Is the people around you supporting you or dragging you?
Back in 2006, when I was a senior in college, I secured my first formal job at a local bank as a customer service representative and it was one of those moments where I felt proud of myself because I knew I had reached a milestone in my life and I was excited for the transition. At first everything was great learning new skills and meeting new people, but three months into the job and I started to feel worn-out juggling between college and work responsibilities, but more importantly I felt like I didn’t belong there and something inside of me kept telling me to move on but didn’t act upon it until several months later.
In February 2008 I took a plane to Miami, Florida and $300 in my pocket just following my gut knowing that I needed to make a change. I stayed at my sister’s for a while and applied for jobs every single day for a month but not really knowing what I was looking for, I just knew I needed a job and it wasn’t going to be flipping burgers at McDonald’s. Fortunately my persistence paid off and 45 days after I moved to Miami I was able to secure a job at a major local bank in Florida. I was proud of myself and I’ll never forget the feeling of getting that first paycheck, but just like my old job, the novelty quickly wore off and I started to feel like I didn’t belong there only this time I decided to suck it up because I thought it was normal to sit around all day long working with people that I didn’t choose to work with.
I didn’t feel accepted, supported, encouraged, inspired, and empowered by the people I was interacting with at work but I settled and accepted it because I didn’t know any better. They were good people, but just not the people I was looking for to take me to the next level.
18 months later into the job I met a co-worker who became one of my best friends and he’s the one that showed me I had the possibility to choose the people I was surrounding myself with. He’s the one that got me introduced into the startups and entrepreneurship world by sharing with me his side project (now full time) of building a social network for professionals called Moomkin. My first collaboration with Moomkin was reaching out to other entrepreneurs requesting to interview them about their entrepreneurial journey, something that was totally outside my comfort zone but that exposed me to many other bright minds with a fresh new perspective on life. After the first interview I knew this was the kind of people I wanted in my corner.
Look around you right now and give some real deep thought to your surroundings….
Are you proud of it?
Do the people around you allow you to have the impact you want to have by fully expressing yourself?
Do they support who you want to become?
A few weeks ago I spent 5 days in Nicaragua with 20 other strangers who now have become lifelong friends and part of our community. What made it special was that we were able to have dinner as a group fully expressing ourselves, opening up to each other, and feeling comfortable being our true selves.
In this same trip I went on a run/workout a couple of times with the group leaving me energized after the workout and inspired by sharing our ideas and possibility of change.
Most recently I shared my intention with a good friend of mine about attending StartingBloc this coming June and my overall intention of creating and participating in transformative experiences that serve as a launching pad to help people figure out their next step.
His words were: “Just go for it. Set your intentions out and the universe will take care of it. Don’t worry about the how.”
How often do you have this kind of interactions?
How often do you feel accepted, inspired, and empowered by your surroundings?
