A Look Back
At the beginning of every year, I look back and reflect on what the “highs” and “lows” were for me for the year and what life lessons I learned. I have been doing this since high school and occasionally write about it (privately)…so this is a rarity for me to share my 2010 reflection with you. 2010 will go down in my book as the year of my biggest personal growth thus far and was a wild roller-coaster of a year chronologically. Let me explain.
January 2010 started with my father having health issues and me running one of my portfolio companies after the sudden departure of its CEO. I remember dealing with both situations in parallel and laughing a lot, assuming the year could only get better. It did get better…and worse. My youngest started preschool after a “potty training boot camp” (as my wife called it) and we officially kicked our Diaper Genie to the curb! In February, one of our portfolio companies received a LOI to be acquired so I spent a few months working through the process with the CEO. The outcome was Helixis being acquired for $105M by Illumina after just 30 months of our having made our first investment in the company. The sale represented a 6.2x return on invested capital (in 30 months) and help put my fund on the map. We ended up passing out distribution checks to our LPs at our 4th annual meeting that May and things were looking up going into the summer. I found a great CEO for the company I was running and was looking forward to some free time in July/August.
My father ended up having a pacemaker put in that Summer while I was in Maui with my wife and kids. One of our companies had a technological breakthrough that was (is) very exciting. I distinctly remember sitting out on a SUP board after about an hour or so of paddling and reflecting on the concept of work/life balance and how important good health was after a chaotic first half of the year. All in all, a good summer.
We returned from vacation, kids went back to school for a new year, my fund’s portfolio companies were doing well to great, and I was looking forward to the college football season. Work started picking up and spent a fair amount of time in the Bay Area with various business dealings. I had a very productive Fall until the end of November when my wife was diagnosed with breast cancer. I won’t get into the details here other than to say that November and December were two of the most difficult months of my life. By the grace of God, her latest pathology report was good and she is now on the road to recovery.
So, why discuss my 2010 look back publicly? I guess if only to encourage others to appreciate life and its preciousness and to be truly thankful for family and friends. I have been thinking more and more about such matters (it’s why I haven’t been blogging much) and feel truly blessed for my life and those I have in it. Here is to hoping your 2011 is a great year filled with health and happiness.
