Hello Everyone!
Just wanted to let you know Cup 35 is on its way shortly. With graduation 16 days away, I’ve had some T’s to cross and I’s to dot, but will resume posting soon!
Also, I want to take this opportunity to say thank you all for joining me on this crazy adventure. Knowing you’re out there reading has made an incredible difference.
megan
Person: Mike Wardian
Location: His office in Washington, DC
Mike Wardian is a running junkie, getting up at dawn to put in a dozen miles before leaving for work and another dozen miles during lunch. He ran 17 marathons last year, has qualified for the Olympic trials twice, and is sponsored by companies like NorthFace, Powerbar and MarathonGuide.com. This year he is headed to South Africa for the Two Oceans Marathon (about 34 miles) and the Comrades Marathon (56 miles), before running the Badwater 135 Mile race in Death Valley this past July.
He is an animal on the road and one respected and feared by other ultra-marathoners.
That’s not the Mike I met for coffee.
When I walked into his unassuming office, tucked away in a building off Wisconsin Ave just outside of Washington, D.C., Mike greeted me before we sat down at a conference table with a model cargo ship sitting in the middle. Aside from being sinewy like a seasoned runner and having long hair tied in a knot at the base of his neck, he was like any businessman I’d met. He was wearing a tie and our conversation started off in a formal tone.
This makes sense if you consider how many post-race interviews he’s been through. I asked him questions about his running and training, and told him stories about my running experiences. I also explained how I had found him. My attempts to get back into running had gotten me thinking back to my serious days of running, when discipline was a crucial piece of my running success. Finding that discipline after a long running hiatus has been a challenge, I decided to find an ultra-marathoner for coffee, because I could think of few things requiring more discipline than running for 30 hours straight.
A basic Google search led me to Mike. The Michigan State Alumni Association highlighted his running accomplishments in an article, which led me to his website, where I discovered he was running the D.C. Marathon the same weekend my friend and I were running the D.C. Half-Marathon. When I reached out to him, I discovered he actually lived in D.C. and we scheduled a meeting for the day before the race.
…
Mike was born in Morgantown, West Virginia, and moved to Washington, D.C., in 4th grade. He left the area to go to college at Michigan State, which at the time had a Division I Lacrosse team. He competed for a few years, but ended up leaving the team to pursue other interests. He had never been interested in running but joined a friend for a race and realized he had a talent for the sport and a competitive drive to be good at it.
While continuing to pursue the sport, he took a job back in D.C., where he has been for 10 years now, working as a freight broker. It’s a job he enjoys, but more importantly, one that offers him the flexibility that his training demands, while also allowing him to spend time with his wife and two young sons.
Running itself isn’t hard, it’s just putting one foot in front of the other. The hard part is to keep putting one foot in front of the other when it starts to hurt. I asked Mike how he did it and his response made it obvious running was woven into his DNA. He said he’s always the first person ready to start running and the last one who wants to stop. In fact, he’d prefer to be putting in 150-200 miles a week, but time constraints don’t allow it.
I asked him how he kept running when he’s 60 miles into a 100-mile race. He said he hits patches that are tough but he pushes through those moments by focusing on his race goals and making sure to get enough food and water. Before long, he cycles out of the rough spot and starts to feel good again.
At the start of his career, people told Mike he couldn’t run a 100-mile race, nor run three marathons in one month, nor be a competitive runner and hold down a job. But he tried anyway because he figured even if the skeptics were right, he’d rather find out for himself instead of just taking their word for it. So far he’s proved them wrong and has had some incredible times in the process—both literally and figuratively.
As he said, there will always be 50 people telling you why you can’t do something—and they may tell you with the best of intentions—but if you always listen to those people, you’ll never get anything done. You just have to decide what’s best for you and do it.
…
When we parted ways, I couldn’t help but think about how I hadn’t seen the real Mike. He’s a runner with an office job, not an office-man with a hobby for running. I felt like we had only scratched the surface of his running and travel adventures. But when you’re juggling a family, a running career, and a job, time is of the essence. I didn’t want to take any more of his time than I already had.
Luckily, I had my chance the following morning. Less than 30 minutes after I had finished running my 13.1 miles through the streets of D.C., Mike finished his 26.2 mile race, claiming his fifth D.C. Marathon victory in the last six years.
My friend and I waded through the frenetic crowd to the VIP Hospitality tent, where we found Mike recovering with his wife and two sons. I called out his name and he walked over smiling. We didn’t talk long, just enough to share race-stories, meet his oldest son, and snap a picture, before I headed for the Metro station and he went for post-race interviews.
Leaving the race felt much better than leaving his office. This time, I felt like I’d gotten to see Mike in his element—celebrating another marathon victory with wife and kids.
That mental image is what I will take away from Cup 34.
As an athlete with a full-time job and family, Mike understands time. Whether he’s running a race or living his life, the clock is always adding pressure. To be a successful runner requires efficiency of resources—making the best use of time and energy. Being a successful father and businessman on top of that is the exact same. We all have limited time and energy.
Mike doesn’t waste any of it.
Mike is a great example of someone with clearly defined goals and priorities, which led me to examine my own goals and priorities. I realized there are plenty of people who will say you can’t accomplish something, and countless distractions that will try to get in the way—but if you have a clear finish line in mind, you can overcome those barriers.
And have a great time celebrating at the end.
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Person: Jonathan Zittrain
Location: Austin Convention Center at SXSW in Austin, Texas
I never expected a project that started in Michigan would lead to a conversation in Texas with a Professor from Massachusetts that happened because of a conversation in California.
But the world works in strange ways.
It all started when Jonathan Zittrain, an accomplished Professor at Harvard Law, came across a link to 52 Cups on a website and then mentioned the project on Twitter. I sent him a quick thank you for helping spread the word and he said if I was ever in the Boston area we should get coffee.
A month later, long after the conversation had faded from memory, I was on spring break visiting friends I’d met during an internship in San Francisco before going to the South by Southwest (SXSW) conference in Austin, Texas. I was with my friend, Kelly, who mentioned her boss was speaking on a panel at SXSW that I should check out, mainly because a guy named Jonathan Zittrain was on the panel and always gave an entertaining presentation.
I knew the name sounded familiar, but couldn’t put my finger on the reason why. After going back through my email archives, I put two and two together. A week later, Jonathan and I were sitting in the crowded Austin convention center, having a great conversation.
What are the odds?
…
Kelly was right, Jonathan is fascinating.
To kick off our conversation, Jonathan basically gave me a condensed history of the Internet (he wrote the The Future of the Internet—And How to Stop It), which probably sounds boring, but I assure you it wasn’t. Jonathan has this great ability to explain concepts in a really interesting manner. Plus he has great stories. My favorite was how he got involved in the Internet back when only serious techies understood it. Although he was only 12, Jonathan was intrigued with the Internet and found a way to get online and join different communities where other technology geeks met (an activity his parents didn’t know about until they received the hefty phone bill). Not wanting to reveal his age out of fear people wouldn’t take him seriously, Jonathan made sure to be as articulate as possible, so he appeared older. The strategy paid off. He was selected to be a moderator for his forum, where he built a great reputation— and he wasn’t even 15.
The best part was when he explained how Texas Instruments (the forum to which he contributed) was hosting a large convention, and wanted him to be the keynote speaker. They still had no idea how old he was, and he didn’t tell them. Instead, he packed his bags, boarded a plane, and landed at the airport, where a half dozen very surprised men welcomed him. Once they got over the fact he was so young, they let him give the keynote, which was a big hit with conference attendees.
The mix of delight and nostalgia Jonathan showed as he retold the story made his antics even more entertaining. He had a handful of stories that kept the conversation fun. like the time he met Stephen Colbert, or how he went to Yale to study Artificial Intelligence and ended up with a Law degree from Harvard.
He told me that he stayed at his first job after law school for two and a half weeks before quitting. He had accepted a job in Washington, DC, quickly realized he hated the job, and promptly quit. He didn’t see any value in “sticking it out” for a year. In his mind, every day spent at the law firm was a missed opportunity to be working on a career he really wanted.
As he later said, “Why settle for anything less than the life you truly want?”
He decided to head back to Harvard and co-founded the Berkman Center for Internet & Society, which would later spin off Creative Commons to encourage the free exchange of knowledge online. He was the first Executive Director of the center, and now teaches first-year law classes at Harvard.
Although highly distinguished, Jonathan was down-to-earth and a great conversationalist. I thoroughly enjoyed his fresh perspective, wit, and insight on life. During the conversation, Jonathan brought up this idea of affordance. It’s a term social scientists use to illustrate that at any one time, there is a set of actions we are able to perform—choices we can make. We all have them, but the number and degree of the choices varies with each person, and faces constant change.
For example, having five dollars in your pocket leads to a set of options. Having 50 dollars leads to a different set. How you choose to utilize affordances creates a new set of options. Accepting a job offer in New York will lead to a much different scenario than accepting a position in Toledo. Deciding to go for a run after work will create a different outcome than meeting a friend for dinner, etc.
Past experiences, DNA, education, financial situation and natural aptitude are just a few factors affecting affordances. However, some affordances are available to everyone. As Jonathan pointed out, Twitter, Facebook, and other online technologies have created new opportunities across the board.
It’s a somewhat simple concept, but one that provoked my thinking. If each opportunity we take branches into a new set of opportunities, there is an exponential number of outcomes for the future. That’s really exciting, but you have to be willing to act on the opportunity.
Jonathan said that during his years of teaching he has found that many people, especially students, don’t realize the number of affordances—or opportunities—they have.
A better way to phrase that might be that students don’t realize the number of opportunities they can create for themselves.
The opportunity to keynote a major conference didn’t come out of thin air, Jonathan made that happen by making a name for himself doing something he really loved. He turned an affordance into an opportunity that fit his skill set and that opportunity spiraled into many more.
That’s what I’ll take away from our conversation: everyone has the ability to create incredible opportunities for themselves. The lesson is a result of Jonathan’s advice, but also because of how the meeting came about in the first place.
I capitalized on three different affordances: I took an internship in San Francisco two summers ago; I started a blog; and I joined the Michigan State University group going to Austin—three very separate activities I never expected would bump into each other. Yet they did, and the result was a chance to meet Jonathan.
…
Figure out what sparks your interest and dive into it head-first; you never know where that path will lead.
Because the world works in strange ways.
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Person: Wanda Herndon
Location: Starbucks in Belltown, Seattle
Every year since I’ve been in college, I’ve spent spring break visiting my brother. With the turbulence of college in the spring, I always look forward to the respite with family. For the past three years, that has meant flying to Wyoming, but my brother and his new wife recently relocated to Seattle, Washington, so that’s where I headed.
Considering that Seattle is the birthplace of Starbucks and their caffeine revolution, it only made sense to have coffee with someone who was a part of that magic.
I found the perfect person.
…
Wanda Herndon has an impressive resume. After graduating from Michigan State with a degree in Journalism, she realized that wasn’t the right route for her and decided to try her hand at Public Relations. Wanda set her sights on a successful corporate career and soon found herself advancing through various positions at Fortune 500 Companies, before ultimately ending up as the Senior Vice President of Global Communications for Starbucks in Seattle.
After 11 years there, Wanda left Starbucks and started W Communications, a strategic- communications consulting firm, where she takes on one client at a time. It keeps her working but leaves plenty of room for traveling and enjoying the life she’s worked so hard to create.
That’s the immensely truncated version of Wanda’s life. I’m certain we could have spent the entire hour talking about her 30-plus-year career and barely scratched the surface of her accomplishments. I found Wanda through a friend who met her in 2002 when Wanda received the highly-regarded Distinguished Alumni Award from Michigan State. When I looked into the award, I discovered it wasn’t the first of her accolades. She has been named one of the twelve leading African Americans in public relations by PR Week magazine, and among the “Top 100 Black Professionals in Corporate America” by Black Professionals magazine, and is a frequent public speaker among her many, many, other honors and activities.
But that’s not the direction our conversation took.
Instead, Wanda spent the hour passing along advice garnered from years of experience in the working world—advice I needed to hear. Rita Meyer, Cup Two, had told me early on that young women need more positive female role models—more examples of bold women setting the bar high and reaching their goals. After talking with Wanda, I really saw the value in Rita’s sentiment.
What I noticed very quickly was that Wanda doesn’t make excuses. I really admired her candid, no-nonsense approach, balanced with great generosity and spice.
I asked her how she dealt with the stress of being in a senior level position. She told me she’d always been a good multitasker, and had developed better skills as she had advanced through positions. I asked her how she found confidence as a young professional in intimidating business situations. She said she worked hard and paid attention to what others were doing. If she ran into a tough project, she executed it to the best of her ability and then looked for ways to do better the next time. I asked her how she kept moving forward when life got overwhelming. Her response was to just hang in there; tomorrow would bring a new day—patience, diligence, and perseverance were the keys.
Wanda told me there are always going to be people telling you that you’re not good enough and you shouldn’t allow yourself to add your own negative self-talk, as it only adds fuel to their fire. You should be your biggest fan, cheerleader, and promoter. Don’t be obnoxious, but stand up for yourself and believe you can do it.
Her mentality was like a Nike commercial: Just Do It.
Get the work done, learn something, move forward, repeat.
That was just the beginning. Wanda continued to share more insight that swam around in my head the rest of the afternoon before eventually spilling out onto an entire page in my notebook.
Later that evening I realized that one point stood out more than the others: Life is about choices.
The situation you are in right now, whatever it might be, is the direct result of the choices you made in the past; where you are next week, next year, or next decade will be the result of the choices you’re making today.
Life is not the product of the environment, the economy, the weather, what your friends are doing, or what your boss wants. Life is about what you choose to do under those circumstances.
Wanda has faced many difficult choices as she has moved through her career—inevitable aspect of any career—and it’s evident she is greatly satisfied with the results. Considering the next six months of my life will be full of choices, Wanda’s perspective was indispensable from a variety of aspects.
First of all, she reminded me that we all have to make decisions we don’t want to make. The fear of making the wrong choice sometimes incapacitates our decision-making abilities. We would rather procrastinate or sit on the fence, hoping someone or something will come along and make the choice for us. Wanda isn’t the type of woman who takes a passive stance when it comes to deciding which direction to take her life next; she has great confidence in what she’s doing and she is bold in her decision-making.
That’s a refreshing quality to witness. Her philosophy is to make the best decision possible under the circumstances, and if she finds out it wasn’t the right decision, she makes a correction. She redirects! Very few choices are permanent.
Her advice reminded me of my college search. I was so overwhelmed and worried about deciding on the right college. The best moment of the search happened when my mom told me, “Megan, don’t let the choice create so much anxiety. If you pick a college and hate it, you can transfer.” Like magic, her advice lifted a weight off my shoulders.
After talking with Wanda, I realized the real mistake isn’t making the wrong choice, it’s failing to change paths once you realize it’s wrong. That’s what she meant when she said people underestimate the control they have over their lives. All too often people get stuck in a bad spot. Whether it’s a dead-end job, an unhealthy relationship, financial trouble, poor health, or something else, people fail to realize they have the power to make choices that will change the situation.
Maybe we are afraid of how people will react to our actions. We get caught up thinking our behavior needs to fall in line with others’ expectations. When I told Wanda this, she shook her head and said, “Ignore the expectations others have for you. Create your own expectations for yourself and focus on those, because if you reach your own expectations, I guarantee you’ll be exceeding the expectations other have for you.”
…
When I walked away from my meeting with Wanda, I was overcome with a great feeling: a mix of energy and relief. Yes, I have a lot of decisions to make in the next six months—heck, I have a lot of decisions to make in the next 60 years!—but talking to Wanda made those decisions seem much less daunting.
I have high expectations for myself that can serve as a guidepost for my choices, and I have faith that I’ll have the courage to make difficult revisions if necessary. That’s a combination that generates confidence.
As a 22-year-old, soon-to-be-graduate, that shot of confidence is going to stay with me a whole lot longer than the shot of espresso.
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