This past week I delivered a 70 minute keynote address to a group of professional speakers and then an introduction to my new book series at the launch of our StepOne philanthropic initiative. I have a very long way to go as a speaker and they were two of the best five speeches I've ever given. The did not happen by accident. They happened by design...

This summer I had the amazing good fortune to have lunch with my very good friend Andrea Kates at the French Laundry in Napa. It was a top five meal and conversation. The summer before I went backpacking with my eldest son who is a chef. He cooked warm potato salad and marinated skirt steak right in the fire. Another top five. He doesn't have his first Michelin star yet let alone three like Thomas Keller but I put him in the same category.

A few seasons ago I worked with a large group and asked them to figure out what the top five experiences in their whole lives were. As each came to present what they thought was the single best life experience they had ever had, I kept a mental tally of how long ago they were. The average time was ten years. A whole decade had gone by and they had not had an experience to rival what they said was at the top of the list. We then moved on to identify the top five things on their bucket lists.

When each person presented the top item on their bucket list, it occurred to me that the whole point of the bucket list is to turn it over so that items on the bucket list become items on the top five list.

If most of your top five experiences have occurred in the past year or two, then I think you are really living your dream. If the top five experiences in your life aren't even in the last decade, you have some work to do! The best time to pick one off the list is right now. There is no reason why your next dinner party or bike ride or date night can't be real soon.

Part of my dream is to build a community of innovators committed to building wealth and a high quality of life by serving society and the greater good in some meaningful way. Our new StepOne program provides mission-critical coaching and mentoring support to high potential millennial entrepreneurs. Check it out at www.stepone.net and by all means please buy a copy of my new book. It's all about the first step. Every top five experience started with one.