At the beginning of the year, I wrote three simple goals in my notebook. For the sake of accountability, here’s my end of year assessment on each of them:

1. Figure out whether Colorado is a long-term or short-term move

Verdict: Denver is “above the bar” but it’s not perfect. I’ve enjoyed things being car-friendly but not cookie-cutter, getting more space for the money, and the breweries. I’ve missed proximity to family and friends, humidity, and trees. We’re now in the time of year where I have relatively little desire to be in the mountains (a combination of disliking all the winter tourists growing up in VT, my wife not being a skier, and a strong distaste for sitting in traffic for hours to go somewhere crowded). And it’s still a city with city problems that seemed to get worse throughout the year and were worse than my memory of the city before we moved here.    

Reflecting on this goal for the year, I’m going to call this one a success, even if I don’t have a clear answer to the question.

Here’s why I think a reframe is appropriate: I’m guilty of being a “maximizer” versus a “satisficer” in a lot of areas, and I’m trying to get better at making “good enough” decisions in my personal life. Professionally, I’m comfortable making a business judgement quickly with limited information – that’s the world of private equity, coupled with the awareness that you’re stuck fixing the things you got wrong in diligence. I’ve obviously been making professional choices longer than personal ones…and yet just ask me (or my wife) how much agony goes into buying a pair of shoes, let alone where we might live.

The reframe here is that Denver is “good enough” and somewhere we will happily live for a while if it continues to make sense in the broader context of our lives. It belongs in the consideration set and we happen to already be here. But life happens – new career opportunities, family needs, desire for oceans over mountains, etc. For now, we’re staying mentally flexible (unless mortgage rates go back to 3%!).

• Develop at least one new ‘sticky’ hobby that I’m proficient at

This was objectively a failure. I played maybe 5 rounds of disc golf this year, which isn’t bad, but I wouldn’t say I got materially better. There is no new bike in the garage, I don’t have a dog in the “Epic vs. Ikon” Battle Royale, and the iRacing setup is still merely an idea. I wrote more long stuff than before but not as much as I wanted to, and my Twitter game is still weak.    

• Make at least one side investment in a search fund company or other small business

This one was a success – but the process wasn’t as strong as the outcome. I’m excited to be a (small) investor in my former Charlesbank colleague Jon Page and his partner Ben Kim’s modular building rental business. I didn’t make as many connections in the Denver small business acquisition community as I planned on, and I haven’t quite figured out how to be pithy and useful (while not being anonymous) on Twitter yet (see #2) and use that to build connections and an eventual investment funnel. But every good hockey team gets a fluke goal now and again, and at the end of the day, the scoreboard is the most important marker of success or failure. I’d like to get another one done in 2024!

What about 2024?

Unless you’re Ross Chastain defending against Ryan Blaney at Phoenix this year (it’s a NASCAR reference), it’s typically much more important to pay attention to what’s in the windshield than what’s in the rearview mirror when driving. This year, I’m going to make the 2024 goals public at the start of the year. And in the small chance more than three people read this…it’s out there.

A book I’ve been reading lately is Christina Wallace’s The Portfolio Life. Christina and I started together in BCG DC way back in 2010, and since then she’s done some interesting and varied things including founding an apparel company (and shutting it down), becoming a tech executive, an HBS lecturer, while building a family, making time for artistic pursuits, and then writing a book about how to pull off something similar.

One of the chapters talks about how Christina built a personal balanced scorecard (“PBC”) – basically, a one-page sheet of categorized goals with time-boxed outcomes. I’ve spent a lot of time in the last year thinking about KPIs at work – so applying some of the philosophy, here’s a mix of leading and lagging indicators, and milestone items and quantifiable metrics.

Here’s my PBC for 2024 and the rationale for them:

Professional:

1. For most of my career, I’ve had a primary focus on consumer businesses. A couple years ago, I made a conscious decision to try something different. But there’s realistically a certain level of separation where I can’t count myself as a “consumer person” anymore, despite my efforts to stay current in my free time. There’s still a lot left to learn in healthcare investing, but I think I owe it to myself (and my long-term future in consumer) to know by year end whether I plan to stay in healthcare for the next 5+ years or whether returning to something I’ve done before is what will keep me most energized going forward.   
2. Working in the suburbs, in a city where I know fewer people professionally outside of my current role and there are fewer alumni from my schools to meet, has been kind of stifling at times. I get a lot of energy from hearing what other smart, interesting people are doing when it’s different than how I spend my time – there’s no monopoly on good ideas, after all! My current setup makes these impromptu run-ins less frequent and requires more intentionality. I can do better at 1) reaching out to people I think are doing interesting stuff 2) staying present with people with whom I have “weak ties” and 3) not being afraid to self-promote a bit more – I often forget that the skills I have feel more like a “commodity” because I live with them every day (whereas things I don’t know how to do but others do feel “special”).
3. At a certain point, most senior business careers become more and more like a sales job. Sourcing through cold outreach is something I want to get better at – it’s applicable in so many contexts I could see myself in. No time like the present to get better, and the only thing stopping me is inherent fear of rejection. Intellectually, it’s obvious no one bats 1000%. Time to get to the plate more, track the batting average, and bring it up a few points.

Financial

1. Until this year, I hadn’t thought much about the FIRE (Financial Independence, Retire Early) movement. It’s not something I see myself doing – that’s a separate topic, suffice it to say the “RE” part sounds terrible. This year, I’ve learned about a subset of people who use achieving “FI” not to “RE” but to have the peace of mind to either take entrepreneurial risk, pivot to a new, lower-paying career, or work in a part-time / consulting role in their field. In order to achieve this level of time flexibility while paying for living costs, the general consensus is that simple, low-cost liquid investments are the way to go. This seems like generally good financial advice if “FI” is anywhere close, so I’m going to try and follow it.
2. In line with my 2023 goal, I’d like more opportunities to support friends doing cool things with small investments (and hopefully advice). If all goes well, it checks all the boxes – good people, intellectually interesting businesses, and returns.
3. It’s now been a full year since we sold our condo in Boston and moved to Denver. While I admit it’s just as much for aesthetic and enjoyment reasons than financial reasons, I’d like to own a house again. I definitely don’t want to rush back into it for a host of reasons, but getting to a spot where the money is set aside and ready when we are feels like a good place to be.

Personal

1. I never have a bad time at a concert. I had a rough day at work before some of the shows I saw this year, and I almost didn’t go. But Erica convinced me to go, and as always, she was right. Live music is one of the things I missed most during COVID and I’m so glad it’s back. I saw five concerts this year (maybe there’s a 2023 music deep-dive coming soon), so why not double it next year? Already have four booked.
2. Looking back at this year, I’m lucky to have gotten to see family and many close friends in-person. Even for an hour over coffee or a meal while in town on business, those were some of my favorite moments of the year. Hopefully, work travel will make this easy once again, but if not, I might have to make more of an effort. And we’re also excited to hopefully host friends in Denver in 2024!
3. For one reason or another, I’ve visited (defined as spending the night) 41 US states. I’d like to get that to all 50 in the not-too-distant future. A trip to the upper Midwest and/or Gulf Coast might be in my future. Once I get to 50, I’ll try to improve on the ones where my visit was really a work trip (though I do like visiting manufacturing plants!). Since there’s no NASCAR race in easy driving distance from Denver, I’m hoping to do another long weekend trip to a race after attending the Sonoma race this year. Sadly, there’s not much of a chance to kill two birds with one stone.

Health

1. I ran competitively in high school and college, and I can only describe myself at those races as a headcase. Some lowlights include breaking a knuckle after punching a metal trash can when I got out-kicked for a couple spots in the 800 meter final at the State Championship in high school, crossing the finish line after a tough college cross-country race in Van Cortlandt Park swearing like a sailor only to get (rightfully) chewed out by my coach, and quitting track one year in college after having panic attacks in the middle of workouts at practice. I don’t know if I actually ran directly off the track mid-practice and to my dorm, but I remember it that way. I put a ton of performance pressure on myself, I didn’t know how to talk about it or what to do about it, and it wasn’t very fun. After college, I’ve trained somewhat seriously for a few races and done fine, but there’s been enough performance pressure in my work life that I never really felt the need to do it athletically. That said – it’s been a few years since I raced, the times where I did it post-college were more relaxed, and I’d like to see what I’m capable of.   
2. I’m now 35, it’s time to start acting like it. Gotta see a doctor, have all the unfun tests (to hopefully avoid the even less fun procedures and issues down the road)
3. In Colorado, people confuse outdoor hobbies for personalities. But if you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em. I’m not yet sure if it’ll be gravel biking, more XC skiing or disc golf, or something else, but it’d be good to have another outdoor hobby I can do 1) both by myself and with others and 2) that I can do for the long-term.  

This was mostly for myself, but hopefully now that it’s publicly available I’ll feel more accountable. If we intersect somewhere on these (or you think I’m missing something important) would love to hear about it!

Good luck in 2024.