Play Hard

When I pulled into the hunt camp the night before opening day, Mike was already relaxing beside his new camper.

Where I'd opted for the Super Pacific X1, a truck-mounted wedge camper, Mike went with a ROG Adventure Trailer that he could pull behind his truck.

He'd not seen my rig, nor had I seen his, so we spent a lot of time between hunts checking out each other's setup.

There was a lot of "Oh man, that's cool!" and "Damn! I need to get one of those!"

Every once in a while, one of us would mention the expense. The things ain't cheap, to begin with, and then there are all the gadgets and gizmos you want to add after you've bought them.

"Fuck it, man," he said, "what's the point of working so hard all the time if I can't have the rig I really wanted?"

He makes a good point.

In the early days of R.W. Price & Associates, I worked all the time.

All.

The.

Damn.

Time.

Twelve-hour days were the norm, 14 or 16-hour days weren't uncommon, and taking a weekend day off was the exception, not the rule.

My business partner in that company, Lloyd, was the same.

We were all work and no play, to be sure, and wore it like a badge of honor.

Out to dinner with my wife? Gotta check my phone; there's business to do.

Vacation with the family? I can't be on the beach this morning, I have to send some emails.

I'm glad we made it out alive.

I mean that, literally.

After the first morning hunt, Mike told me the story of his good friend, a bit older than us, who'd had that work-work-work mentality all his life. He was super frugal; he never spent a dime or vacationed and hustled side jobs on his days off for his entire life.

He retired last year with plenty of cash in the bank.

Finally, he was able to do what he wanted.

To relax.

To live the good life.

But he never did.

He's dead.

The terminal cancer diagnosis came just a few weeks after he finally retired and a few months shy of his first real vacation in his life.

Now, look, I'm not saying that planning for the future is a waste of time.

Nor am I saying we shouldn't set goals and bust our asses to achieve them.

But we have to have some fun along the way.

Otherwise, what's the point?

A lot about the Millennial generation grates on my nerves, but there's one thing they've got 100% right.

YOLO.

So work hard, yes.

Very hard.

But play, too.

And play hard.