Alex Priest - Part 4

December 20, 2011
by Alex Priest
3 Comments

Failing

I’ve been thinking about failing a lot lately, which is kind of odd given that the past month has probably been filled with more successes than almost any month in my entire life. I have amazing friends, an incredible job, and I’m doing ridiculous things each and every day that I never thought I would have the opportunity to do, much less succeed at. Long story short, things are really, really good.

But failure is on my mind. Because there have been plenty of failures in the past month, too. I mean hell, it’s been almost a month since I’ve blogged—wow. Talk about failing. I think there are three big reasons it’s on my mind right now:

Wins are easy. Failures suck and we want to ignore them, but they’re much more valuable to learn from. I mean think about it. There are little (and big) wins in our lives almost each and every day. And while there are failures there, too, we tend to try to avoid them and push to the back of our mind. What if you spent 15 minutes every day thinking about what you’ve failed at? And then try to fix it and succeed next time. I think I need to do that a little more.
Failures come from neglect, too. When you’re passionate about something, it’s tempting to drop everything and focus all your time, energy, and effort into that thing. I’ve sort of done that with Uber for the past month, neglecting my blog, my side projects, and some of my other responsibilities. I don’t regret it at all—I love my job and I’ll happily throw 3000% at it, and it’s tremendously rewarding. But I do think I should take note of the things I’ve neglected and try to make at least a little time for them, especially as things calm down a little now that we’re post-launch in DC. What else am I spending time on outside of work that could be better allocated somewhere else? How can I work time for fitness into my routine? How can I make sure I’m staying emotionally, physically, and intellectually healthy? You can learn from these kinds of failures, too.
Failing is sticky. I’ve been happier than I’ve been in a really long time for the past month or so. But I still find that some failures weigh very heavily on my mind. It sticks in your brain and you can’t get it out, try as hard as you might. It’s sticky. Writing this—and as I think about them more and more—I realize that I can’t just let them sit there. I need to take some time to focus on them, figure them out, fix them, and move past them.

November 21, 2011
by Alex Priest
2 Comments

The Cruise

The cruise was incredible.

I feel like trying to describe it much more than that would never be able to do it justice. On one hand, it was wonderfully tacky—a lot of old people on a relatively old boat doing old people things while us young ones drank and sang and drank and sang some more. The carpets were sea foam green, the trims and decorations all centered around that awful, typical ocean teal. The event spaces had silly names like the Stardust Theater and Dazzles Nightclub, or—my favorite place, albeit with a drab title—Captain Cook’s Piano Bar.

On the other hand, it was just perfect. I had three incredible friends to spend the time with: Chris, Rachael, and Lindsey. We bonded and relaxed and talked and it was exactly what I wanted and needed. We did nothing we didn’t want to do, and whatever we did want to do. We slept in, ate and drank when we wanted, and became friends with Jeorge the Filipino bartender and Randy the piano man from the Midwest with a girlfriend in London. They were both officially invited to all of our future weddings—whenever those may be. I have Jeorge’s email address on a napkin, and Randy the piano man’s business card. I wish I could bottle up the music and bourbon and sip it every time I need a jolt of joy—it was perfect.

“Knob Creek on the rocks… Just a couple rocks.” I said that a lot this weekend, and it’s become my drink of choice. The smooth, warming liquid with that perfect balance of smoke and fire and calm. It’s hard to describe how wonderful it is to sip that, surrounded by friends you love and engulfed by song and happy people.

It was exactly what I needed. A lot of things in my life have changed recently. Not in a bad way, but they’ve changed for sure—a new house, a new neighborhood, a new job, and even some new friends. This cruise was exactly the kind of dramatic change of pace I needed to recalibrate and prepare myself to really accept and embrace all of these big life changes going on right now.

I’m ready.

November 18, 2011
by Alex Priest
0 comments

No Sleeping on this Flight

So ordinarily I fall immediately to sleep when I’m a passenger in a vehicle of any kind. Given how little I slept last night (very little), how early I woke up today (very early), and how hectic my week has been (very hectic), I figured falling asleep on this flight would be no problem at all.

One blog post, an hour of Fruit Ninja, and a glass of tomato juice later, I’m still awake and I’m writing another blog post.

In a lot of ways it makes sense—it’s hard to sleep as I’m contemplating all of the big changes in my life the past few weeks.

Yesterday was my last day at GeniusRocket, and I am now the DC Community Manager for Uber. It’s a phenomenal opportunity and I’m thrilled to be joining the Uber team. We’re going to do awesome things. On top of that I’ve moved across the District to a totally new neighborhood. It’s a wonderfully diverse, up-and-coming spot, with a very different feel and culture than upper northwest DC. I love it.

So lots of positive change and forward momentum. So much that I can’t even sleep. But that’s not a bad thing.

November 18, 2011
by Alex Priest
5 Comments

My Odd Obsession with Tomato Juice on Airplanes

So there’s this thing I do that I don’t think I’ll ever understand: I only drink tomato juice when I fly.

I don’t drink tomato juice at home, or dining out, or anywhere else, ever. Except when I’m on an airplane.

I’ve thought about ordering something else. I’ve thought about coffee, or just ice water. I’ve even considered splurging on an adult beverage. But try as I might, when the flight attendant finally asks me what I’d like to drink, the only words I manage to get out of my mouth are “tomato juice.”

I usually try to say it sort of quietly. I’m not exactly proud of this strange 30,000 foot drink obsession. I’ll mutter it once, and of course I often end up needing to repeat myself—eventually blurting out “TOMATO JUICE” because I can never quite judge exactly how loud I need to speak to be heard over the jet engines and awkward aisle conversation.

Until today’s flight (on my way to Miami for a long weekend cruise), I thought I was alone in my strange, ambiguous vegetable/fruit juice dilemma. But then I started listening up the plane as the attendant made her way down the aisle. My ears perked up. I hear “juice.” Then another. Then someone says something that I thought was “potato,” and quickly realize is “tomato” since obviously potato juice would be gross.

Say what? There’s someone else on this drab little 737 who shares in my odd affinity for that red, soupy drink? Hooray, I’m not alone!

So now I wonder: who else does this? And do you drink it with ice?

November 17, 2011
by Alex Priest
0 comments

CrushIQ

I was offered the privilege of speaking at CrushIQ this past Monday, and had a blast. My talk was on “Twitter Tools” and—although I obviously couldn’t come close to covering them all—I had a lot of fun going over some of the basics and then exploring and diving deeper in Q&A with my audience. The deck is below, enjoy!