Chasing Your Passion

Here's the thing- we all spend a lot of time at work. For the lucky ones, you're doing what you love as your job. Some people hate what they do for a living and if you're like me, you enjoy your job but you're not incredibly passionate about it.

The money is good, the insurance, the stability are all things that are valuable to an adult; Especially one with a family. But the one thing that I lack is that fire in my belly for what I do. My wife took it upon herself to chase her passion and start her own photography company and she is kicking large quantities of ass doing it. She maintains a full time job, is a great mother and still finds time to go out and do her photoshoots. Her hardwork is not only admirable but it's friggin impressive. My goal would be to put my wife in a position where she can do that as her only job.

What is it that I'm passionate about? Well, since I don't think I have a great chance at becoming a defensive coordinator in the NFL, I'll stick to something I'm actually decent at... Writing.

A bunch of years ago before I came to my current company, I got laid off from my previous job and was a mid-20's unemployed jabroni. It took me years to figure out that what I did with that free time was what I should be doing for a career. I vividly remember my then girlfriend going to bed one night so she could be up for work the next morning; When the silence fell upon our condo, I started writing. I think it was probably about 9 or 10pm. I wrote and wrote and wrote until next thing I knew, my girlfriend was getting up and going to work. I put my head down and wrote and wrote some more. Again, she had come home from work and I was still writing.

I wrote for 24 hours straight, fueled by energy drinks and the typical creative muse we all know as Mary.

Eventually I got a job and regained my status as contributing member of society and that story hit the shelf. It was a full story that was only partially written. And for the next few years, it would call to me in the night... "Do me! Do me!"

Now, typically I jump up when I hear that statement flung at me, but when it comes to writing, it's sometimes difficult to get started for whatever reason.

Flash forward another handful of years. I'm married, have a beautiful wife, beautiful daughter and am a homeowner. Life is good. But as I got promoted higher at my company, my goals got loftier. I considered going back to school to get my masters, I considered switching jobs with more opportunity to grow, but in the end it was watching my wife effortlessly make the photography game her bitch that made me rethink my strategy.

I could easily go pay another ass load of money on tuition to get another piece of paper that "proves" I'm worthy to be the head of some corporate department, but is that what I want? Good pay really isn't that appealing when I'm doing work that is only mildly motivating, not to mention the lack of family time that comes with moving up the corporate ladder.

So what did I do?

I dusted off that story and got back on it. Here I am, October of 2014, 6 years since that energy drink filled evening led me to write 50 pages and I'm at about 85,000 words of this book. With the remaining story and editing left, I consider myself about 75% there. I have no concern about the quality of the story or the potential audience as I'm fully aware that there are many nerds like myself that would be interested in the subject matter. But what I'm concerned with is what happens if I can get it published?

My life would change drastically, going from employed and supported by a great company to being self-employed with nobody but myself to rely on. That's the ultimate goal though, right? I think that's the American dream and frankly that was what my dad always told me to aim for.

So before my dad passed away in March of this year, I told him he'd better make sure and be ready to see his son on the Best Seller's list one day. I think I owe it to him, my family and myself to follow through with my best efforts to achieve that. I write this article because I'm not in a position to work on my book at this moment, but I had words that wanted to come out of my head.

So please if you're reading this, keep a tab on me. I plan on hitting you guys with something sooner than later. Some of the most famous writers of our generation (JK Rowling for example) got turned down dozens of times before their book sold, but when it did... IT WAS ON LIKE DONKEY KONG. And that excites me. The idea that my imagination could entertain people is ridiculously appealing to me. Auditing customs entries and discussing raw material pricing with the manager of a factory in China is not as exciting.

So... As I've done before on my blog, I'll state it again... I will eventually be able to say that I do what I love for a living... And that's create.