I suckered a co-worker into exploring Hong Kong and Macao with me. That's the honest framing — one day you're talking about work, and the next you're both standing on a 233-meter tower trying to convince each other this was a great idea.
Macau is a lot of things, but the thing we were there for was the AJ Hackett bungee off the Macau Tower — one of the highest commercial bungee jumps in the world. You don't fly halfway around the world and skip it. Once you're on that platform, there are really only two ways this goes: you step off, or you spend the rest of the trip wondering what you missed.
/ The Walk to the Edge
There's a moment on the platform that every jumper knows — the one between deciding and doing. Your brain runs the numbers. You check the harness a second time. You look down, and 233 meters is a long way to not be sure about something.
And that's exactly when I remembered the advice I keep giving everyone else: when you realize you have a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, just dive head first. This time, I did it literally.
When you realize you have a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity — just dive head first.
/ The Jump
Head first, off the edge, 233 meters of air. The first few seconds are pure noise — wind, adrenaline, the sound of your own disbelief. Then the cord catches, the world snaps back into focus, and you're swinging over the city, grinning like an idiot.
Worth it. Every single second of it. That's the part that doesn't translate in the photos: not the height, but the feeling after — the one where you realize the thing you were scared of was just the moment before you committed.
/ The Lesson You Take Home
The same logic applies to everything — careers, businesses, decisions you've been circling. Most opportunities don't announce themselves as once-in-a-lifetime. You have to recognize them, and then you have to commit. Not step off tentatively. Dive head first.
The co-worker survived, by the way. I think he'd do it again. And if the offer ever comes up again — a trip, a jump, a bet on yourself — I hope the answer is the same. Explore the world. Enjoy life. Work hard, play hard.
Until the next run out — work hard, play hard.