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The question posed was, “Hey Dave, I’m curious about how you picked this particular niche?”

What I read was, “What business do you, as a man, have coaching women? What are you trying to pull here? What qualifies you to coach women? Who in the hell do you think you are? The last thing high achieving, high functioning women need is one more bearded, 40something, white dude, mansplaining “how to be” a woman.”

I wanted to crawl into a hole and never come out.

You have been told all your life that if you went to school, applied yourself, worked hard, married the right person, got a good job, drove the right car, lived in the right zip code, shopped at the right stores and reproduced then you would be happy.

OK, so you checked all the boxes. You did all the right stuff. Bought all the right things.

Everything looks great on Facebook.

So why do you suffer from this constant, nagging, low-grade misery?

For years it was when I was at work, I loved what I did, I was good at it and it gave me my identity and gave my life meaning. I learned as much as I could about what I did, I studied the classics and masters, obsessed about the contemporary leaders in the field and stalked the up and comers and trend setters.

I marveled at the people going about it in ways that no one had ever seen and employed crazy science and technology, shredding all preconceived notions of what was right, proper or possible. 

Then it happened… the day I got bored. The day I was over it.

I learned a lot the day I went skydiving. I learned about what my mind does when my feet are dangling out of an airplane at 18,000\’. I learned that I am NOT freaked out by heights, but tight corkscrews while hanging from a parachute DO make me nauseous.

I also learned about the difference between being a passenger and a participant.

High performers – people operating at the top levels of their fields – all have coaches.

Athletes, actors, singers, musicians, business-people, politicians. These people understand the value of that real-time support. Not a 3-day seminar in a Marriott somewhere, not that $10,000 \”executive boot camp\” down in Orange County, California, but real coaching.

You worked at the top levels of the game. You got the degree. You got the job and climbed the ladder. Married the perfect partner, made babies, acquired the fluffy dogs. You’re the provider that you always wanted to be. You take vacations. Your kids will attend the universities of their choice. Retirement plan is secure and growing.

Great. Good Job… You have all the boxes checked. Bonus points if you had all of it squared away by 35!

So why are you fucking miserable?

All the reasons that we don\’t do things…

Not enough time.

Not enough money.

I don\’t have the energy.

We don\’t have the space…