Well that depends, can you afford to paint your room?  It is the New Year and I was given my monthly motivational talk by one of my coaches, with every post he asks me, WHAT ARE YOU SELLING?  Here goes, the first one is always free.   I will teach you how to speak painter today.

In a small town deep in South Louisiana you will find a way of life that dates back to the early 1900s. It is in this small town that our story begins.  A boy of no more than three was walking in the ditch with a net catching everything he could when he caught a blue crawfish.

One day, a young boy was walking in the woods with his trusty hunting dog when he stumbled upon a turtle. Curious, and doing what dogs do, she sniffed the turtle's rear, and the turtle began to talk. 

When my wife and I were thrown into the ocean of uncertainty called entrepreneurship, the first thing I looked for was a life preserver.  For nearly two decades, I had been surrounded by highly skilled, ultra competitive superstars.  Suddenly I found myself swimming with my lovely wife, an artist. I'm grateful she did not drown me after some of the stunts I pulled over these past six years. 

From as far back as I can remember, I was either building something or taking something apart. The latter is likely because I broke it from playing too rough with it. I grew up in construction, and the 17 years I spent in Oil & Gas were spent in well construction.

I spent a good many years of my previous career in Business Development and Sales roles. I learned so many things: how to sell, analyze a market, position a product in a portfolio, develop new products, etc. What I really learned was how to price to close a deal.

How does one make money? That almost seems like a rhetorical question, yet I will attempt to answer it the best way I know how. I currently make money by offering goods and services to clients. Previously, I was a W2 employee; I sold my time for a salary + benefits.

What does it take to be the best? Is being the best defined monetarily or with trophies and plaques? As I write this post I reflect on my journey; the futility I encountered when wanting so desperately to “get it” while those around me seemed to just move effortlessly.  I have come to realize that it is a journey, and some of the things I do today took damn near 10,000 hours to learn.

I knew from a very young age that I wanted to blaze my own trail.  In my youth, I was an avid outdoorsman. We had a camp in the middle of the forest, and I spent most summers there when I was not working. I remember on more than one occasion getting lost. I used to follow animal tracks for hours, and the next thing I knew I was lost.  I loved getting lost. There was something primal about having to find your way back home that thrilled me. I loved how my mind would jump between fear and confidence. This thrill seeking started around the age of 10. 

It seems as though no one wants to hear the truth these days. Maybe it has always been this way.  I was given advice from one of my mentors that companies do not inherently want to change, and I have found that people fall into that same pattern. I believe the only way to break the pattern is to learn to listen to the advice of people who know.

Building a birdhouse is relatively easy. The tools required are few, and the skill set is pretty basic. Given the popularity of DIY shows on TV and the sensationalization of “flipping houses,” the construction market was suddenly filled with experts. All of these experts nearly drove me crazy.

Contracts come in many forms and most of us are so numb to them we sign without reading the details.  I was exposed to the elaborate nature of contracts while working in South America back in my O&G days.  When things are going well we never need to worry about those details; it is when things turn south that the details matter. 

Never start at the tail end, or you will likely get crapped on. The analogy of eating an elephant has been used for years. It is supposed to teach us things such as, one step at a time, etc. What this analogy does not tell us is how TO eat an elephant, or should we even be eating elephants. Even worse, what do we do with all the meat should we successfully slay an elephant. 

I was thrust back into construction in 2017 through the urging of my mentor.  I had just finished a charity event in New Orleans where I donated a piece of furniture. While in New Orleans, I watched my city of Houston feel the wrath of Hurricane Harvey.  As I sat and watched, thoughts of how I was going to get back home overwhelmed me.  I left New Orleans and went to the place of my childhood, the farm. It was there that the “calling “ came. 

It was December of 2000 when I got my first chance. I was hired by one of the big 3 O&G service companies.  The operations manager gave me that chance. His words to me were basically: we hire engineers and geologists, you are a business major, not normally what we hire.  Once the background and screenings were done, I was off to the rigs. Coming from South Louisiana, the only way to make money in the state was on the rigs, and I loved it!  Fast forward 23 years, I still look back at those days with gratitude for all that I learned.  

In 2017 I was laid off from the Oil Field, the industry was not hiring and I had a family to support. I went on a mission trip to Honduras and re-centered. The question I wrestled with was as follows: What can I do to support my family and make an impact in my community, state, country, world?