Doug Takes A Break.
Things have changed in my life, but I've been at a loss for words to describe them. So here's the scoop:
I'm taking a break.
I have no idea how long this break will be for, and honestly, I'm not sure I know exactly what one does on a break, but I'm not going to work full-time for an unspecified amount of time. And yes, it scares the shit out of me.
See, I've been working full-time since 1992. Out of college, I did my stint in the music business (cue sarcastic laugh from wife). And then, in 1994, I started working at Virgin, my first job at a 'media' company. Since then, with the exception of a glorious 6 months when C and I traveled around, I've been dreaming up new products or writing specs for about 16 years. It's what I love doing, and it's what I think about all the time. And that's why I need a break.
Each of these times I've been in transition, I've promised myself that I would try harder to focus on me, my relationships and friends, and my personal passions for just a little bit of time before I jumped back into tech, and each of those times I've so easily fallen back into what I know and what I do.
In one sense, I've succeeded, but in others, I've failed.
Since I moved to LA, I've become friends with many folks in the entertainment business, who work intensely for short periods of time and then have days, weeks or even months of personal time. I've always found it so foreign - these guys who go for Tuesday mountain bike trips or have hobbies and passions they pursue - because I've always been working. While I had the benefit of a steady job, I became addicted to the habit of 'work days' and 'weekends' and, especially with the arrival of my kids, have taken precious little time for myself.
So, this time, I'm taking a break. Like I said above, I have no idea how long it will be or what it even means. When I've discussed it with others, I think I've mangled my description so badly that folks think I'm either retiring or having a mid-life crisis (I suppose last week's head shaving didn't help). It's not either.. retirement indicates a finality that I couldn't begin to understand, and I had the fortune of getting my mid-life crisis out of the way when I was about 25 (I called it my quarter-life crisis).
But it's also not a vacation. I'm the kind of person who can't spend my days without having some structure and purpose, and I want to push myself to try new things, learn new skills, and do the many things I've pushed off for so long. I'm hoping to travel with my wife, get to know my kids before my daughter realizes how uncool her dad is, write and then write some more, do some form of manual labor, spend a shit-ton of time in Tahoe, and be a better friend, father, son, etc to those around me.
Being the geek that I am, I've already made a list. A Google Doc, to be more specific, but I'm not sharing it quite yet. It's basically a bucket list of things that I want to do - some of them hour-long projects, some of them multi-year endeavors. I'll take any suggestions you got.
I will continue to actively work on new tech products as an advisor or investor - after all, I enjoy it - but I'm making significant time available for new, personal things that I've sacrificed in the last 20 years.
How long will this last? I honestly have no idea, but I'm trying not to do too much introspection about it. I relish the challenge to make this break stick for a little while. I'm in uncharted territory, and I'm very excited.
