. And so why don't you just enjoy it as much as you can? And I don't know why, but that just worked. Like, I just came out of the meditation and I felt good, and I went to the closet, and I picked out nice clothes, and I put on nice music, and I grooved my way to the car, got in the car, put on good tunes, drove. There were two ways I could drive to work. There was the quick way, or there was this gorgeous country road across the. You know, and I went that way, which is. I would never do that, stressed out, but I went that way and through the winding road. It's the exact kind of car. It's exact kind of road you'd see in a car commercial, you know, with the bends and the trees, and I'm just. Just. And then I pulled into work, and I walk in, and I'm like, how you doing? Good to see you. How's it going on the production line over here? What's happening over there? Having a good time, you know, just connected with people walking through. And then Lucy, the controller she comes into my office and she's like, are you okay? Yeah. Okay. What do you mean? She goes, oh, you found some cash. And I go, nope. She goes, then how can you possibly be this happy? And I go, I don't know. I mean, I'm on the roller coaster now. I didn't sign up for this to be easy. So one way or the other, this is going to come to a head. There's nothing I can do about that right now. The best thing I can do is just enjoy the process as best I can. And why the hell should I scare everybody else in the meantime? Doesn't help. So I'm just going to have some fun. And I said, could you do that? And she goes, yeah, so. And here's where it gets creepy. And I mean creepy, because then everybody wants to say that this is some metaphysical story. It is not. This is a psychological story as far as I'm concerned. And it has a potential metaphysical hook. But it goes like this. Lucy comes walking to my office and she says, eric, this big retail company that we signed an annual contract with just wired us all of the money for the entire annual contract. But it's a quarterly payment schedule. They're not supposed to have done that. Now, retail companies are ruthless. They pay always late, and they certainly do not pay prepaid contracts that they don't have to prepay. They just don't do that. Retail is too skinny on the margins in their own life to be nice like that. They just aren't. So I'm like, oh, my God, they paid the whole year. We can make payroll, blah, blah, blah. It's gonna be awesome. This is incredible. But then I realize, yeah, but it's a mistake. And I've always been struck by this story about this employee who. He gets a paycheck and it overpaid him slightly and whatever. And then he gets a second paycheck and he overpaid him slightly. And then the third paycheck, they've corrected it all and taken it off his paycheck. And he goes to his boss and he goes, my check is light this week. Why is my check light this week? And he goes, well, we noticed that we'd overpaid you the last couple weeks, and so it was corrected. But my question is, why did you not mention the mistakes the first two weeks? And he goes, patience. I saw the mistake once I let it go. I saw the mistake the second time I let it go. But the third time I just couldn't let it go anymore, you know? But I Remember thinking, you know, about the ethics of it. And so, no kidding, I called my contact at the retail company. Lucy thought I was insane. And I said, you guys have accidentally paid us for the entire year. And he says to me, eric, it wasn't an accident. He said, we so enjoy your services, and we've so enjoyed working with you. And I know how hard it is to run a business. And we thought that we didn't want you to be in stress for the first two months of this contract, which the first two months are always difficult because you have to ramp up and all that stuff. And I just approved it for prepayment. I didn't even know. I had tears in my eyes. I didn't even know what to say. This is an impossible conversation to be having. There is no part of my imagination that could have imagined that this was even possible. And yet here it was happening. And so this always raises the metaphysical question of, did my decision to pursue happiness and joy somehow affect the ether and cause him to do this? And was it the secret and the law of attraction and all this kind of stuff? Whatever. Here's what I do know, is that I enjoyed those days right up to that phone call. And had I not enjoyed those days right up to that phone call, it would have been pointless because the phone call was coming anyway. And I really got that day. That life is happening for me, especially when it feels like it isn't. And that's one of the reasons I think that I've been able to find a degree of stoicism under fire in business and in my personal life.