When I was in my junior year of college, I landed a job as a Youth Intern working for a youth program that helped mentor and support struggling inner-city youths to stay in school. It was a unique program and I had heard so much good things about it.

When I turned 10, my father’s poultry farm business was on the verge of collapsing. People were not buying poultry. Our only glimpse of hope was the corn mill shop.

In the Autumn of 2016, the organization I worked for had some volatile years after losing a huge chunk of their clients. We went through restructuring to tighten up the budget and create an efficient workforce to meet the changing demands of the market.

1994 was just a difficult year. We, the younger siblings of my family, were left to fend for ourselves after my mother walked out on the family.

In the fall of 2014, I was just on my way back from work. I turned the radio off. I was just enjoying a quiet moment before arriving home. My phone rang. I looked over at the caller ID and realized it was an international call…

When I was 19-year-old, I just completed high school and was aimless. I spent most of my days wandering around. Like most teenagers, I just felt hopeless. My father had already passed on. Mother did not have the financial means to support me. I worked odd jobs to make ends meet.

We had close to 100 big sheep, and I was the shepherd. The sheep were a very important asset of the family. I couldn’t remember how I was assigned this role but I took pride in it, as I had not had success with many assignments in the family before.

Several years ago, I was in a career crisis. I was no longer happy with the job I had worked hard to achieve. I started seeking ways to address this problem very quickly, especially because I was the breadwinner of my family.

“Honesty is the fastest way to prevent a mistake from turning into a failure.” - James Altucher

The day I almost died in silence!

It was a scorching hot Sunday afternoon when I met up with some friends at a park next to the Chippewa river in downtown Eau Claire. The previous night, a friend of mine had invited me to join them to go floating on the Chippewa River.

“Don’t follow the crowd, let the crowd follow you.” – Margaret Thatcher

When I was a 12-year-old, my father started building an addition to our house. He wanted to build an extra apartment to earn extra income. He was motivated to complete this project because the poultry farm business was slow and could not generate enough income to sustain the family. He hired local contractors because he did not want to spend a lot of money.

One of my old brothers once said that “If life is too sweet, you would take everything for granted. If it is too sour, it would take the fun out of you. You need a
balanced.” Recently, I have found myself reflecting on these
words because it’s a true reflection of my journey that we all can relate to.

During second year in college, I went through series of struggles. I enrolled in school with no means to pay for my tuition. I had no family member around to support me. I was broke and food was hard to come by. Determined to finish college, I often gave any money I made to school.

“Commitment is the ultimate assertion of human freedom.”  – Deepak Chopra 

When I was a teenager, my younger brother had a friend who lived a few blocks away from us. He was born out of wedlock. His family was poor and they struggled financially. He was the oldest among three children. He never really knew his dad. Rumors flew that the father abandoned the family when he was just baby. I felt really bad for him because most of the kids in the neighborhood usually picked on him. They viewed him as a useless imbecile. 

When good intentions go wrong…

When I was young, I befriended an older guy. He was a family friend and a classmate of one of my older brothers. He was very poor and his mother was sick. She was always in a wheelchair at home. He took care of his mother. I really felt bad for them, but was proud of him.