About Me — Virgil Brewster

You can not push a square into a round hole.

Tupac’s song: “Me against the world,” was blasting from the speakers when my mom stormed into my room. She was mad. I knew what I had done. I failed to make it to the next year of school.

Please don't put me in a box

My parents, immigrants from a poor country in South America, always wanted the best for my sister and me. They escaped to Holland for a better future.

As kids, we have the wildest dreams. I wanted to be a superhero and save the world. There was nobody that could stop me. I was that rebellious child and sometimes my parent's nightmare.

The school was not the thing for me. I couldn’t hold my attention. My results were poor. I had a firm idea of what I wanted from life. And working the 9-5 rat race was not one of them.

I got my first Aha moment when I read the book “Rich dad, Poor dad” from Robert Kyosaki. It opened my eyes to money and business. This is what they’re supposed to teach in schools. I realized that my destiny was to become an entrepreneur.

But where to start?

Know your enemy

All my life, I heard words of discouragement. My parents and my friends were all guilty as charged. Don’t get me wrong; it was not intended.

It’s their own insecurity projected on you. People have dreams; they fail and expect the same will happen to you.

The biggest villain is your inner critic, always ready to tell you what can go wrong. It will give you reasons not to take action. It will do anything to silence hopes, dreams, and aspirations. I got my fair share of negative thoughts.

To build a business, I had to fight on all fronts. The war was not only in my mind but also in society. Get in line and follow the protocol. Have an education, get a well-paid job, buy a house, get married, retire and die!

This was not going to be me. It was time to take action and become the entrepreneur my parents could be proud of.

How the sun elevated my entrepreneurial spirit

My first steps as an entrepreneur were short-lived. Because as soon as I realized that I needed to get clients, all hope of ever creating a business faded. I sat and procrastinated. Something needed to change.

Back then, my meditation was listening to music. One of my favorite bands, Incubus, has a song: “A certain shade of green”. This one line inspired me to jump into action.

“You've been raised in limitation. But that glove never fit quite right. The time has passed for hand me downs. Choose a new. Please evolve. Take flight.”

-Excerpt from an incubus song: “A certain shade of green.”

I needed a change of environment. Being a son of immigrants from a warm country, I was in dire need of the sun. Everything changed when I moved to Ibiza. Imagine what 300 days of sunshine will do to your mood.

All I had was savings, an idea, and a burning desire to make it work. This superhero is not going back home and failing. I started reading books and listening to mindset, sales, and marketing podcasts. But still, my mind was all over the place.

I was jumping from one course to the next. I was suffering from what they called the “shiny object syndrome.” Do you know that feeling that the grass is always greener on the other side? But there was a tiny light at the end of the tunnel.

A well-known powerful concept that changed my life

Most of the time, I could dodge my inner critic, but the struggle was real. I had to wear so many hats. You might recognize the feeling of doing marketing, sales, and customer service. But I had to be consistent.

Consistency?

My reaction was like yours. Hang on a minute, and I heard this countless times before. The thing is, I never took action.

“The graveyard is the richest place on earth, because it is here that you will find all the hopes and dreams that were never fulfilled, the books that were never written, the songs that were never sung, the inventions that were never shared, the cures that were never discovered, all because someone was too afraid to take that first step, keep with the problem, or determined to carry out their dream.”

Les Brown

I have been procrastinating for half my life. So it was time for me to put my head down and focus on giving this consistency thing a chance. I worked hard, maintained proper habits, and it worked.

Fast forward: I built an education business and sold $10M in courses. I’ve been living abroad for over a decade. Life was great on the surface.

I had it all: villas, watches, first-class travelling. I was making stupid investing mistakes just because I could afford it. But something was not right.

I was mentally drained. Call it a gut feeling, call it the universe, call it God. Something was speaking from within. My desire was not to chase money for my satisfaction. I needed to do something bigger than myself.

All answers lie within

“Seek refuge in the attitude of detachment and you will amass the wealth of spiritual awareness. The one who is motivated only by the desire for the fruits of their action, and anxious about the results, is miserable indeed.”

― Bhagavad Gita

On my journey of self-discovery, I learned many things about meditation. Especially how I could make it work for myself. We are all unique people, each with an individual handbook for life. One thing that works for one will not work for the other.

One technique that served me well:

• Focus on the breath for a couple of minutes.
• Then focus on one object in your mind’s eye. It could be God, Buddha, a plant, or a beautiful place. It does not matter as long as it feels good.
• Ask the question: What am I passionate about?
• Over time, deep from within, an answer will come.
• Please write it down and act upon it.

My answer was to become a writer. I felt so good. I have written a lot for my business for many years. Every time my fingers touched the keyboard, I drifted into another world. Time went by, and I was typing away.

I'm in love with writing.

At that moment, I knew my true purpose was to write and share my knowledge with the world.

I exited my business, and now I'm more aligned with my life's purpose. The money is great, but the feeling of passion and doing what you love beats all the success in the world.

It’s not about me; it’s about us

Thank you for taking the time to read my article. It’s a privilege to share my story with you. My wish is that you can take away something from my words. I have found my passion. And I know that you will find yours too.

I look forward to creating articles about business, personal development, and lifestyle. I love sharing my personal views on these topics.

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I’m saying goodbye with the words: Power to you!

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