by Dave Ward
Chapter 1 of 1
I’m a 43 year old father of two great kids [14 and 11] whose obsessively fascinated by the Nixon administration. [My daughter plans to buy two dogs and name them “Woodward” and “Bernstein,” so this condition is either genetic or contagious. Let that serve as your warning in case it’s the latter.] When I’m not gathering more trivia about Ehrlichman, Kissinger and W. Mark Felt, I’m likely to be skiing, surfing, riding my mountain bike, driving my Jeep, or soaking up the freshest of air somewhere in the great outdoors.
I’ve always been comfortable outside. My parents are both from Utah and I spent a lot of time there as a kid skiing, fishing, camping, hiking…just about everything outside, but hunting. [My Mother is a first class bleeding heart liberal and self-appointed Protector of All Things Living, so that was out from the get go.] We moved to San Diego when I was pretty young and the beach became my new playground.
Oh, and I love cars. By “cars,” I really mean “Top Gear.” I’ve seen every episode about 10 times. [Yeah, I’m that guy.] I’ve owned a few cool ones. Currently, it’s a 2011 Wrangler that will go ANYWHERE [even places without Wifi], but at a veeerrrrrryyy leisurely [and noisy] pace. Next in line will be a 2016 Tacoma TRD Off Road [with a few obnoxious extras]. If you stick around long enough, it’ll be a Range Rover. Not because I’m pretentious, but because it’s a bad ass off road limo that’ll take you through a swamp.
So, I started out my professional life as a lawyer. My specialty was land development work and I started off doing really cool shit in Vancouver, Washington. I loved it there and go back up several times a year. [If Randy Printz is reading this…I love you, man.] In 2006, in what can only be described as a Monumental Fuck Up, my wife and I moved to Phoenix to get rich. A funny thing happened along on the way. I rather quickly determined that I didn’t much like lawyering and REALLY didn’t like lawyering with a big firm. Despite my lack of enthusiasm for the day-to-day lawyer shit, I spent nearly 20 years [including eight years of school] getting really good at it. How’s that for determination? [Remember, every trait has its plusses and minuses.]
In November of 2007, my Father died. He was 62. He’d been sick for quite some time and his death brought closure to a painful period of my life. This punch in the face led me to reconsider “The Rules.” At some point, I’d decided I needed to follow them and live life in a cage in order to be successful. I went to school [eight years, remember?], got married, got a job, bought a house, got a dog [RIP Jack], had 2.0 kids, chased money, bought a Mercedes [a fantastic gun metal E320 Sport], racked up debt, and generally lived by someone else’s plan for my life. [If there’s ONE thing I hope to accomplish with this site, it’s to convince you that these “Rules” are complete and utter bullshit.] This plan wasn’t designed to help me win my own game. I know this because my game did not involve pushing paper around inside air conditioned boxes making money for other people who had convinced themselves that owning a Mercedes made you successful and happy. [Remember, I had one and I wasn’t successful and I surely wasn’t happy.] What a folly.
Fast forward to 2011, and I committed to doing something else with my life. I had no clue what that “something” was, but I was quite certain it wasn’t going to be anything with “Esq.” after my name. My wife and I promptly moved home to San Diego. This is my place. I love it here. Surfers and sailors…that’s San Diego. [If you aren’t from the Southwest or you’ve never been here, you might be tempted to think it’s LA, or “Hell-A” as I call it. Trust me…it’s not.] After some hard core searching and weighing of options, I decided to start my own business. I had to. I just could not continue working for people who would never truly have my best interests at heart and who seemed determined to keep me inside, far from places that might liberate my soul and get me closer to God. I’d always been drawn to health and fitness and quickly found an amazing opportunity to market and distribute fitness DVD’s and supplements that I could do from ANYWHERE [with internet].
“Success” is whatever you define it to be. I spent a lot of time rejecting that idea, but it is the absolute truth. If you’re doing something you love, and you kick ass at it, then you’ve achieved true success in life. [Unless, of course, it’s something like being a thief. Then, you’re just a successful asshole and no one wants to be that guy.] Once you understand and embrace this concept, you can begin to design and build a life that supports YOUR success. Maybe I can help you with that. I will definitely show you a few of the things that I did to be successful. Oh, and I’ll expose my most brutal mistakes to free up your time and energy to make your very own.
Much like Morpheus and Neo in The Matrix, I’m asking you to take the Red Pill. That will require accepting responsibility for your life, which can be scary. Frankly, it can and will suck at times. It means ditching comfort. But, if you do some of the things I’m going to suggest, you can design and build whatever life you want. It doesn’t matter if you’re passionate about skiing or stamp collecting, you just need to own your life and do more cool shit, spend more time with the people in your life that you love, and get outside more. Ultimately, you have to decide.
P.S. Look for me in the Bar. I’m the guy with the ‘stache.