An Introduction… Sort of

Instead of boring you with an ABOUT ME section, I thought it’d be more interesting for you if I introduced myself by sharing some insights while battling my inner dragons.

I’ll share 2 of my insights. The first one is about Recovery.

Although I’m Asian on the outside, culturally I’m very westernized. I grew up in an upper middle class, White/Jewish community.

As a teenager I was getting into all kinds trouble and barely made it out of high school. I didn’t like who I was and had no life direction. So at 17, I joined the Marines!

My experience as a Marine served as an awakening. I realized my demons, (which I call dragons), were inside of me and had to be faced head on.

I joined the military to escape myself. Then I found myself, and felt like I had to escape the military!

After some time self-reflection, I mended the relationship with myself and was ready to take on life.

Before I was old enough to legally drink I started a few businesses. I found some success, and then got lazy. Hey, I was my own boss and had money to spend…

It was great! Till a couple short years later. It was all gone, leaving a mound of debt – a humiliating learning experience.

It was then that I started to learn the process of recovery – Which is to Accept > Forgive > Learn from the experience and see the good in it, and most importantly > To get back up and Move Forward.

Challenge and Recovery = The Cycle of Growth.

It makes you stronger and wiser. As difficult as it may be, we must embrace it rather than resist it. Otherwise we won’t grow and realize our true potential.

And, if we’re not growing we’re what…?

My second insight is about Following Your Bliss.

With the amount of debt I had, I went out and found a job cause I thought it was what I was ‘suppose’ to do.

But I was living a life pursuing someone else’s expectation. Maybe for my parents or maybe to keep up with the Jones’. Probably both. I thought having money would solve all my issues.

So I eventually became a licensed financial planner. I wanted to learn about finances and wanted to make money. 2 birds one stone, right? It made sense at the time.

I soon found myself as a managing director and sales trainer. It was probably the single greatest business learning experience I’ve had.

On the surface it all looked great. I received awards and recognition, managed a decent team and made some money. But I felt totally empty inside… In some ways, I was miserable.

Around that time I married an amazing woman. It was great, and it was also extremely difficult. My parents were anything but supportive of my relationship.

I was still $100K in debt from my previous businesses, my wife was recovering from her own business venture, and I had no idea how to raise 2 teenagers.

Among other things, the fact that my wife is older and caucasian with kids that are half Japanese didn’t go over well with my very old fashioned and traditional Korean family. Not only did my parents give me hell, so did my relatives.

Circumstances led us to Vancouver, Canada. I left a new career that was just starting to take off, moving away from my family and life long friends. I was forced to start all over from zero – actually from negative!

Yet, it turned out to be a blessing in disguise.

I was finally free!  … free from obligation, free from pressure, free from judgment and expectation. I got to rebuild myself and pursue my passions.

I’ve always loved martial arts and was a former instructor, Besides business, this was something I was good at and loved to do.

I was unable to legally work in Canada for quite some time, so I got to travel to the States to work as a professional stuntman. Working just a few days a month, I made pretty good money while having the most free time I had in years. It provided a lot of necessary healing for myself and for my new family.

I also worked as a consultant and instructor at a brand new martial arts school. I helped build it to the #1 school in it’s first year.

During the first couple years I was in Vancouver, my family saw a drastic change in me. I had become my cheerful self again, but their greatest realization was that I had grown tremendously and was genuinely much happier.

This automatically diffused any issues my family had with my marriage. In fact it gave my wife and marriage credibility. Now my parents and relatives fully support my marriage.

It pays to follow your bliss~! In every way.

We may look for external things like relationships, money or approval from others to make us happy, but it doesn’t work that way.

We won’t ever be truly happy unless we are honest with ourselves and follow our bliss. It may take a lot of courage – but it’s always worth it.

So when faced with a decision, always choose in favor of your passions!