Little Wicomico
Sunrise.
Wicomico Point, VA.
After a 14 hour drive to Virginia, Terry and I caught a few hours of sleep and jumped aboard a boat with the good men of the Little Wicomico Oyster Company.
Oysters are interesting creatures. I’ve learned a lot about them this last year, but the deeper I go, the more I learn just how many environmental factors that oysters share with wine. The elements of terroir that create the complexities of wine are mirrored by the “merroir” of water, with salinity and mineral content all dancing together to create rich complexities in the flavors of oysters from around the world.
Photos and video from this trip will be online soon(ish) at all online portals for Little Wicomico, as well as @movemediallc and @neontangerineco.
![Some Thoughts on Fear [Of Success]](https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/56339197e4b08bd6386caf8f/1520110964658-93E7F0RF7UKCZNO6QAW2/27655115_10155074306081583_5098925595520440355_n.jpg)
Some Thoughts on Fear [Of Success]
I would not describe myself as a model of success. If anything, I’m just not afraid to burn the midnight oil and push through to deadlines by sheer force of will. I often joke that “I don’t need to live big, I just need to live.” But I had a conversation with my wife, Annie, a little while back, and the subject came up again last night while I was decompressing at the end of the day with the marketing team at Innisfree Hotels
We talked about fear. But not conventional fear. We discussed fear of success.
Everyone is great at ideas. Ideas are fun, easy, and the arena in which posers try hard to look innovative. But when time and resources converge to actually execute those ideas, that’s when people show you who they are.
Some people have every chance to execute, but don’t. And sometimes they can’t even tell you why, it just didn’t happen.
I think people are unconsciously frightened of success.
Life is pretty easy when you don’t have to think too much. Human beings are wired to need a tribe. We crave mental and emotional support. When you hang out just right-of-middle in the bell curve, steady money and social acceptance aren’t difficult. The flip side is that is only satisfying for so long.
Starting something new or ascending to the next level of a corporate structure requires stepping outside the safety of the tribe and sending the message of “I’m different, and, just maybe, I’m better at this than you.”
Life in a polite society makes that last sentence feel rude, but succeeding requires that you stand out from the crowd. That separation means your peers could easily resent you for having the unmitigated gall to swim upstream and take risks. Those with less backbone will feel threatened, and they will take out their insecurities on you.
That’s an unpleasant prospect. With that said, consider the alternative. If you take the comfortable road, you risk a life of “coulda shoulda wouldas,” of getting so comfortable as the years pass that you never know whether that gamble would pay off.
And think about how infinitely better it will feel if your gamble does pay off.
"Man's Motive Power"
“Did you ask me to name man's motive power? Man's motive power is his moral code. Ask yourself where their code is leading you and what it offers you as your final goal. A viler evil than to murder a man, is to sell him suicide as an act of virtue. A viler evil than to throw a man into a sacrificial furnace, is to demand that he leap in, of his own will, and that he build the furnace, besides. By their own statement, it is they who need you and have nothing to offer you in return. By their own statement, you must support them because they cannot survive without you. Consider the obscenity of offering their impotence and their need-their need of you-as a justification for your torture. Are you willing to accept it? Do you care to purchase-at the price of your great endurance, at the price of your agony-the satisfaction of the needs of your own destroyers?"
- “Atlas Shrugged”
Motivation vs. Inspiration
We’re in month two of entrepreneurship. Consider this my personal “state of the union.”
This week was long days, long nights, early mornings and one all-nighter. This isn’t the first time I had a week like this, nor will it be the last.
Search “motivation” on Instagram and you’ll find infinite variations on the theme. Lions, Harvey Specter, The Rock… and it’s all nonsense.
There is a difference between motivation and inspiration. Lots of images or thoughts can be *inspiring,* but *motivation* is different.
Real motivation is a pre-existing condition. It’s chronic. It never shuts up. It’s a gnawing hunger to accomplish something, make something or be something.
You don’t wake up on Monday and surf YouTube to find motivation. If you have to look for it, you probably haven’t found the real thing yet.
Executing a project, like a new business, is a lot like camping: everyone loves the idea of it. It’s fun to talk about. It’s Instagrammable. But once you’re in the middle of it, you realize that you have to assemble your own shelter, gather your own resources, and the parts that photograph well are only a fraction of the whole experience. Then, when you think everything is okay and you take a hike, it rains.
In that moment, can decide the whole trip was a mistake, and go home, or you can choose to embrace the elements and be enjoyably present in the experience.
I don’t work to the extremes of each day because I saw a picture of a Bugatti. I do this because I prefer to work 80 hours a week on my own terms rather than work 40 hours a week at a job that does not share my principles.
This past month, our bank accounts touched single digits, then rebounded back to surplus as we adjust to the new rhythm of farming our own clients, following up and invoicing. It’s fun and scary and stressful and rewarding all at the same time.
But my own motivation, my own hunger to make something of my life on my own terms, won’t let me slow down. It’s an express bullet train with no stops, and every time I try to throttle down, I burn my hand on the controls.
I’ve never felt more satisfied.
T.S. Strickland Article: "As Debate Over Hatchery Roils, We Should Look to Cast a Wider Net"
My good friend and partner in crime, T. S. Strickland, recently wrote this piece, reflecting on the state and future of aquaculture in our hometown of Pensacola, FL. Terry (TS) is a fantastic writer and he also was gracious enough to include a few of my images to flesh out the piece. Read it at The Pulse via the link below and leave him some feedback!