A Happy Birthday

The Darwin group gave me a nice cake for my birthday. A thoughtful gesture. Joanne made me prime rib and lobster for dinner and gave me a paper shredder from Staples. Not sure what she had in mind on the shredder gift. My in-laws gave me a nice Home Depot gift card. All three kids called me as well as my mother, brother and niece. It was the nicest birthday ever.
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I'm 54 today. I used to think that the fifties were old. Not now.
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If I died tomorrow, there would be no regrets. I never feel that there were things that I didn't try. I was not afraid to try stuff, not afraid of failure or mistakes. Making decisions was never a problem for me. This morning on TV, Maria Shriver, a Kennedy and wife of Arnold Schwartzernegger, said that all successful people have been told no, and have had failures in their life.
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The weird thing is that you can fail over and over, but you are ultimately judged by your success. Babe Ruth led the major leagues in strikeouts as well as home runs. Nobody calls him the Strikeout King.
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My family and friends constitute my definition of success. Money and possessions are hollow in comparison to the quality of your family and friends.
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As I look back, there are things that I could have done differently. And my actions by no means produced the intended results in a number of key incidents. There were advances as well as fallout, for me, and other people. But I can sincerely say that anything I did, I did in good faith, with no ill will or underhanded intent. Thus, no regrets, and a thankfulness for the insight that each action taught me.
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But I think that I have a lot more things to do. Telecom and Darwin, Sundance, the Tender and Boats, the Blog, my kids and future grandkids, Joanne, fishing, real estate deals - there are a ton of things left to do - things to experience - things to prove - things to enjoy.
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Trying stuff in good faith is the key. Success or failure just makes it interesting.
I'm not done trying yet.