Potential

News
No new updates for this week.

Quote
"Give me a stock clerk with a goal and I'll give you a man who will make history. Give me a man with no goals and I'll give you a stock clerk."
~ J.C. Penney

My Thoughts
It doesn't matter where we are at right now, all of us have the potential to do whatever it is we desire.

My own life has lead me down many paths, but I suppose since I was 17 I've always had some sort of focus to what I was doing.

I'll share a story.
People often ask me why I joined the Army. Some people think that I had no other option(s) and/or that I must not be intelligent (I won't even get into who decides what is intelligence).

I went to Catholic school growing up. They had a track system for determining where they think people should go based on your grades. They had four tracks. I was a track 1 & 2 student. This meant that I was supposed to go to college. As a matter of fact around 95% or more of the students in my track went on to college immediately after high school. In case you are wondering most track 3 students were still expected to go to college and track 4 were supposed to go learn a trade.

As for me, I always questioned the idea of jumping immediately into college after high school. Something about it seemed odd to me. But that is the path I was headed down. I took the SAT, did okay, and received a partial academic scholarship to Temple University in Philadelphia. I planned on getting a degree in Criminal Justice. 

So what happened? Why didn't I go to Temple?

Well around this time (I was 17), my Dad sat me down and gave me three options for my future living arrangements. He said:
1. Work full time and pay us rent.
2. Go to college and pay us lower rent.
3. Move out.

This was possibly one of the greatest things my Dad ever did for me. Why? Because it taught me to make decisions on my own.

A few weeks later, my Dad suggested to me that I look into joining the military. I laughed at the idea. Me? I was anti-authority, I had a mohawk in the summer, sometimes that mohawk was dyed different colors, etc...Not exactly the image of a soldier.

One day I decided that I would go talk with a recruiter and he set me up to take the Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery (ASVAB) test. This test determines what jobs you can do in the military. I went to the testing center more out of curiosity than anything. I took the test and much to the test administrator's surprise (and mine as well), I finished it faster than everyone else and got the highest score in Philadelphia up until that point in the year. This meant I qualified for any job that the Army offered.

This now caused me to think. Should I join the military and use the skills that I would learn to help me out in the future? Or should I continue down the relatively comfortable path I was on?

I spent a short time thinking about it and decided to join the army. Many teachers and guidance counselors at my school were horrified, they told me that I was making the worst decision of my life. I disagreed.
I joined the Army and spent five years working as an intelligence analyst. Because I scored so high on one section of the ASVAB I spent half the time working in strategic intelligence. The other half was spent in operational and tactical intelligence.

Once I started working in strategic intelligence I knew that after I got out of the Army I wanted to work more in that field. That is what I did. I got out of the military in August 2003 and in November 2003 I was picked up by a defense contractor and spent six years doing intelligence analysis and collection work . I ended up more than quintupling my military salary in less than four years. In 2009 I left defense contracting to pursue a dream and started my business.

Were there ups and downs, or times I wanted to quit the military? Of course...although you can't quit the military :)

The point here is that sometimes, or oftentimes, you have to do what's uncomfortable in order to get where you want to be. If you have a goal you will be able to tolerate those uncomfortable situations better.

If you do not have any goals I encourage you to spend time this week thinking of what you would like your life to look like. Write down your thoughts and then choose a few and put a timeline to them. Then start taking action.

Have an amazing week.