ENJOY THE RIDE, IT GOES FAST!

WOOHOO!! We are officially 10 years old! (fun fact only 4% of companies make it to this milestone.)

As Temple Lifestyle officially turns 10 and we continue to soar to new heights and eclipse new milestones on our journey, I thought it would be fun to take a moment to reflect on some of my key learning's as an entrepreneur, a colleague, a family man, and as a friend.. As entrepreneurs we rarely take time to share and as I get older, I hope I can do my part to give back to all those entrepreneurs and soon to be entrepreneurs as the world needs you.

To start, a huge thank you to the entire team at Temple Lifestyle and all our retailer & supplier partners for their support over the last 10 years. Thanks to my co-founders for being there every step of the way, we have experienced so much in such a short amount of time and yet the best is still to come. I would also like to thank our families and friends as they have always supported our vision through all the good times and the tough moments. Thank you so much, we are eternally grateful to all of you.

I have learnt so much in the last 10 years and I am so fortunate to work in an environment that challenges me every day to get better so I thought I would summarize my key learnings into 5 buckets:

• People
• Communication
• Hustle
• Reach for Better
• Gratitude

I’ll preface the below by saying by no means am I perfect or pretend to have mastered any of these points, they are f a reflection of what I believe are important areas to pay attention to…I want to thank Marshall Goldsmith for his amazing book “What got you here wont get you there” As I continue working my butt off to personally improve in all these areas of my life.

People. At our core we are all humans regardless of what organization we work for, where we live, what we believe in, what life preferences we have. We all desire interaction, support, acknowledgement and to feel a part of a community. Sometimes we need to check ourselves to regain perspective on what really matters in life…in other words the people around us - the people we zoom by in the morning to our desk, or disregard while on our phones at lunch or that sit next to us on a plane and we never say hi. It’s amazing what you can learn and who you can meet when you simply take the time to open your eyes and ears to the people around you. 

Communication. Probably one of the most under-rated skills is communication and something that I am continuously striving to improve, as it can significantly enrich life in so many ways. Knowing what you want and properly communicating that message is not always easy. Learning to say what you mean and mean what you say is a very important skill. If you haven’t read Crucial Conversations, I would strongly recommend taking the time to read this book.

Hustle. Life can be tough, but I strongly believe if you want to succeed in life simply put you need to be prepared to put in the time to achieve what you want or overcome whatever obstacle is in front of you. In today’s age of distraction that can be increasingly difficult so check out this great book, Deep Work by Cal Newton who references the following formula

Work Accomplished = Time spent x Intensity.

Reach for Better. We have one life and looking back I spent the majority of my pre 30s working hard but never taking the time to really slow down and invest in myself. Whereas my 30s have been spent pushing myself to slow down, take more time to read, and learn new things. The more you invest in growing and learning the richer your life becomes in so many facets. Today we are very fortunate to have multiple outlets to learn from including books and audio books, podcasts and YouTube, so get out there and keep learning! Ill share my top 10 books below.

Gratitude. Take the time to say thank you, to write a personal note, simply be appreciative for something someone did for you. Everyday people do things for each other. How often do we truly take the time to show our appreciation for each other? Take the time today to thank your colleague or team member or manager.

“Feeling gratitude and not expressing it is like wrapping a present and not giving it.” – William Arthur Ward

My life started to drastically change about 6 years ago when I started to take time to speak with other entrepreneurs, share my challenges, my fears, my aspirations. Although daunting at the time, it was comforting to know I wasn’t the only one going through some of the challenges we were facing. If I look back, I think what was most surprising was the extent to which people were willing and ready to help with no strings attached. By getting over this vulnerability hurdle it started to set me free from what I would call the shackles of entrepreneurship. The more you surround yourself with good people, with good intentions, the easier it is to share your challenges and overcome them as a team. At a time when mental health is a serious growing concern please take time with those around you and show them your appreciation. Thankfully this is a journey and I am so grateful for the people who have come together to challenge me to be my best and make Temple Lifestyle and Buddha Brands what it is today.

On behalf of everyone at Temple Lifestyle, thank you for all your support.

#startups #entrepreneur #teamwork #gratitude

My 10 books in no particular order.

• What Got You Here Won’t Get You There
• Deep work
• The Power of Habit
• The 5 Love languages
• Start with Why
• Multipliers
• The 5 dysfunctions of a team
• The hard thing about hard things
• The courage to be disliked
• The Miracle Morning