The Power of Saying "I'm All In"

Last month I got a text from a friend who is 10 days older than I am that said:

"I've got some other friends who also turn about 65 this year.  Meet me at the general aviation terminal in Minneapolis at 1:00 on Thursday the 21st, and we'll be back by 1:00 on the 24th.  

​See you then,  Dan"  

I texted back, "100 percent."

By the time we would arrive back on the 24th, one of us would have a broken arm, one would have shingles, and one would have pneumonia.

If the eight of us would have known all of that ahead of time . . . we would still have gone.

The older you get, it's easy to get less spontaneous and to go for the "sure bets."  I have one friend from my PhD program who only eats at chain restaurants because, "You always know what you're getting, so there are no unpleasant surprises."

We were going up to the Iron Mountain boundary waters of Minnesota where we wouldn't have running water, electricity, or heat and where we would live on floating cabins in the middle of a lake.  Why?

This is the home of 82-year-old Will Steger, the first person to make it to the North Pole unaided (except for 30 sled dogs), and also the first to cross Antartica.  Other than frolic in the wilderness, we were going to hear about all of his "And that was the 107th time I about died" stories.

There weren't a lot of superficial similarities among the eight of us.  One writes six weekly investment newsletters (far left), one is a Zen Buddhist Priest (third from the left), one had been elected with Jesse "The Body" Ventura to the Minnesota Governor's Office (far right bottom) . . . crazy different paths.  Before arriving, we all knew our host, but we didn't know anyone else. 

At some point, someone asked our host what we had in common (other than being about 65) to get us invited.  He said, "You were all guys I thought would be up for an adventure, without asking questions.  You'd all say "I'm all in."

He then went on to say there were two others who kept asking him questions and kept wanting him to convince them that it was going to be worth their time.  He pretty much said, "I didn't  even try.  I want to be around enthusiastic people."

For the past 4 years, my family has hosted Rotary International Exchange students in our home.  One year it was a host son from Brazil and then one from Poland.  After that, it was a host daughter  from Mexico and then from Finland.  They live with us for 4 months or so.  Tremendous experience.

The first host son we had was from Brazil.  Whenever we asked if he wanted to do something -- anything -- he would always say "100 percent."  It wasn't like he had to think about it, or ask questions, or need to be convinced it would be worth his time.  He always said "100%."  It was like saying "I'm all in."  

As a result, we always wanted to do more and more with him and take him to more and more places, because he was always enthusiastically going to give it everything he had.

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As foreshadowed, this weekend wasn't without mishaps.  My canoe buddy got pnuemonia, our host broke his arm, and I got shingles.  

Still, being "All in" and "100 percent" will be forever more memorable than the weekends of the two guys who asked too many questions.

In the meantime, 82-year-old Will Steger is doing great.   He's probably just smiling and rolling his eyes at the rest of us.