Well my 10 year high school reunion is coming up and that got me to thinking, back when I was a senior in high school I worked at a grocery store and never had any money or was that happy. I was under the impression that college and getting a “real” 9-5 job would change that. Then I decided to risk everything, drop out of college and start my own business. You know what happened? I worked my ass off and built a business that not only allowed me to do the things I wanted to do, I was able to meet some of the most amazing people in my life, travel to places I never thought I would see and most importantly feel like I was actually part of something important that benefited other people.

Why am I telling you this? Well for a two important reasons, the first and most important is to not listen to people who say “that’s a dumb idea” or “that’s impossible”. I’m sure you can imagine the conversation I had with my parents about wanting to drop out of college and start my own business, it was not pretty. And almost all of my friends at the time said to me, “that’s stupid” or “why would you do that”. If I would have listened them I could be working a job that not only I may not like that much, but that wouldn’t benefit other people. And of course there is the whole having a boss and everything that goes along with that. So do not get discouraged when people do not see your vision or think your course of action is dumb, remember you are doing this for yourself and not them.

I’ve sure you’ve heard the line “hard work pays off” and I really do agree with it. No one is going to become successful without putting in the work, in the real world there are no hand-outs. The problem with society is that most people settle and they never strive for more. Even people who have important jobs, how much work are they actually doing each day? You would be surprised really. When I was building my business I literally had no life, I worked 16-18 hour days, never went out, hardly had a social life. Yes this might not have been the best idea but all that work has paid off in the end. I never work long days like that anymore, I go out with friends all of the time, and I am able to jump on a plane to visit friends or family. Once you see that your hard work turns into larger paydays it becomes addictive. You would be surprised at how lazy people can be and the excuses that they make, don’t be one of those people.

In no way am I saying going to college and being funneled into 40+ hour work weeks at the same job for close to 40 years is a bad thing, I mean most of our society does it. But the alternative in my opinion is much for exciting and gratifying. Remember school and those jobs will always be there, take a chance.

In the end these past 10 years since my senior year of high school have been quite a fun ride and I don’t regret any minute of it.