I’m living the dream.
And what dream might that be?
Well, I have a beautiful wife, son and am running a successful business.
But it wasn’t always like this.
You see, I was once depressed. Not clinically but depressed nonetheless.
I worked at a prestigious company in New York City. I had a good salary, wore nice clothes, and was working a relatively respected corporate desk job.
The only thing was, I hated my life. I hated my job. I hated the commute. I hated being told what to do.
And most of all I hated the fact that I still had dreams of traveling the world, playing professional Basketball and building an online business.
But, I had done neither. I had settled. I mean by all accounts I was living a pretty good life…on the outside.
However, deep down, I was dying.
I would wake up at 7 am most days, wash up, put my office clothes on, run to the bus, hopefully find a seat on the crowded 190 Bus to New York City. Sometimes I would get lucky and get a seat. And when I did I would look up to the ceiling and just wonder, “How in the hell did I get here? Why I am working a freaking boring a** corporate job? I should be having a successful online business, traveling the world and playing professional Basketball.”
This time on the crammed bus, with people bumping into you at every turn, with their butts literally in your face, and the smell of must and sweat on hot summer days literally felt like a living hell.
And when I finally made it into the office, that’s when the real bullsh*t began.
I would get a pinging notification (one of the worst sounds ever) that we were having a “quick” roundup or morning meeting.
“F*ck, shoot me now.” I’d say to myself.
Once in the meeting we would talk about…
Nothing. Absolutely nothing.
Just a bunch of hot air.
Literally, nothing important or urgent. I mean we would talk but there almost always was never any clear outcome or definitive decision to come out of the meeting. It would mostly be bosses inflating their egos and other colleagues with even bigger egos looking to impress the boss in order to get a promotion.
And corporate execs wonder why we all hate meetings.
After the meeting, everyone would make a mad dash back to their desks.
And throughout the day I would put out fires and work on meaningless sh*t. Ok, I lied, there was some points of where I felt what I was doing was helping someone. But for the majority of my time in the corporate world I felt like I was not making any positive impact on the world. As the cliche goes, I felt like another number, like Steve Jobs said, “A square peg in a round hole.”
But, thank the Lord, God, the heavens, or some higher power, I was laid off. There was some emotion because my income source had been cut off, but I felt liberated.
I took some time to “find myself”. But after a few days, I realized I was free. And so I trained even harder in my Basketball training, got an offer for my first professional Basketball contract in Mongolia and I was out while having a few marketing clients with my SEO business.
Fast forward a few years, I found the love of my life, we had our beautiful baby boy and post pandemic, I am now running a successful, close to six figure a year Basketball & Soccer skills training business.
Best of all, I have time freedom. I get to do what I want, when I want, with whomever want, as much as I want.
I no longer have to ask someone if I can take a day off, a few days off, or if I can do anything. I just freaking do it.
As far as work goes, I am doing what I love. Every. Single. Day. Of. My. Life.
I write in the wee hours of the morning, working on my online side business.
I make breakfast for my son and coffee for my wife. Mornings are “our” family time, since my wife works nights. And it’s great because I’m a morning person.
By day, I am out teaching and training kids and adults on how to become better athletes, better Basketball and Soccer players, but most importantly how to become better people.
I also get to fit in my own fitness and training as well.
But I have to pinch myself some days, because I am truly living my dream life.
I have a beautiful family, I get to express my creativity in areas that I love, I’m providing a healthy income for my family, and I’m actually making a positive impact in the lives of other human beings.
I am forever grateful, truly blessed and will strive each and every day to give as much of myself and be in service of others to provide the maximum amount of value as possible.
I’m living my dream life.
When will it be time to live yours?
