Business is business

Just because I quit my job to focus full time on becoming a professional golfer does not, by any means, mean that I get to focus solely on golfing.  Granted, I have a TON more time now to dedicate to my training, but there is still so many other things that need tending, each of which take precious hours away from a person’s training potential.

There’s the documentary side of the project, which is an integral part of telling the story of transformation and without which the point of testing life’s possibilities would go unnoticed..  Currently, I’m acting as director, producer, editor and often camera operator, not to mention financier of this venture.  In a perfect world, I would be able to find a solid documentary crew that was interested in taking over this aspect of The Dan Plan, and I have faith that that will happen eventually, but for the time being it’s important to keep the camera rolling and capture as much of the beginning stages as possible.

There’s the financing/business end of things.  I must continuously attempt to bring the project to the attention of potential sponsors in order to eventually raise funding to see this through to the final 10,000th hour.  This part is mostly attempting, and trying to learn how, to network.  Along with this is marketing, which should be a beast of it’s own, but is easily enough tied into financing for me, because without one there couldn’t be the other.  So, it’s necessary to learn about ways to raise awareness of the project through building a solid “brand” and contacting media outlets.

Then there’s blogging and social media, which I honestly knew little about and am not sure if I’m approaching it correctly, but am doing what I see as the best job I can.  This requires daily postings on Facebook (which never seem to come easy for me, it’s a bit odd to try and constantly sum up what you’re doing/thinking) and a blog every couple of days.  I’ve come to enjoy blogging, it’s a fun type of journal and I’ve never kept a journal, but think I will from now on.  It’s amazing to go back to a random point in the past and see what you were thinking that day, sometimes it seems like a different person’s words and sometimes the same thoughts are in your head..

And, finally (although by far not the last thing that gets in the way of training) there’s logistics of it all.  This includes trying to figure out where is the best practice/play for the money.  If I had unlimited funds, I’m pretty sure I would be spending the winter months training somewhere with sun and greens that didn’t close because of frost.  Portland is a great city, though, and I’ve learned that with making a few friends in the golf industry it’s actually a great place to train.  It has great golf courses, doesn’t snow, nobody plays golf in the winter and all-in-all the winter rates are very reasonable.  So, despite the rains, I lucked into a great underestimated golfing city.

The point of all of this:  It’s very easy to get sidetracked and there will ALWAYS be things to get in the way of whatever your dreams might be, but with a bit of practice it’s possible to learn how to balance all of those.  The important part is trying to remember what your priorities are while not neglecting completely some of the other necessities in life.  Okay, I’ve blogged for the day and my mind’s at ease, now it’s time to hit the course!