CRAZY ADVENTURE OF A LIFE-TIME

What the heck possessed me 30 years ago on the spur of the moment travel 8 hours to Penticton to compete in Canada's longest open water swimming race at the time 7.5 miles? Looking back, I have got no clue? But as I think about it more; back then it was about just going for it and trying stuff on spur of moment and I was a bit crazy and screw loose I suppose.

Me and buddy Darryl took off I think on a Friday July 31, 1987 from Victoria BC boarding the BC FERRIES for 90 minutes from Victoria to Vancouver. We then drove through the night to arrive in Penticton.

We registered for the race in the morning and found out that you needed a wetsuit to compete so I decided to rent one on the shores of Lake Okanagan. The wetsuit did not really fit but oh well.

That night we did a carbo load with lots of pasta and I think we probably went out to some local bar for some bevies as we contemplated what lay ahead.

I have to admit looking back I was a bit scared thinking what was I in for. We stocked up our canoe with hydration supplies for the epic swim - the entire length of Lake Skaha.

When we started out it was insanely cold from the night before as the wind whipped up the water and the cold water came to the surface. The race started in a place called Okanagan Falls.

At the start of the race, there was a bloke who sprinted out in front and I kept my eye on him through the first 2-3 miles. About half-way through the race I seemed to pull away; but noticed my stupid wetsuit was chaffing up on my neck and cutting me.

As is my way, I neglected to put sunscreen on so was getting nice and burned. The lack of sunscreen preparation reminded me of the time my dad took me to Hawaii for my high school graduation. Whilst in the Islands my Dad was keen to find someone to teach me how to surf but did not want to pay an arm and a leg.

My father Vic Lindal (www.viclindal.ca) is very creative and he found a local beach bum who took me out on the shores of Oahu in Waikiki. The unfortunate thing was the beach bum counselled me not to put sunscreen on as he said "dude you will fall off the surfboard." #insane. The counsel did not end well as I had third degree sunburn and spent two days in the hotel recovering. Thanks Dad! I did learn how to surf though. Below is picture of me getting ready to surf. My dad sure did push me to try stuff. Amazing dad who just turned 80 years old. As part of bike to work week he biked from Victoria BC to Winnipeg Manitoba. Whilst at the top of the Rocky Mountains he pulled over for a nap as his Buddy Tony Hoar (first Englishmen to complete Tour De France) made him bike trailer that fold out into a tent. Someone called it in to say there is this old guy who is passed out. Two ambulances and police car to wake my dad up and he says "just having a nap" I got a long way to go.

In any event I remember pausing out in the middle of the lake and looking around at the scenary of the unbelievable Okanagan back in 1987 saying wow - I am doing this....;... and really taking in the moment being out in the middle of the lake at 18 years old with Ms.Penticton (LOL) canoeing beside me.

It reminds me of a mentor I have met Peter Thomas - Century 21 Canada who has often said "Success is attainment of a pre-defined goal" Going into this race I suppose as with anything I did back then, I wanted to win and push myself to the point of passing out and having nothing left and leaving everything on the battlefield.

It is kind of like business a bit. You have campers, quitters and climbers. You have individuals within your organization who are content to build up their territory, kingdom and not really pushing the envelope of what's possible or what's next. You have people who have just plane quit on you for whatever reason and you have climbers who are pushing the envelope, dreaming big, accelerating and not thinking of "if I fail" or how does this affect my territory or kingdom I have built up.

I think you see this a lot in Amazon where Jeff Bezos insanely passionate to drive and accelerate innovation; making it simple for his team to do this. He, as I understand it approves new experiments on the spot! His letter to shareholders is amazing.

Thomas Edison was master at innovation. I have stated this many times having walked his invention factory floor. The man had over 11,000 folks working in his factory and had a culture of "anyone can try their hand at innovation" His practice was depicted in the latest book by ITO from MIT media lab called "Whiplash" where ITO he cites that "Innovation" often times happens in the fringes. Not necessarily in the core. Having those vibrant networks and nodes to funnel up great ideas, processes in a "unencumbered" way - kind of a flow system of non - judge-mental big picture fun activity appears to lead to break through innovation. Crowd-sourcing ideas yes and yes use technology but I think having authentic human face to face dialogue and conversation around things goes a heck of a long way. Chip Wilson in Lulu Lemon days was very old school empowering his team on the floor to collect data on the spot. I think sometimes we out of lazyiness and not wanting to engage in human to human activity because technology has dumed us down so much we say "lets do an online survey or lets crowd-source stuff" How about lets actually physically talk to our customers, potential customers, future customers in 5 years and authentically connect with them.

Edison certainly found that in cracking the breakthrough on the light bulb he built up global networks and nodes. Through this system he was able to use 40 + networkers and contacts around the world to source and find the filament for the lightbulb in Japan.

Back to the race. I continued to hammer the swim - finishing 7.5 milles in 2 hours and 45 minutes setting a record for my age group which still stands 30 years later and over-all winner.

I was beaten up with sunburn, chaffed neck which two days later it looked like I tried to hang myself.

Was it worth it? Yes. Sometimes you just have to say yes and go for it....I am reminded of a great movie by one of my favourite actors Jim Carey. The movie title is Yes Man. Carey was living a mundane life when a buddy of his invited him to a seminar which was entitled just say Yes. The television show I would like to reference is Seinfeld where George Costanza says to Jerry "Jerrrr...if everything up to this point is not working if I do the opposite it might just work."

Here's to saying yes and doing something insanely crazy. I am on a crazy new adventure building the world's most successful and impact business deal making platform! Very excited to see the impact and innovation globally!

Skaha Lake Records