Back At It
It’s been almost 6 months since I posted to my blog. Sometimes we just need to take a break, and this was one of those times. Over the past 6 months I’ve been pretty focused on my family, my client work and finding my unique swim lane to grow my professional practice. Over the past 3 years I’ve had an amazing opportunity to analyze myself, to learn what my unique gifts are, focus on honing my craft and then putting thought behind describing it to others. I’m not sure why I’m wired the way I am, yet now I truly understand how I bring value to others.
For most of my early professional career I went into business situations trying to figure out how to get what I wanted from the interaction. I was very good at building rapport and getting connected to others, yet I was always in the mindset of “what’s in it for me?” The interesting part is that most of the people I surrounded myself with were also of the same mindset. Now that I think back, there were always those people that seemed different, that didn’t have an agenda and they always seemed to be more relaxed and happier than the average person. I’m realizing that I love watching and observing people and trying to figure out what the “successful” people do that the average person doesn’t.
Now, this question brings us back to how we define success. In my earlier years I would define success based on time freedom, stuff and accumulation of toys. At this point in my life I’m realizing that happiness, fulfillment and joy are the true guideposts for me. How can I model my life after the individuals who demonstrate peace, love and total fulfillment in life? I would have to tell you that many of them are Rotarians or part of some service organization. The act of being part of something greater than ourselves and being of service is core to everyone that I meet who seems truly fulfilled.
So, I’ve been on this amazing journey since returning to San Diego after our global travels. I’ve been trying to meet people where they are and I’ve just been getting to know people just because. I’m not sure exactly why, but I believe that why showed up just about a month ago. When I returned from our travels one of the first investments I made was joining a business community in San Diego called Corporate Alliance. It’s was owned by a company in Utah that has multiple units there. The concept is pretty simple, it’s a shared conference facility, something like WeWork with no offices, just conference rooms and an event center.
About 4 weeks ago I was sitting at a networking meeting and one of the woman, who’s a big sponsor at Corporate Alliance (CA) and she said that the person who was running the place was leaving and they were looking for his replacement. She looked at me and said, what do you think? Well, I took the weekend to think about it and over the past 4 weeks I’ve redesigned my life to take on this new responsibility. Monday was my first day at a J.O.B. since April 15, 1993. Wow, I never thought this day would come, yet I must tell you this is not a job, it’s an opportunity to get paid for who I am and I just have to be myself everyday and I have a financial model to be successful in every measure of success I know of.
So, over the coming months I will start to blog about this new opportunity, building a community of purpose driven leaders in San Diego that call CA their home. It has been a long journey yet I’m exactly where I’m supposed to be. This morning I get together with that same networking group and I’m excited to see where this all leads. Thank you Windus, I believe you’ve changed more than my life, I believe together we can change a lot of lives!
To a life well lived ……
Larry Kesslin 