Strange Realization

I had a strange awakening today. Well, not strange in the sense that the thoughts were strange. But more odd in that I found myself wondering why I never noticed this before.

Essentially, I realized that of all the business I have attempted over the last 14 years, only two have had visions associated with them. Many have been created or conducted simply to make a living -- even though I was hoping to make a profit and attain financial freedom from a few. Most weren't done because I actually wanted to do what the business was about. Also noteworthy is that the ones with a vision were also tied to a passion. Passion leads to vision? Is that an accurate conclusion? Or is it that vision leads to passion? I don't know.

For example, in 2007 I spent the whole year as a Professional Real Estate Investor. I went through alot of learning curves to gain this skill. It wasn't always easy. Eventually, I got two houses and they are currently about to be rented, which will turn them into positive cash flowing investment -- finally. But the whole time I was doing this business, I had no vision of being some big-shot real estate mogul. I didn't envision owning large portions of cities and building out developments and such, like the Donald, or some of my other investor friends. Quite simply, I just wanted to have enough properties to become financially free and make a living. Not exactly a business model there. A worthy goal, but not a business model. Nor did I care at any time about being an expert and sharing the expertise.

Contrast that with my former business with my best friend Paul, Informative. We really had a vision. We wanted to take it place and positively effect people's lives. Sure, we wanted a financial windfall at the end -- and we got it. But the vision was more important. We were building something and wanted it to go big. And in ways, it did. Not quite to our expectations. But it did.

But even with that, my heart and passions fell out of it. It wasn't truly what I am supposed to do in the world.

Last week, I finally had a glimpse of what my role and mission is in the world -- what I am already an expert at. And I would have never guessed it in all these years. More on that in another post...