First of all, thanks for reading my first blog post. Its awesome to share my story with you.
So here I am pondering what I really want to do with my life. Of all cities to do this in, San Francisco was as good a place as any to do it. Oddly enough my job was a great place to do it as well. In my previous life, I spent my days working with clients from all over the world. Some were young, old, famous or anonymous. The one thing they all had in common is that they were very wealthy. Its all relative of course but my clients on average had an eight figure net worth (tens of millions in other words). The ways they made their fortunes were just as different as they were. There were insiders and founders of major technology companies right along side folks who had been born into tremendous wealth passed down from generations past. When I started to re-examine my purpose in life, its INCREDIBLY VALUABLE to be able to have personal and candid conversations with people who have reached a point in their lives where they are completely financially independent and could realistically do whatever they wanted to do as opposed to what they had to do. I do not love money but I do love the freedom it provides in our society. There were some common themes that these millionaires shared with me and most of them had zero to do with dollars:
*Work for yourself, because no boss will care about you like you
*Do something that you love to do if you can because then it isn't work
*Don't ever be greedy because that's when things go horribly wrong
*Set goals every year (more about this later)
*Concentrate your efforts in one direction in the beginning or you wont get anywhere
Although they didn't give me the answer to my final question they definitely set me on the right track without even knowing it.
At the same time that I am going through this in my little world, my extended family was going through a much bigger issue. My dear Aunt Gloria was diagnosed with cancer. She was given six months to live by doctors. Through the grace of god, she was given more time than that. I have a ton of fond childhood memories as she was the official family hostess and chef of Thanksgiving! She held out as long as she could living at home but eventually as she neared the end she moved into a hospital full time. There was a weekend that my best guys and had planned to go to San Diego to visit our Alma mater, UC San Diego. I had planned to go and surprise my Aunt Gloria in the hospital. It was a true surprise as I didn't tell anybody, I just showed up in her hospital room with a smile and a big bouquet of flowers. My uncle, who was essentially living at the hospital as well, was in the bathroom when I first arrived so he couldn't believe his eyes when he came back. We got to laugh and cry together. She and I talked about everything we could think of. It was during a pause where she told me the something that changed my life, forever. She looked at me and told me that there is one thing she really wants me to understand.."You only live once, and when its over its over no matter what you think about it. So you better do something with your life that you are really happy about and worth spending your precious time on". She went on to tell me how proud she has always been of me and that she thinks I can do ANYTHING I want in this world. I was floored..in a good way. I always believed you only live once but she helped me understand the reality and the gravity of something that is often dismissed as a nice cliche. I will always thank Aunt Gloria for using some of her final moments to share some wisdom with me.
That was on Sunday. On Monday morning my cousin called me and told me that Aunt Gloria passed away. On Tuesday morning, I walked into the office and told my bosses that this has been fun and a great experience, but its time for me to do something else with my life. I was close to what that something else was, but not quite yet. I had to take some time off...
Check back next week for how I finally end up in LA pursuing my movie stardom. As for my inspiration...
"There is no telling how many miles you will have to run while chasing your dream"
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