How to decide?!

Just say yes! Not every time but when it truly resonates.

I have SHIFTED my life so many times over the years. I've found that when it resounds with my values, it meets my “system requirements”, and it also stretches me - I say “Fuck yeah, let’s go!”.

This may be the shortlist, but this way of thinking has brought me to:
Leaving the house at 16 years old
Took me to Miami twice actually
Quit a job and got pancakes
I dropped out of college 2/3rds in to the first year
Quit my $80k/year job to start an IT business
Brought me to Cuba for my 33rd birthday
Took me to win a charity for vacation 7th wheel
Building a tiny house on wheels that I’ve not yet lived in
Moving after 30+ years in farm country to live in the big city of Chicago
Living vanlife for 30+ days and roadtripping all over the US
Riding ATVs and spending time with Florida Georgia Line
Dressing like Elvii (plural Elvis) in Nashville and raising $2500 for St Jude
Got me to go 161 mph in a Lamborghini and to the top of Pikes Peak
Took me to Atlanta where I met INC5000 winners, raced Porsche and met Horst Schulze

Needless to say, I’m going to have some great STORIES to tell. And that is what real life and real happiness is about, the EXPERIENCES of life - GOOD and BAD.

And YES! there was fear, anxiety, and nerves THROUGHOUT all of these experiences — but I did it ANYWAY. And yes, sometimes shit has definitely not worked out to plan or I realized it wasn’t what I thought — and that is OKAY. You can change your mind and change it back. Did the great scientists get it right the first 100 times? No, they tried thousands of combinations to find what worked.

Our brains are wired to protect us, to keep us safe from harm. And so we often focus on perfection, indecision, worry, we overthink, we’d rather research than act. How do you know which decision is right? You FUCKING don't, just go! Take chances, take risks - you will NEVER know until you try! Decide for YOU, not for your parents, not for society.

“The secret of change is to focus ALL of your energy, not on fighting the OLD, but on BUILDING the NEW.” - Socrates

We are all going to die. Our world is kind of fucked up. Life is fucking hard. And we have no CONTROL of these things. But I realized that don’t want to REGRET not trying, not doing, not experiencing and so I’m taking risks and I’m changing perspective.

You can do whatever YOU want and whatever makes you (pointed finger) HAPPY! move.build.give.

I refuse to live a MEDIOCRE life. It is just not what I was made to do. I want to live out the best in everything, success in all tenets. I want to live a ridiculously good life. One with more memories than can be written about. I'm on this journey to live what I call a wholly successful life. I want to continue to BUILD an impactful business for our clients, teams, and community. I want to build relationships that matter and away from surface level. I want to live rich but also mindful and minimalist. I want to GIVE back and impact the world. I want to keep MOVING to travel the world and see people and feel the culture and the real food. And most of all I want to be in an obnoxious and forever relationship with an amazing partner where we magnify and support each other. In the end, I want to be remembered for ALL I did, not just the one thing. I'm still trying to figure it all out and I have certainly had failures and some crash and burns. And I'll possibly have a few more along the way. But I'm not giving up and I will not settle. This year for me is all about REINVENTION, which turns out is hard work. Hard work internally, on yourself. But nothing in life has killed me yet. Pick YOUR destination, plot your course, and fight to get there - no matter what. What oceans are you willing to cross? #liveshifted #neversettle #whollysuccessful #unfuckyourself

Move fast and focus your vision ahead

Week before last I got a sales email that I actually read. Gene Hammett (fast growth business coach) paralleled fast growth companies and fast cars and was clear in what the ask was. To join a small group of fast growth leaders and to race at the Porsche Test Track in Atlanta.Five days later I flew down to Atlanta to join everyone.Gene put together a solid group of entrepreneurs that would gel.He set up an environment for each to share our challenges.And ultimately asked the questions to help each of us get to the root of them.To cap off we had a great experience and adrenaline rush with the Porsche experience team on their test track.We are all headed home with new confidence and definitely a lot of smiles.No matter our challenges VISION fixes all of it.We also had Horst Schultze (Founder of Ritz-Carlton) join us for an hour discussion with his thoughts on leading his team and the stature with Ritz Carlton.Horst was adamantly clear that your VISION dictates everything you do. Purpose drives you to focus towards that vision. "Clearly, you decide where you want to be."Racing a car is like running a successful business - keep your eyes up and ahead (on the vision), what's behind you doesn't matter, stay clear minded, you can always correct little details, just keep improving each lapWho do we need to BE to get to the next level? My answer, "on fire".#inc5000 #porsche #pecatl #ritzcarlton #mindshift

What entrepreneur life is actually like

What entrepreneur life is actually like:•95% of entrepreneurship is really hard work.•While many of us see and focus on the 5%, the highlight reel, the best of, the greatest hits, the travel, the glamour--the reality is this.Business is REALLY FUCKING DIFFICULT.•Anxiety, drama, money, hearing no, sleepless nights, stress, deadlines, health, long days, finances, problems, losses, battles, emergencies, rules, politics, drama, setbacks, exhaustion, bad days, saying no, fuckups, competition, unfairness, and more no.All while you live life, and all day, every day.•As an entrepreneur you see this beautiful light at the end of a dark, ugly, never ending tunnel and YOU JUST GO FOR IT.•It's hard work. It's giving up on friends and social. It's having no money for who knows how long when you start. It's working harder than any one else. It's doubting yourself and then kicking ass anyway.•And it's getting up and doing it again EVERYDAY.#onelife #hustle #liveshifted

Make Positivity Louder

It is not easy.  Very quickly we can start our day on the negative.  One email, one text, one simple message can throw our vibe in the wrong direction.It seems to be much easier for all of us to focus on the negative and get upset.We have so much to be happy about!What if today was your last?

Don't worry, be happy." - Bob Marley

If it won't matter in 5 years, don't spend more than 5 minutes worrying about it.Be self aware about positivity, we can't remove the negative, but we can be mindful and simply reframe.Pay more attention to the positive, share it, encourage it.  Today, the volume of negativity is way too high in reality of what is actually going on.

Complaining is a zero return investment." - Gary Vaynerchuk

The world needs more positive.

What you thought of success -- is wrong

Success has this persona and everybody wants some.Everyone wants the dream, the end result, the lifestyle.  They want to feel accomplished. They want to have built something of value. They want fancy cars and nice houses.But entrepreneurship sucks.What most don't realize and aren't ready for - is the work.  Success isn't easy. There is no instant success and it doesn't happen overnight.  There is ONLY hard work. Every minute has to count. Put in the work.  Most won't make it, can't make it.Most people don't want to give up what they have today -- friends, a decent job, free weekends -- to strive for a bigger tomorrow.Some days, success will drop kick you and then when you are on the ground, punch you again.

What it takes to be successful, a six year case study

Six years ago, we officially inked and opened LeadingIT. I posted this picture then, buying six cases of energy drinks as I prepped to work my butt off. That first year the only thing I knew was that it takes HUSTLE, a lot of it, to build something successful.I would get up and work only stopping for meals and then get back to it until I went to bed. Sometimes 7 days week, sometimes 60 or 80 hours a week. The only thing I knew was to WORK HARD because I knew what I wanted--something different. I had no social life then, I lost friends and relationships. I didn't get out much. It was this way for about three or four years. But you SACRIFICE.Back then I had to do anything to make a buck, I'd drive an hour an half to your grandmas house to fix her computer for $50. You work hard, you get out in front of as many people as you can and tell them your story. You show them how you can solve a problem for them.Now we've grown to provide the best tech support to Chicagoland businesses. Our awesome fun hard working TEAM of 11 is supporting over 2500 people at our 80+ clients all day every day. Wow! Back in 2010 I couldn't have imagined that, but we will continue growing.A lot of people see me now and see what I am able to do now because of the success, because of the AMAZING team we have and the amazing work we do for our clients. This picture even reminds me of what it takes to "get there" and that is a "metric sh*t ton" of hard work. So here's to MORE years at LeadingIT, more great team members, taking care of more clients and giving more back to our community in Crystal Lake. And to being DIFFERENT - being a crazy determined wild eyed entrepreneur, with NEW ideas to come!