Usually there’s a song to go along with my thoughts, but I make the rules here, and today there’s nothing.

I got lunch with the owner of 1928 today. Like an asshole I picked contessa, stunning restaurant, good date spot, but I hate heights and it’s on the 18th floor. Luckily she also wanted to sit at the bar so I didn’t have to look at the windows.

We’re expanding, it’s hard to say when, but soon, within 6-8 months I’d say we’ll have another location. Can I tell you where? No. So we met today to talk about if I’d want to leave beacon hill and move on to the next one, or stay in beacon hill and make it my own. I will say some of the people on beacon hill are….difficult. Something about it though, some of the regulars we’ve built, the space itself, the team, all of it. I feel like we’re doing okay but if I was leading it we could really do something special. Maybe it’s a bit egotistical to think that if I was the general manager it would operate better, but a little ego isn’t bad, it’s when you let it control you.

I told her ultimately I just don’t want my boss now to continue being my boss so regardless of where I end up, that’s how I decide. She said she doesn’t think I need a boss anymore, which was kind, and that she agreed my current boss isn’t a good fit for me. She asked me to hang in because she’s figuring it out as she goes, and gave me a raise for my patience.

Most people would be excited to get a raise, maybe even celebrate. Me? Maybe it hasn’t hit me yet because I moved on from it without thinking twice, instead I focused on how we get to where we want to be and what our next steps are. I think sometimes ambition can be a curse, because it causes you to not really live in the present. You’re always focused on the future, and the next thing. I’d like to be a little more present. Had I been present today maybe it would have hit me that I’m 28 years old, making over 100k, and my career is maybe at an all time high. Instead I wondered, when do we open the next one, where, how, who?

In some senses I reached a goal today, and I lack the ability to shut off my ambition for 10 seconds and appreciate that we’re making progress, that the whole point of being ambitious is to achieve goals. Here I am skipping over the goals I’m achieving focusing on the other one I already thought of. Maybe it’s time to take my foot off the gas for a moment. OR maybe I’m doing it exactly the way I should be.

As a Boston guy, and a huge football fan, everyone’s going to hate me for saying this but whenever someone asked TB12 which ring was his favorite, his answer?

The next one.

I’m sure that competitive, ambitious drive can be unhealthy, but my favorite accomplishment?

The next one.

Where the skies are gold not gray,

J.