You can do it. Just make the decision.

It's quickly approaching five years since I've been back in Austin. I was living in Midland (where I grew up) after college which I told myself that I would never move back. The problem was that my dad got sick with a very acute illness. My little brother and sister were still both young and my mom needed to be with my dad, so I did my best to take care of them and continued to work in an industry I had little passion. My dad passed away after a very long illness and our family had to put the pieces back together. 

Soon after one of my closest friends from college moved to Midland after he finished up law school. I needed to stay to make sure my brother who lived with me finished out HS and made it to college. In the midst of all of this, my friend passed away too. This was all over the course of a couple of years. 

Soon after that, my sister was in college, my brother was in college and my mom was getting her feet under her. I made the decision to do something for myself and move back to Austin with no idea what I was going to do. 

I worked some odd jobs when I first got here while I tried to figure it out. I drove for Uber and Lyft, I bar-backed and bartended, I picked up some temp jobs, I sold insurance. I was broke, tired and a little lost, but it was a far cry from the previous few years. I was free and in my favorite city. 

I got an opportunity in sales, but really just got into it so I could have health insurance while I studied to be a personal trainer. I’m never going to be a person who half-asses a role and I decided that even though sales was not what I was intending to do with my career, I would give it everything I had and make it a point to out-work everyone in my training class. My mentality was that if I do twenty more dials than the person next to me on a daily basis that by the end of the week I would have a full day more than them by the end of the week… by the end of the month I would have four more days… by the end of the year I would have 48 more days. 

At the time, I was still recovering from some of the trauma I had been through and turning that emotion into energy that I directed towards work. I was exceptionally fortunate to be surrounded by people at work like McKenzie Heeney, Tyler Jones, Jason Darencou, and countless others who recognized my effort and helped me fine tune it. These people taught me to love sales. More importantly they helped me break down some of the walls that I had developed over the years. Thanks to them, I had direction and found my career. I can not tell you how grateful I am for these people and have been fortunate throughout my career to be surrounded by amazing people. 

The reason I tell you all of this is to tell you that you can do it. Don’t let the obstacles that get in your way define you as a victim - overcome. Take the lessons you learn and the resolve you gained and grow. Have an unwavering belief in yourself and show your determinations through your efforts. In reality, the experience I have had molded me into the person who I am and I am proud of that person. 

I felt inspired to write this because I just closed on my second house in Austin last week and sat on the roof deck looking at downtown. You can make changes. You can leave. You can go from driving lyft, or being a server or whatever and make it happen. Get out there and make your opportunities. Latch on to high caliber people that can help you grow. Work your ass off. You control all of that. Here are some simple takeaways that have helped me.

• Surround yourself with people who motivate you and not those who coddle you. 
• Don’t procrastinate. Make your career your hobby. 
• Your experiences don’t define you, you define what they mean to you. 
• No one is going to do it for you.

#dipyobread