Twenty Years

My mentor gave me some very valuable advice the other day. But let me start with this, if you don’t have a mentor, you need one. It is absolutely beneficial to start a relationship with someone who has years of experience in your field and a large array of networks. He/She is also going to guide and teach you a lot about life and your career. All over lunch, once a month? Sold.

You want to surround yourself with people who you respect; you want to learn from the best and to mature quicker than your peers so that you get the promotion and the raise quicker then everyone around you. Mentors are instrumental in making this happen.

Plus, the baby boomer generation dominates these positions that hire people, train people and then fire people. They also make all the money and make all the decisions of the company that you work for. They like to take the younger generation under their wing and show them a thing or two over a stogie or brewski. So it’s pretty simple. Get a mentor or two, and get to know them well.

Anyways, my mentor gave me this valuable piece of advice. He said that I should write down my career goals, put it away in a safe/filing cabinet and always work towards them. As cliché as this sounds, it makes perfect sense.

Twenty years from now, when I’m at the pinnacle of my career, where will I be? What will I be doing? Where will my kids go to school? Will they be Notre Dame, Boston Celtics and Arsenal fans as well? What will be the newest Arles family tradition?

As I write this list I need to be as realistic as possible. I mean sure I’d love to take over for Richard Branson as the CEO of Virgin, or become the Editor-in-chief of GQ, but I really doubt that either of these is going to happen, Black president or not.

So what do I want to do in the next 20 years? Well, let’s just say that perhaps I have already written out this document and stashed it away nice and safe, so here’s a little sneak peak, or an appetizer if you will.

As much as I respect non-for-profit work and pro-bono work, I have an obsession for money. Yes, I’m evil, as I’ve been told. So, corporate America is my goal. In twenty years I want to be at the head of my Public Relations/Marketing department for a successful corporate company.

I would love to be a free-lance journalist, because this is now blossoming into my new found passion. I love history and culture, so if I could contribute to travel publications or historic publications that focus on cultural issues, then I would be a very happy man. I mean if Dhani Jones can host his own show as a “travelling journalist,” then I’d hope I could contribute somewhere. (I actually really like the show: Dhani tackles the globe, on the travel channel).

I also love the restaurant business and have always dreamed of owning a restaurant. Now sure, this might be a far stretch, but I think it could be made a reality if carried out the right way. Most of you know that I’ve always wanted to open up a “Sandy’s,” in fact some of you have even bought me shot glasses from various cities that read “Sandy’s bar, Panama City Beach,” or what not. Sadly, as you can infer from the picture, I will reluctantly have to come up with another name. A high-end Italian restaurant known for a relaxed environment, bright ambiance and great live music is a start, but I’m sure finances and location will determine that when the time comes.

As most of you know, I have a great love for coaching. I’ve coached soccer at the club and high school levels and have loved every moment of it. Sports have always been my outlet and since I can’t play them on a competitive level anymore, (Pick-up ball at a church on Thursday nights really doesn’t count, and beer pong seems to have lost its once glorified enticement), coaching is the next step. This is something I want to stick with and continue to do, even when I have kids.

I foresee Pamela teaching at an elementary school, but I hope that in twenty years we can fund a side project for her. She has always dreamed of having her own bookstore that also caters to younger kids and offers special classes to them. As teachers have wide open summer and Christmas breaks, this is an ideal project for her and I hope that it will be established by then.

Dream big? Yes I do. There are a lot of other stupid things that I predict for my future, like owning a beautiful house that has a urinal in every bathroom, or being able to travel to a different country every summer. But those are all irrelevant at the moment. I also don’t care where we live, as long as it’s a bigger city, that is pretty diverse and where the weather isn’t horrible all year long. So yeah, that might hint at a wave goodbye to Indianapolis.

This is just a little sneak at my future goals list. I’m sure it will change a lot in the time to come. But it’s a start. I highly recommend it to everyone. Most of you already have a mental note of your dreams and goals, but I think that putting it down in words really helps you to think constructively and directly about it.

Anyways, twenty years from now, hopefully I would have accomplished some of these, and perhaps one night over drinks at Sandy’s (or whatever its name will be), one of you will pull this blog post out for me.