Thoughts in Time

Today is a big day for Kellee and me as we’re closing on a house in Key West, Florida. It is a great time to look to buy, and we believe we got a great deal on a house in the heart of Old Town. Gary Thomas, who is the only key west realtor who consistently blogs (at keywestproperties.blogspot.com) was amazingly helpful in helping us find a perfect property for us and then helping us navigate through the sales process from thousands of miles away. Here’s a pic of us outside the house in early March.

We’re going to be leaving London on April 22nd. We originally were going to stay through May, but decided that we’d rather get to Key West sooner and come back to Europe earlier in the summer to start our around the world trip. We’re having a going away party on April 18th and hope to see many of our friends from London there.

Over the next few months, I’m primarily focusing on finishing my work for my Master in Applied Positive Psychology degree which I should receive in August from the University of Pennsylvania. For my Master’s Capstone Project (like a thesis), I will be focusing on studying the relationship between job performance and job satisfaction with fit between a job and certain dimensions other than skill and experience. If that’s something that interests you, let me know. I’m also working on launching two new organizations.

1) The Positive Policy Institute - I’m working with two fellow UPENN students to create a non-profit think tank that will focus on policy advising and advocacy based on positive psychology research and application. There are many economics based think tanks, we think a psychology based think tank that focuses on helping governments and NGO’s implement policies that are not just based on fixing problems, but also on creating flourishing for their citizens will make a big difference in the world.

2) The Positive Performance Institute (P2 Institute) - I’m working with a friend and former employee of IMG to create a corporate training program that uses the metaphor of sport to teach a curriculum focused on resilience, leadership, and performance. The curriculum is built off of positive psychology research, and we’re going to start by integrating it with a golf program. It will launch in 2010. It will be a 3 day course held at 5 star resorts in the US and UK. Class size will be limited, and I will personally teach the inaugural courses. By integrating sport with the classroom instruction, we will help executives and leaders be able to immediately put what they’re learning to work - making learning more fun and ensuring that what we teach sticks! This company is part of a holding company that I have created to build businesses based on positive psychology and through the application of positive psychology techniques to investing and management. Of course, I’ll still be investing with the guys from Higher One through Top Floor Capital. I hope to write about some of our various portfolio companies soon.

Starting at the end of June, Kellee and I have a massive around the world trip planned. Our itinerary is still coming together, but will roughly be Europe for July and August (including Morocco and Egypt), India, Southeast Asia, China, Japan, New Zealand, Australia, Brazil, Chile, Argentina, Belize, Panama… Home to Key West for Christmas with our families.

It’s going to be a great year, and today is really the start.