up in the air

Back in January 2009 I got an email from my friend Eric Stotz raving about a trip he had just come back from. Eric explained that he went to Cancun for 2 days and was surrounded by 65 amazing entrepreneurs, including Mark Zuckerberg, Tony Hsieh, and Tim Ferris. He was emailing because the founders of “Summit Series” were in LA and he wanted to get a group together to meet up for drinks.

I went to the drinks and heard them talk up an upcoming ski trip. It sounded fun, but I was busy running my business, and it was expensive and sounded more like “play” than “work” – nothing wrong with that, but not where my head was at.

On January 7, 2010, my friend Michael Ritter sent me an intro to Summit Series, suggesting that I attend the next one. Then I got a call from a guy named Jeff Rosenthal. I explained to Jeff that while I was too busy to join another group, I would be happy to make them an app for their next conference.

Jeff was gracious. He told me to let him know when I was ready to join the conference, and in the mean time he’d make intros to help me in my business.

The next few days Jeff and later a few of his colleagues SPAM’d my inbox. But not in a bad way. In an insane – we’re gonna intro you to the world and blow up your business – way. They intro’d me to SHAPE magazine, a major league NFL team, a few major publishers, and it just kept going. I probably had 10 new client calls that month solely due to Summit Series – an organization I had largely ignored and never participated in!

I was pretty blown away. I had known these guys for a few weeks, and they had already been one of the single most voluminous sources of quality leads for my company. I was intrigued – but still not ready to take commit my time and come to the next Summit.

Then, on February 9, I got an unsolicited intro from a friend of a friend to another person at Summit. On March 4, the same thing – from a completely different set of friends. This became impossible to ignore, and when the Summit guys contacted me about putting together a panel on mobile, I took the plunge.

In May, I flew to Washington DC not knowing what to expect. We did the official iPhone and Android app for the conference and I was on a panel, so I knew it’d good exposure.

I found myself with old friends, meeting a ton of new friends, and hanging out with Ted Turner, Bill Clinton, and Marc Cuban, among others. The 48 hours I spent in DC at Summit Series were more impactful than the events I attended in all of 2009. And it got my attention to make sure I wouldn’t miss another Summit in the future.

I’m writing this having just come off Summit at Sea. After DC, the Summit guys decided to try and do the first ever “floating conference at sea.” They invited 1,000 of the world’s top influencers, musicians, magicians, non-profits, and entrepreneurs. I felt humbled to be surrounded by the likes of Richard Branson, Chris Sacca, Tim Ferris, Tony Hsieh, Quest Love / The Roots, Steve Cohen (the “millionaires magician”), Shai Agassi, Peter Thiel, Peter Diamandis, Russell Simmons, Chip Conley, and Swedish House Mafia.

Starting Friday afternoon, and ending this morning, everyone on the ship ate and drank together, listened and participated in talks, kayak’d, tagged sharks, swam, gambled, danced, and got to know each other on a floating boat that spent most of its time in the Bahamas.

It wasn’t the beautiful weather, or the fact that we were on a boat. And it wasn’t a vacation - it was actually a pretty hectic few days with little downtime. It was, by far, the best group of people I’ve ever surrounded myself with, in a setting that put everyone at ease, brought everyone together, and made everyone accessible, done at a scale and in a style unlike any I’ve ever seen.

I have to admit I felt badly about myself after hearing Shai Agassi talk about how he’s going to get the world off of oil in 10 years, or Peter Diamandis talk of solving the world’s biggest challenges quickly through prizes, or Steve Cohen literally make playing cards float through glass in front of my eyes. I felt like I’m not doing enough in this world, that I’m not making a big enough impact, that my calling hasn’t yet been reached, and that I’m not leading my team enough in the way I already know how but haven’t yet done. The level of inadequacy that I felt on the boat is now replaced with intense reinvigoration, drive, and determination to build the best company in the mobile space, to lead my team with a renewed sense of purpose and confidence, and to give back to the world in a way I previously just passively watched others give. It feels like I’ve reset my psyche just enough to truly change my life and the people around me.

If you get invited to Summit Series, go. If you know someone that’s gone personally, ask them to get you on the list for the next one. It’s hard to describe words, but I’ve tried to use them to summarize an event that truly can’t be described, but needs to be experienced.