Vlad Mazek

Sometimes when you’re having a great time, great company, great meals and life in general just rocks – you tend to push your luck. Inevidably, it ends up in a moment of stupidity that helps put you back in your familiar, humble place.

This week has been a blast. Catching up with great friends that I haven’t seen in years, meeting the people that have done business with us for years (and made it possible for the life I have now); I just have to be thankful for it all.

My dad always wanted a Mercedes Benz. Always. And he sacrificed his entire life for his family. On his 60th birthday, I handed him a note thanking him for all he’s done and that life is short and worth enjoying. Then I handed him the keys to the Benz I bought for him.

This year, being a proud father of a 2 year old and another on the way, I decided to take that advice myself. Some of what I do is not my thing and I really do not enjoy it – but I do it for my family and for the families of people we employ – but I shouldn’t be miserable doing it, right? So this year every business trip I take has a Vlad fun component.

Washington DC – July 14, 2010

Long day, fantastic dinner, amazing conversation and great friends. One chocolate bread pudding desert too many (and a quart-sized scoop of ice cream) made sleeping without exercise an unlikely option. I’ve never seen DC after hours and my buddy Paul Bonathan from Readycrest in UK really made it sound like something that shouldn’t be missed. So I dared/guilted my marketing guy Anthony thats out on the road with me for a jog from the capital to the Lincoln memorial and back.

Long story short, it started to rain. A lot. But we ran around the mall in true pimp style – with one hand in the pocket trying to keep the phone dry.

But we had a great time, found a new hot dog joint at the mall (found, used as a rain shelter), saw the entrance gates at the Smithsonian that you’d never quite appreciate unless you were pinned up against them like you were hanging off the cliff trying to stay dry. Great time though, and a nice wrap to a fantastic business trip to DC. This type of stuff really makes me miss my wife a ton and makes road work bearable.

In retrospect, we should have checked the weather radar before attempting the run. But how often do you get a chance to hang out around the Washington Monument in pouring rain? From our assessment, we were the only ones. And yes, there is an app for that