Most entrepreneurs are laser-focused people wired to future goals. It’s a fundamental requirement, as ideas, products and markets take time to develop and true success is often pushed many years down the road, so being able to keep an unwavering eye on the destination is critical.

While our pets provide us with affection and happiness and loyalty and companionship on the personal level, they are rarely, if ever, recognized for their positive effects on our professional lives.

One of the things that has served me exceptionally well over the years is my ability to be good at a lot of different things while mastering nothing at all. While this may sound like a negative shot at my abilities and aptitudes, I have no shame in this admission and I’m actually quite proud of it.

A few years back I put together an aggressive plan to complete a particularly difficult 125-km ultramarathon that had been on my to-do list. My ingenious plan to get across the finish line within the 29-hour cut-off time was to complete 2 other ultramarathons of similar difficulty and elevation change in the 8 weeks preceding my 125, to get me adjusted to the pain and suffering. It was a dumbass plan in hindsight, I admit.