It all began when my alarm went off at.. something something AM. I was up till 2 this morning and decided that I could afford to sleep in ;). My alarm went off around 8:45 AM and I was up and at ’em! Spent some time with my girlfriend and some time working on a web site project for a client of mine.. had a nice big bowl of healthy cereal.. talked with my brother.. checked my emails, caught up on a few I’d been slacking with, cleaned up my room..
..and then the day began.
Victor called around 11:50 AM. We were scheduled to meet at noon. I said goodbye to Amae and headed out the door.
For those of you who don’t yet know, Victor is a good friend of mine and fellow young entrepreneur from Youthcove. He’s 19 years old and runs his own fitness business at http://www.iwantmusclenow.com. We’d never met in person for today, so it was a new experience for both of us. Today is the first time that Youthcove members, to my knowledge, have met in person :).
After a quick stop at a local store to pick up a basketball we parked his car and began walking for the beach.
..and then things began to get interesting.
Now if you’ve never been to LA, its hard to imagine what was waiting for us.. I’m staying in an area known as Venice, which is famous for muscle beach, and the venice boardwalk, among other things. As you walk along the beach you see SOO many different people, all shapes and sizes, and.. the hair! I thought I had wild hair..
So Victor and I are having a great time, chatting up a storm, talking about business, about life, about youthcove, and occasionally about the stuff we’re seeing as we walk.
Let me try and describe it for you..
You’re walking down the boardwalk (which is cement, in this case) and there’s almost always a crowd of people. On one side you have all the local shops, restaraunts, clothing, the works.. on the other side, between you and the beach, you have all the artists, entertainers, and weirdos. The requirement for being there is that you must be original.. if you’re selling stuff you have to have made it your own and.. on the spot! The result is a lot of VERY interesting stuff!
Today there was a thick fog over the beach. We broke through the crowds, past the line of artists and weirdos, and headed out into the sand. It was amazing. As you approach the ocean, you’re suddenly alone. All around you is nothing but sand.. where you were once completely surrounded by people, you can now be alone. A hundred feet or so off to our left, a man practicing yoga.. to our right.. a flock of birds picking at shells.. and quiet. We looked back and there was nothing, a thick layer of fog hid LA from view.. it was awesome :).
So we walked along the beach.. each picked up some shells for our girlfriends, and headed over to the basketball courts.
Now, a word or two about the ball we chose. Immediately upon leaving the store, receipt and ball in hand, we realized something was funny with our ball. Not only were we both able to hold it straight out with one hand, but very easily.. once we got to the courts our suspicion was affirmed.. Our hands had not grown in size, we had just got ourselves a girls ball. No worries though! We still had our dignity..
..ok, so not much. After about an hour of playing, two little kids came over, each about 4 feet tall. THEY had basketballs bigger than ours. It didn’t matter that they could barely hit the nets with them, they were bigger! Ah well, it was still fun ;).
Alright, and now things really got interesting..
We were hungry!
We’re in Venice, a place known for its originality. So Victor and I decided that we had to check out some local shops. I had been told of a vegetarian place that had an incredible all you can eat 6 dollar meal and I was sold.
Two hours later we were still walking up and down the boardwalk. We thought we’d found it, only to take a look at the menus and discover that this must be the 16 dollar big brother.. that simply wouldn’t do. So I gave Jason (Amae’s boyfriend) a call and he gave me directions. It was the other direction.. argh :P.
So, 30 minutes or so later, we’re realllly hungry. We wind our ways through alleys, with specific directions yet, for some reason, they don’t seem to apply to us. Perhaps the streets were moving on us.. maybe we just weren’t paying attention.
Our stomachs roared and we pressed on! We were determined.. we didn’t come here just to eat, we came here for the experience! We were going to find out what this local food business was all about.. We’re not worried about food, we’re looking to build memories. We plodded on, backstreet after backstreet, cross street after cross street.. absolutely determined to reach our prize! It was close now.. it couldn’t be much further.. it was so close we could almost smell it!
..No wait, that was subway.
Ok, so the local experience deal didn’t quite work out.. I ordered 2 foot long veggie delites and Victor had a nice steak deal. We ate, we stuffed ourselves, we talked.. we had a good time :).
Heck with the local experience, we were hungry!
Hehe.. today was awesome :). Now I’m off to bed and looking forward to tomorrow.. got LOTS of business to work on!
-Jonathan Wold
Daily Action Step:
Meeting Victor and eating 2 foot long subs!..