A Reflection on Erik

While Erik's presentation was on my first day of class so I only caught the last 40 minutes, I enjoyed listening to what I was able to. What he had to say was practical, not just theoretical.

One of the things that stuck out to me was that Erik was humble. One example: he wrote the puzzle path for the escape and then passed it off to others. It is clear that his writing is something dear to him, so allowing others to modify it, tinker with it, and sometimes obliterate parts of it could not have been an easy thing to do. Yet he talked about his partners' revisions with humor and grace. He recognized the strengths of others and allowed them to complement, rather than to compete with, his own. I got the sense that when he was working alongside his wife he employed the same recognition. That family support is, I think, crucial to a successful entrepreneur. Erik's wife seems to have supported him regardless of the financial return.

Another takeaway was to seize the opportunities where they are present. His background is in writing, and he shared that he had been doing it seriously since 8th grade. Writing was likely where he thought his next big success would be. It is, but not in the way he anticipated. By working diligently on his writing, but not being closed to other ideas, he was able to turn that which he loves into something with additional financial profitability. The foray into the escape room doesn't take away his long-term goals of writing the next great American novel or continuing his current series, but instead provides him with additional strengths and tools with which to do so. It is a look to the future while working in the present.

Erik's continued passive income through book sales was interesting to me. Breaking into fiction writing and actually turning a decent profit is difficult, especially if you're not writing a series set in one specific genre. However collecting a lifetime of royalties for the work of a fixed amount of time seems like something worth the effort. A dollar here and there does not seem like a lot until you realize that almost 200,000,000 people per month hit Amazon's website. If only one in a million of those people buy one of his books, over a year that's a nice chunk of change -- for next to no additional effort.

Delayed gratification works. All the effort Erik has put forth is beginning to show in reward. It's clear that instead of simply reaping those rewards, he is reinvesting them, in himself and in his projects.