How I turned 2015 around and made it my best year

Hey everybody!

In my last post I shared some insight of lows and highs for 2015. Now I want to share a story with you, of how I went from feeling lost, to finding my purpose again.

I remember getting a call back from Verizon on October 12th, 2014 that they I got the job, as a Sales rep. Boy was I pumped! I had heard a ton of stories of people cashing out at Verizon. I’ve always loved startups but I was probably in one of the worse financial times of my life, so making money was something that attracted me. Especially being in college.

Things were great in the beginning; I was killing it and absolutely cashing out as a 20 year old (in my opinion and sure felt like I was). I won’t lie, I was struggling to stay active in the startup scene with my schedule and was hard to work on side projects, yet alone a startup. Although the startup life was my passion, it wasn’t my main focus as I was trying to flow through school and rank in some serious cash.

This was slowly eating me away inside. For the most part, life was good but as time went on, I knew Verizon wasn’t the right fit for me and I wasn’t learning enough or being pushed. Maybe a selfish act but I needed to be in an environment were I was constantly learning. Ryan Hoover has a great post on being selfish and I highly encourage everyone to check it out.

Steve Jobs has a famous quote, in short; “look yourself in the mirror everyday, and if today was the last day would you be happy with what you’re doing today — if the answer is no too many days in a row, then you have to change something”. That quote is something i ask myself everyday (also check out his commencement speech, it’s one of the best #Khaled).

I remember washing my hands and looking myself in the mirror and thinking ‘man, what am I doing. This isn’t what I want.’ It was at this moment that I knew I had to leave and start getting into a startup job. The next couple months, weren’t as strong as my previous months and I was dreading the job each day, more and more… I was miserable (at work) but don’t get me wrong, I loved the team and managers I worked with. Those are some of the best people I ever met but damn did I start hating working at Verizon.

I knew it was time for a change. I started getting active in the startup community again. Looking at jobs/internships, connecting with folks and learning as much as I could. What happened next, deserves a blog post itself (it’ll be coming soon). But I got fortunate enough to become Tech{dot}MN’s first ever Entrepreneur In Residence (again this is a blog post itself — coming soon). This got me back on the right path and is what lead me to happiness again. In short, I started meeting [more] awesome folks, and eventually got an internship with When I Work :). I also got to help out Elevate Research. Too top it off, I was awarded Minnesota Tech Hustler of the Year! :)

2015 was a rollercoaster full of ups and downs. I went from having some of the most fun ever in my life, to feel miserable and at one of the lowest lows of my life to being the happiest I’ve ever been and having a natural high :). With that said, cheers to an awesome 2015 and for 2016 be even better. :)