When Annie and I landed at LaGuardia this morning, we must have pulled the winning lottery ticket and actually had our luggage come out within 3 minutes of arriving at the baggage claim. Our good fortune continued when we hopped in the back of the next taxi queued up and asked our driver to take us home. When he found out that we'd just come back from a weekend in Texas seeing my family, he asked what we thought about Rick Perry running for President. We talked a little further as he zipped in and out of traffic on the FDR and found out that his son is a Spine Surgeon having finished up at Cornell Medical School and his daughter is a banker in Midtown having completed her degree at NYU Stern.

Our cabbie was 62 years old and moved to New Jersey 45 years ago after leaving Hungary as a young man. He waited in Italy for over 2 years to get his visa approved before arriving in New York and starting a new life in America. He met and married his wife of 35+ years and worked 7 days a week to put food on the table for his young family. He started driving cabs on the weekends to make some extra money and then realized he could own his own business. He took all the money they had in the entire world and took out a loan to buy an NYC Taxi Medallion. When he bought the Medallion, it cost him $27,000. He eventually bought two more and had a small taxi company of his own. This past December, he decided that he wanted to sell his business and only drive a couple days a week for a friend. He sold each of his Medallions for $910,000 and is now sitting on $2,700,000 deciding what he wants to do next.

He said something that really stuck with me: "Back then, everyone knew that if you work really hard to become really good at what you did, you could make a life for you and your family. You might not have everything, but with enough hard work, you could be happy. And I guess you could say that worked out for me."

That is the kind of country I want to live in. That is the kind of truth I want to share when I'm in my 60s.

That is the reason I love talking to NYC Cabbies.

I was having one of those mornings, just a little overwhelmed with everything that is going on and all that the next few months have in store. I sent a quick email to a long time friend.  I asked him to "sum up in one sentence what is the big picture vision that has you motivated today."  The quick response he sent from his Blackberry was beyond amazing and exactly the perspective I needed.

"The quickest and surest path to greatness is to involve yourself with Good People, and then spend your days quietly seeking to make them great." - Kyle E. Carlton

Steve Case is one of the three or four people that I have had on my radar screen as I have sought to define what are the traits and behaviors of current and future philanthropreneurs.  I have looked up to he and his wife Jean as role models in giving for impact and learned a lot watching how they have repurposed their wealth to leave a sustainable impact on this world.

So, you can imagine my excitement when I was asked to guest blog on the Case Foundation website about the work that Gowalla is doing this month and the way that we are giving back to charity: water during our holiday gift giving campaign.

Read the full post here: Gowalla giving back with Gifts to Go

This past week, I was fortunate enough to be invited to a private scotch tasting.  Blueprint Summit, a new New York community for successful business and philanthropic leaders, hosted the event at Alton Lane's New York showroom.  Surrounded by Good People and amazing custom mens clothing, sipping scotch from Balvenie just seemed perfect. Balvenie brand ambassador, Andrew Weir (previously know for his role as 'Young Hamish' in Braveheart) walked the group through the stories and subtleties of four different scotches.  It was incredible to learn what a difference a couple of years can make.  The 12 year old, which typically is my go to, was about what I expected.  But, jump up to the 14 and the notes were even more pronounced.  The 21 year old was our last sip of the night, but well worth it.   The 21 year old scotch is finished in barrels that previously held port wine. The result there were some new depth added to an already great scotch. The warmth of one sip lasted longer than any scotch I've tasted before

As the evening wound down and there was a bit of Q&A, I asked, "Was it the intention of the Malt Master to make a 21 year old scotch when they first put the barley, yeast, and water in the oak barrels in 1989?" Andrew shared the extremely unlikelihood of a barrel making it to 21 years.  Every year barrels are taken away and no one knows which ones will make it to the next year.  All they know when they begin the process and combine their ingredients needed to make a good barrel of scotch, is that out of the thousands of barrels started each year, only a few of them will last long enough and mature correctly to make the perfection otherwise known as the 21 year old.

I could help but ponder that thought this week.  In the rapid and fast paced world I live in, am I thinking about 2031? Am I building things that will grow and mature in 21 years? I am I working with the best ingredients right now to produce amazingness more than two decades from now? Will the final product of my labor today be worthy of the effort then? Am I thinking about a vision that is that big? Am I working toward a defined End Game?

These seem like good questions to ask over a glass of scotch.

I have often shared that one of my favorite things to do in the entire world is "Connect Good People with Great Opportunities" and that I do my best to be in the right place at the right time to do so.  Well, it looks like I am going to have the chance to do both next week in Argentina! With the success of Gowalla's recent campaign with AT&T and TOMS Shoes, it was a true privilege to be asked to join their teams for a week long trip to Argentina for the TOMS Shoes' 1,000,000th Shoe Drop.  It is no secret that I have been a big supporter of TOMS for years and it is really excited to get to take part in the face to face good that they do around the world.

It really is an honor to be a part of this trip and look forward to sharing the stories, pictures, and big ideas that take place in Argentina when I return.  If you don't own your own pair of TOMS, check them out here: TOMS SHOES

UPDATE: Josh Willaims, Gowalla CEO, and I will be experimenting with some cool new technology down in the jungles of Argentina and taking Gowalla where no check-in has gone before: Check it out on the Gowalla Blog