Throwback to 25 years old
Check out the video
I recently came across this photo above, and it’s interesting to reminisce.
I knew next to nothing about marketing at this age. I got an internship at a startup that fell apart after a few months.
This is a photo of me with the business card I got from that job, 1 week after starting.
Man was I pumped!
A month before I was still sleeping on my buddies couch with no money, job or a car, and look at me now I had a business card!
It didn’t matter that I had to ride my bike 45 minutes to that job and back, and change my clothes when I arrived so I wasn’t so sweaty.
Hell, I went to work wearing slacks and a button up shirt, I was committed to being the sophisticated business professional (more about this on my about page).
I was convinced of the future I wanted and the people I wanted to be like
There’s a great quote by Kai Greene when giving advice to aspiring bodybuilder and talking about his younger days.
“Trying to do the right thing and be demonstrative of being the good athlete. Can they see my potential? Will they believe in me? In truth, I don’t even know those people anymore. Going forward, from here today… I have nothing to tell you. And whether I do or I don’t, it’s not going to make or break what you will go from this point on and become, what you will achieve in your life. Because I have no say over that, you do.”
Kai Greene
Holy S*** I was wrong about what I wanted
I wanted to work at Ogilvy Mathers withering away at a desk 12 – 15 hours a day, helping Mcdonalds sell more hamburgers.
The Entrepreneurs I looked up to knew next to nothing about how to run a successful business. I don’t necessarily mean that as a statement of judgement just a matter of fact.
I was right about choosing marketing, but realizing the rest of my goals would’ve been a disaster.
I’m happy for all the people who didn’t give me a shot
The recruiters and HR people who recognized how little experience I had and never replied to my inquiries, calls or even come out when I’d show up at the agency following up on my resume. (Maybe there’s still some saltiness around this ha? 😂)
But seriously, I would’ve considered killing someone to get the future I wanted. However, I would’ve been miserable with that life.
If I got what I wanted I would’ve saw the vacuity in it, and likely given up on marketing altogether and been back to being directionless.
Going back to being directionless would’ve been pretty bad… I likely would’ve ended up in a lot more of the situations that got me to try out celibacy.
I’m still not that different today
I still have days where I stress about how Digital Nomad Lifestyle isn’t growing fast enough. How I’m not seeing the right metrics, how it’s taking longer than my marketing business, etc.
Then I remember me at 25, the dreams I had and how my life now is 10x better than anything I could’ve dreamed of back then.
Yo Tengo Fe