Moving forward, preparing to “Crush It”

In case anyone actually noticed, I haven’t posted a new article, or uploaded a video in quite some time. That’s due to the fact that I’ve been busy trying to build my branding. In doing so, I have made a commitment to myself, that I will be posting regularly. Each week, on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday there will be a new post here on Gergorian.com, and on Tuesdays and Thursdays I will post new articles on Tekamba.com. Be sure to subscribe to both of my blogs and you will know everything that is going on with us. Also, please follow me on Twitter, my accounts there are @Gergorian and @Tekamba (don’t think I need to spell out which is for which blog?) I’d like to get my follower counts up, so tell everyone you know to hop in and add me to their follower list!

Tomorrow I am heading down to the local Chamber of Commerce and becoming a member. I’ve spent some time learning more about the city I now live in and, as with most cities, there is a lot of background to discover. You can’t just get your information from the local news sources either (unless you like to just find out about what they WANT you to know) I prefer to actually get as many facts as I can and form my own opinions. So as I continue to learn about the town, I think the Chamber will help me to get more involved and active in not only the direction my career takes, but the possibilities that will be available to each of my kids as they continue to grow and start their transition into the “real world”. We can’t just sit idly by and hope things turn out for the best, but rather we need to take an active role in making sure at the end of the day we can honestly tell ourselves, “I’ve done everything I could today to make my part of the world just a bit better.”

One thing I’d like to discuss is why we continue to struggle here, when I know I could return to California where I can instantly start making decent money again, have all my old friends around me again, and lower my stress levels by a significant amount. And the answer is… because.

Because the kids are doing well in school, Brent is really starting to make huge strides, and while that could be attributed to the fact that he is just getting older so he’s maturing and that would explain the improvement, but I’m not willing to risk the progress he has made.
Because we all  love the town we’ve moved to, we have all the things we might want, variety of restaurants (not that we have money to GO out to eat), lots of places to go explore, weather is just awesome. The view from my back porch is just astounding, and it only gets better if we take a short drive and can then hike off into the mountains to discover nature.
Because I’m not ready to give up on my dreams, true, I could try to start my own company anywhere else, but the simple fact of the matter is I can see a NEED here for what I do, and when you put it all together it just feels right.
Because I see the potential this new town has, while it is rich in its resources, it retains that “small town feel”. People actually wave to you as you drive past. It’s not uncommon to get greeted by random people as you walk around in public. There isn’t any of that hectic lifestyle feeling, you can just enjoy your life, take things in pace, and discover the beauty that surrounds us daily.

It’s a tough road to hoe at the moment, but I truly believe that the end result will be well worth the challenges we are facing in the meantime. Once this bubble bursts, and the work starts coming in, I have a good feeling it’s going to be a floodgate opening up and it won’t be long before I am having the opposite problem of more work than I can handle. While it sounds like a good problem to have I’m not really looking forward to it. For that reason I’m a bit thankful for the slow start to it all at the moment so I can get my feet solidly under me and be as ready for the upswing as possible. I know it’s not likely I would ever truly be completely ready, but we can hope for the best!

I know everyone understands and supports the decisions I’ve made, and I wouldn’t have had the strength to make them without all of you behind me. I do miss the life we had (flaws and all) and especially miss all the people that we used to hang out and see all the time. I could lie and say we will always stay in touch, but I’m a bit more honest about things than that. Our friendships WILL change, but again, I think in the long run it will be for the best (and not to sound self-centered but I mean it will be the best for my family, which is after all the focal point of everything I have ever done in my life).

I can’t say we will NEVER return to California, just that I’m not quite ready yet to “throw in the towel” and I am starting to see a light flickering at the end of the tunnel. Sometimes you have to tear things down to their basest of elements in order to see as clearly as possible. I believe the boys and I have done that, and we are now coming close to seeing those struggles come to fruition. I’ve begun working more closely (think maybe my English teachers are groaning there, that phrase just doesn’t sound right, I’m working closer [THAT”S IT!]) with my older brother (who’s a genius at business) and with his guidance I believe we are approaching the corner. I realize I should have reached out to him a LONG time ago, but better late than never, right?

I’ve been listening/watching a lot of motivational speakers recently, and the current one I have in my player is the audio book, “Crush It!” by Gary Vaynerchuck, if you haven’t heard of him, do a bit of Googling. He has quite an interesting story, and has 3 rules that he lives his life by, and claims that if you do the same then you can’t help but excel in life and be a success. He doesn’t define success, because that is dependent on what is important to each person as an individual.

But his 3 rules to live by are:

1) love your family (I’ve got that one!)
2) work superhard (I think most of you agree that when I am passionate about something I have this one too [sometimes to a fault])
3) live your passion (working on this one)

So that’s it, I think those are great rules to live by, if you haven’t read it I recommend getting a copy of it, or better yet, listen to the audiobook version. Gary himself reads it, and he has an electric personality that most people either love or hate. But he’s OK with that, because he remains true to himself (guess maybe that’s a fourth “unwritten” rule of his). So it makes me realize that while I might not exactly “conform” to the standard business views, I will ALWAYS be me, and in the end, the people who really matter will appreciate that they know exactly what to expect when dealing with me and THAT will bring results.

Gerg