My Moment of Realization

In the year 2008, I was hired by Darden Restaurants to be a front end developer in their web team. My salary was $50,000 per year, a very good salary by Orlando's standards at the time. The housing bubble had just burst and the US economy had completely collapsed. The overall atmosphere in society was very somber and depressing, people were loosing their jobs left and right. Even though I felt very fortunate to have a very good job in such difficult times there was something inside of me telling me that I was not a great fit for a 9 to 5 job and that I needed to further search for my true calling.

I used to listen to NPR's marketplace on the drive back from work. That particular day they were interviewing people that were very wealthy at some point but had lost all their money during the housing bubble. There was a particular interviewee that really called my attention.

This person had had at some point millions of dollars but had lost it all and was now homeless and sleeping in his friend's couch. Despite the circumstances he seemed calmed and assertive. He mentioned that he currently had a girlfriend and that he wanted to marry her but was waiting to have  at least 2 million dollars in the bank, and then he proceeded to tell the interviewer how he already had a business plan in place that was going to provide 2 million dollars for him in the next two years.

To me this was incredible, how was it possible that during this time when everyone was loosing their jobs this guy could claim that he was going to make 2 million dollars in two years? How could he be so assertive in his statement? What did he know that I didn't know? I was determined to find out.

I didn't care so much about his specific plan but what interested me more was the fact that one can have such conviction to say such bold statement. I wanted to have his assertiveness, I wanted to also be able to say outloud and with conviction that I too could reach any goal I had in life.

As soon as I got home from work I rushed to my computer and googled "How to make a million dollars" and I landed on an article that told me that the best chance to become a millionaire was to start my own business and the first thing that I needed to do was to educate myself on the subject.

That was the moment I realized that I could change my life situation if I could change my life's perspective.