The executive surfer
We all have the freedom to choose which wave to surf.
THE EXECUTIVE SURFER is a trilogy of stories related to personal development as told through the eyes of Jose Angel Navarro (a young management consultant who is passionate about surfing), and Frank Skyler, Master Coach and COO of one of the most important consulting firms in the world.
Both face challenges in the conference room, as well as the most challenging waves in the world on their search for enlightenment in order to transcend to different levels of consciousness.
This is my first foray into the genre of motivational surfing fiction. The idea came from a trip to Peru, where I went to train the IBM sales force. There, I met Igor Zlatar, VP of Sales and CEO of one of the largest technology companies in the country. He invited me to go surfing that weekend and we drove around the coast in search of the perfect wave, along with another surfer, the VP of Citibank.
Eventually we found the legendary wave immortalized in the Beach Boys’ song “Surfing Safari” called Cerro Azul. It was one of the most extraordinary surf sessions I’ve ever experienced. THE EXECUTIVE SURFER lives amongst all of us, it’s a metaphor for the hero’s cycle and I hope the message will inspire others to move toward different levels of productivity, abundance and growth. Here I present:
The afternoon began casting its long shadows across Santa Monica Boulevard. The driver of the BMW was completely focused on heading west and fixed his attention on just one thing—a single mission. Totally absorbed in the majesty of the moment, he began heading down towards the coastal highway and envisioned a scene that he’d seen a thousand times before, maintaining the same sense of wonder as the first time. While thousands of drivers were consumed in the stress of traffic, the man went into a trance, connecting with everything around him, watching the horizon, counting the waves and contemplating the swells that had arrived at the Californian Pacific coast.
The man was a surfer and this afternoon would be a special session. How many times had he been down this road? How many times had he entered his favorite parking lot and carefully waxed his board? How many times had he put on his wetsuit and stretched?
Today’s session marked a different path.
He decided to surf and set aside the reports and preparations of his next trip to think (or rather, to stop thinking) of the thousands of options and recurrent attacks of strategic scenarios. He knew that, this time, a common meditation wouldn’t be enough to calm his current uncertainty, and even though he understood that it wasn’t real and knew the practices to maintain peace and focus, the emotion caught hold like a stubborn tick.
He would need to shake it off at a surf spot.