Stevon’s Blog: Paul Newman Daytona
I’ve gained a bit of a reputation for being late. The small amount of authority voters granted me as a local elected official has made me accustomed to expecting people wait. It sounds like I’m doing it on purpose but it’s not. I’m just not the best gauge for how long tasks take to complete.
I have learned that most things take more time to get started than they do to finish. This is a lesson I intend to share with generations of men if I get the opportunity. This lesson of course only applies to the more shallow tasks. The deep work takes a lifetime.
I understand the irony of my association with time. I’ve spent most of my adult life in a hurry to make a mark. It wasn’t until recently I understood the difference between what it means to be someone exceptional versus doing something notable. But of course, I only got to learn these lessons after being entrusted with an opportunity I wasn’t quite prepared to handle.
Upon reflection I’m grateful for the moments when my grandiosity took a cold plunge of humility. This rise and fall is cyclical in my case. Several times over I’ve been seduced by aspirations without the proper gauge for how long it takes to achieve the desired outcome.
My journey as a politician is ending for the time being. But time doesn’t care about my life designs or career changes. People ask me what’s next. I suppose having a podcast, running a consulting firm, investing in real estate and writing a newsletter isn’t enough to do with my time. There is also the avid reading, boxing lessons, working out, traveling and Spanish lessons as well. My joking but dead serious replay is to make money and find a baby mama.
But the truth is I have no idea what’s next and if I asked time I have the feeling it would tell me it doesn’t matter. A few of my favorite political leaders to read about are Teddy Roosevelt and Abraham Lincoln. Like me, they were sober, got into politics young, lost races and took breaks from being in elected office. But they were also political animals, which I’m not. But I am an animal about living a life that when it’s done is a great representation of time well spent. That’s a legacy where instead of the watch defining the man, the man redefines the watch. Something like a Paul Newman Daytona.
Book Recommendation: The Way of The Superior Man
