The Place: Austin Java on Barton Springs Road

The Cup: I had a cup of the strongest coffee I’ve ever experienced, and Mike had water. I also had oatmeal (steel cut) and Mike had breakfast tacos. I asked Mike if coffee just wasn’t his thing, but it turns out he’s simply a man of moderation. And he’d already had his cup at home. Wow, such discipline.

Background: You may recall when I had coffee with Cup 59, Brad Closson I mentioned that I got Brad’s name from a guy who was in the audience of a workshop I presented at. As he was leaving class, he slipped me a piece of paper with a name and number on it. I was perplexed when I found out it wan’t his. Obviously I got the mystery solved, and had coffee with the name on the paper – Brad. Now, the time had come to have coffee with the man passing out other guys’ phone numbers.

Mike is an adventurer who is in constant search of the next journey. Some journeys are grand and lead him on world travels, other are just as grand, but the journey is inward on a search for meaning and purpose. We’ll get into all those journeys, but first, some:

Common Grounds:

1. What’s a food you can’t live without? Water. {He’s very pragmatic, this one. I press him for another and he relents.} Water and granola. {My husband Dave loves granola. Loves, loves, loves the stuff! Could eat it for every meal. When I tell Mike this he suggests a method that takes granola from good to great. Put some granola in a large baggie along with some peanut or almond butter. Squish it all around so all the granola is coated. Put the bag in the freezer for a hour or more. Pour some into a bowl, top it with cold milk and then… add a scoop of vanilla ice cream! What!?! Yep. Ice cream!} 
2. What is your guilty pleasure? Granola with peanut butter and ice cream.
3. How did you make your first buck? Delivering newspapers.
4. What’s the best way to unwind? To wear myself out with some form of outdoor action and adventure, usually mountain biking.
5. What was the last thing you fixed? I just finished a make-ready on a single wide yesterday.
6. What is your best feature?  My ability to fix things – mechanical, conceptual or business systems.
7. If you could swap lives with someone for a day, who would you pick? Oprah. She has such power and depth, and she seems really grounded.
8. What’s the best place to eat in Austin? Uchi. It’s expensive, but it’s good. {Which is the precise review I’ve heard from every person who names Uchi as their fave. And that’s a high number! Often with these three words tacked on – it’s worth it!}

What’s the best advice you ever got? This is an answer that will explain a lot about a person. Often it’s advice that has shaped the choices they’ve made, or has become the edict they live by.

Mike’s answer to the question was words that his step-father shared once when Mike came home from his restaurant job, frustrated by the lack of leadership and poor management processes. Mike was interested in a career in environmental studies. He assumed he’d take that passion and make a career out of it. Mike’s step-father suggested something that surprised Mike. He said, “You need to get an MBA.” What? An environmental guy generally dislikes a business guy. Or at the very least, their agendas tend to be quite different. That’s what many would assume, including Mike.

For whatever reason, Mike listened to that advice, and what he discovered was that he was right at home. Mike’s undergraduate was in Psychology.  Engineers in the MBA program with Mike said that liberal arts guys like him would struggle with the quantitative courses in the program. In part because of the extra focus they inspired, they were wrong. He loved it and it showed. He graduated from The University of Texas at Austin – The Red McCombs School of Business with close to a 4.0. This would change the trajectory of Mike’s life, starting with his first job after graduation.

A classmate’s father recruited Mike to London, to work for his consulting business in Change Management for the London subway system. In the two years Mike spent there, he learned a process that would unlock his mind and unleash his creativity.

Something that might surprise people about Mike is that he is dyslexic. Words are not always his friend, and certainly not the easiest method for getting a point across. As he says, “I’m hyper-visual.” In London, Mike experienced a brainstorming technique referred to as “War Rooming” for the first time and it was a game changer. He says, “I learned how to make a complex process come to life on the walls.” The technique is a method of brainstorming that often involves ideas flying up onto large sheets of paper or dry-erase boards on the wall. The people who know the work best (the employes) explain how things really work – exposing all the problems and obstacles to quality and customer satisfaction. They also brainstorm opportunities for improvement. The management is generally kept out of the process besides sponsoring which changes get funded and backed. Tons of psychology goes into keeping management comfortable with the process. In the end, the solutions reveal themselves.

After a few years, it was time to return home to Austin to work on his relationships. Mike’s observation was that many consultants found themselves in relationships that were unraveling – likely due to the long hours spent helping organizations solve large and complex issues. What remained was an inadequate amount of energy left for working on the complexities within personal relationships. And let’s face it, even the best relationships require effort and attention.

After being in Austin for years and falling back into consulting with large organizations, Mike also began to do some self-examination. He quickly noticed a pattern emerge. Professionally, he gravitated toward the most dysfunctional teams to work with. Personally, he chose the most challenging relationships. He sought out the hardest rock climbs – blowing out his shoulder in the process. He looked for the most challenging mountain bike rides. Why?

One of the first steps when working with a client is to get the answer to two questions up on the wall. What do you do and who is your customer? Through this process they uncover the customer-defined value. Mike wondered, “In my own life, have I determined what I value? And am I living by those values?” Mike says, “People tend to not step back and design their lives. I decided to step back.” What emerged was Mike 2.0.

In the metamorphosis, he had to make some tough choices and let go of things that were not working. He quit his job at AMD and became a freelance consultant. He also had to end some relationships – including his marriage.

Eventually, Mike course-corrected and was living his life by design. It was at this time that he decided he’d take a trip around the world. One day he was on the trails and ran into a friend. He told his friend about his world travel plans, and the friend said, “I’ve got someone you need to meet.” Which is how Mike met Lisa – his girlfriend. He calls their connection, “the relationship of a lifetime” and it’s obvious how much he adores and respects her.

Lisa spent many years with Microsoft and is now in “affordable real estate”. I was intrigued and needed to hear more. She and Mike invest in single-wide and double-wide trailers. What? Seriously? Yes! It’s true! And Mike says, “I’ve never made a more lucrative investment. Nor have I ever experienced a more Reality TV-like plot.” He asked for a challenge, didn’t he?

The investment is working out, and they are enjoying the business so much, that a couple of years ago they decided to buy an entire mobile home community. It’s near Marble Falls and they’ve got big plans for it. I have to admit, I would have never guessed Mike and Lisa were investing in mobile homes and running a trailer park.

Here’s another interesting fact about the couple. They live in 350 square feet. No, I didn’t forget a zero at the end. They live in one of my favorite urban Austin communities – Pecan Grove RV Park. Mike says, “Living in Pecan Grove has given me an appreciation for small spaces and has opened me up to the idea that you don’t need much space to live. Especially if you’ve got good neighbors – then the experience is enhanced.”

On the topic of experiences, Mike and Lisa are about to head out for an experience I envy. For 6 weeks, they will be greeted in the morning by toucans, Howler monkeys and sunshine. They are house-sitting for a couple in Costa Rica! How cool is that? I want that job!

Mike tells me they have plans to make it a regular gig. Mike intends to spend about 50% of his time doing the business consulting work he so enjoys; 25% of his time on passive income development, such as the mobile home community; the remaining 25% of their time will be spent traveling the world, house-sitting. Just hearing this fills me with wanderlust. Some day, my friends, some day!

With all this excitement going on, I’m surprised by Mike’s answer to the question, “What’s the most significant thing that’s happened to you in the last 3o days?” For Mike, it was getting his first physical in eight years and getting the news that everything looks great! He didn’t mean for so many years to go by, and he knows how important regular check-ups are. But as he says, “Once it’s been a few years, it only gets harder.” So kudos to him for overcoming that fear and anxiety and making the appointment.

Mike tells me the thing he thinks people might be most surprised to learn about him is just how unconventional of a thinker he is. As an example, he tells me that upon studying the world religions, he was never able to find one that resonated. Mike adds, “I tend to see through the lack of common sense of any religion. So I developed my own religion called Black Boxism.” He’s not looking for people to join him. He’s merely looking for an answer that feels right and makes sense. Mike says, “Things come out of the black box that are stunning – think all of nature. But what’s in the black box is unknown. I’ve resigned myself to the fact that we may never know. I don’t say there is no God. I accept not knowing and submit to the ultimate mystery. I let go of a need to understand and to control.”

What is the biggest issue facing society today? According to Mike, it’s the “environmental holocaust.” He said he used to want a species-change operation – to become a dolphin or something. He was not proud of what humans were doing to the planet. Eventually he came to terms with the fact that nature created this ability to destroy itself. “Burn bright, burn out,” he says, adding, “everything has a life cycle.”

I ask Mike about a ritual, practice or habit he does daily that he feels contributes to his overall success. Seeing as how this is the same guy who said water was his favorite food, it doesn’t surprise me when he answers with “showering and brushing my teeth”. We both have a chuckle – and agree these are certainly contributing factors for success. Stop doing either and see what happens. Just don’t invite me to coffee during your experiment.

I dig a little deeper on this and Mike tells me he makes a deliberate attempt at doing something different every day and having very few routines. He tells me when he was young, he took an assessment – he still remembers it said, “does not like routine”. As we keep talking, he tells me about a book that he recommends called Letting Go. He realizes that the one thing he does daily since reading the book is to look for something to let go of. He tells me it’s hard, but it’s worth the effort.

What is Mike’s 30 second message to the world? “Less is more. Humans become identified with things – being American, being middle class, having a big home; the next car, the next purchase is going to make you. Then, about 2/3 of your way through life, you realize it’s not getting you where you thought you were going. Materialism, the job, all the stuff… it’s hard to find the balance. It requires shifting from extraction mentality to contribution mentality.”

Less is more. But Mike is a reminder that in order for less to be enough, it must be the right stuff. We must take a step back periodically and examine our lives – the choices we make, the path we’re on – is it by design? Is this the life we chose, or are we just along for the ride? Are we living a life according to our values – and do we even know what those values are? It’s only after answering those questions that letting go makes sense. You can’t possibly know what to let go of, until you know what’s worth hanging on to. Mike’s life by design is a reminder to us all, these questions are worth asking.