Why I spent thousands of $$$ and left my family and business to fly out to a personal development conference.

Right now I’m at the Summit of Greatness by Lewis Howes .

People here are in shock that I flew out and came all this way from Israel to attend the conference in the states.?

People in Israel in the tech scene where I’m at are also thinking - “what is he thinking? What’s the ROI??”?

So I thought to write a few reasons of what I am doing this, and where I see the ROI, because we all look for ROI -Return on Investment - in everything we do, and if the "What's in it for me/ How is this going to pay off" isn't there - we shouldn't do it. Right?

So here is mine, and you can think about this for you:

1: Relationships (Notice I don’t call it “Networking”)

Having the RIGHT friends is priceless.?

I want to surround myself with modern age philosophers, stoics, thinkers that are also doers. People that care about changing the world. As Dr. Michael Beckwith said - “That are DANGEROUS to the paradigm of the world”.?

Surrounding myself with these kind of people and making friends with them is priceless ROI.

Business collaborations is another. I can tie my last visit to this specific conference in 2018 to dozens of thousands of dollars that also came into my bank account from work with some people I met in this conference - and also to thousands of dollars that left my bank account for investments in myself. I found one of the best coaches I ever had in this conference in 2018 and I get to hang out with her in this one.?

Long term: Now this is a very important one.?

We see all these speakers on stage.?

They were like us one day. Up and Coming entrepreneurs building their businesses and lives.?

But how did they get onto this stage??

Well - RELATIONSHIPS.?

One day - we - the people that are forming these connections and are working on maintaining them now - will call upon each other to speak at each others’ conferences.?

2. Investment in myself FOR my business & my family

LEARNING: One of the things that I believe is that one should NEVER stop learning. I learn things in these conferences. I validate other things that I already knew in these conferences.

CLEARING THE SMOKE FROM MY PROCESSOR: Most of us are stuck in the day to day, with our head into our laptops working on our own stuff. We’re in too deep. Pulling ourselves out of that - I believe - is important every once in a while.

This is like a vacation from the stressors of my business in the day to day. From my partners and employees - which I love so much! But also think that pulling yourself to a “retreat” in a way helps me clear my mind and think about new ideas more clearly.?

Our brain is a processor, and with so many things in the day to day being thrown at us from every direction - the processor is already working too hard and is blowing up smoke so we can’t think as clearly as we would if we take TIME OFF. This is for me INTENTIONAL time off. I clear my mind while also learning new things and getting new perspectives that re-connect me to my mission and purpose and help me clarify it.

3. 4000 Weeks

We as humans want to be productive. That’s great!

We have one life to live.?

But in our western technology career oriented life we started to try and advance outself from everything.?

We’ve become so inherently obsessed by the concept of ROI that we start thinking about how we can get the MOST out of EVERY second of our time. With every action we take we think “What will I get out of this?” or “How is this advancing me in life?”?

That’s why we’re agitated being around our kids sometimes.?

That’s why we don’t invest time into “useless” hobbies.?

But…

Have we ever tried doing things BECAUSE WE LOVE DOING THEM??

For the sake of…. Doing them!?

Because at the end of the day - we have only about 4000 weeks to live. I recommend to read this book (called “4000 weeks” by Oliver Bukerman)

So…. Ask yourself - do you look for ROI in everything??

Take time to heal your wounds.?

Take time to nourish your soul with what does you good.

Take time to relax.

Take time to do what your hobbies are.

Take time to ADVENTURE and get lost just for the sake of getting lost.?

This is freedom. Nourish your freedom and don’t take it for granted.?

This summit, this whole experience - is - in some ways - for my soul as well. It’s a hell of an adventure.?

Here's a last thing:

4. Come without expectations. Have faith in the ROI.

It's super not popular, but as I'm experiencing time and time again - the faith aspect is important in every aspect of my life.

Faith means you believe something is going to happen, without knowing why.

I think it's a lost skill for entrepreneurs. But I'm getting more and more validation that the fact that I'm practicing it is right.

So, hope this makes you think.

If it did - please leave a comment. It's also the first time I'm writing such a long Linkedin article - and in English.

Cheers!

Sagi

p.s. You can catch a lot of pictures from the conference in my IG stories (link in the first comment).