Brad Feld

Back to Blog

Direction You Look is the Direction You Go

Apr 02, 2019
Category Quotes

A friend from a long time ago, who I hadn’t heard from in a while, sent me an email with a wonderful nugget in it.

I just got back from Oahu and had an interesting experience on Waikiki Beach.   My son and I were boogie boarding and there were several people taking surfing lessons out in the waves with instructors. As the intrepid beginners got up on their boards and surfed one of their first waves, the instructors would invariably be shouting directives to them.

One of them was, “Direction you look is the direction you go!”

I was wrestling with this last night at life dinner with Amy. I am still Nev’s spell, so my brain only partially belongs to me right now. We were talking about where we were going, both literally (as in “should we do an upcoming trip next week”) but more importantly, figuratively.

Our best life dinners are the ones where we talk about the direction we are heading in, why we are heading there, and if we want to head there. We generally get a little time each month on the first day of the month to discuss this; last night it consumed almost all of the conversation, at least when I wasn’t sneezing.

While this conversation is often fun, it’s occasionally difficult. Last night was a mix, as I realized there was lots of different places I was looking at, which was preventing me from going toward one of them. And, the ones that I most wanted to go to weren’t getting many looks.

Anyone who plays sports knows this metaphor well. But it’s equally as good as a metaphor for one’s professional and personal life.