Hello Destiny…

I had an awesome meeting this morning that was based around reviving a serious conversation that began in February of 2013 in terms of getting a pitch for a higher education sponsor on board at work.  Today, the meeting took place in the same building as the early discussion last year, around the same time of morning with similar weather, and with the same individual as last year.

And it was a bit of of a flashback in some ways, last time I sat at that table was a few days before I flew out to London.  Today, I sat at that same table with a new title (Executive Director) for a non-profit hitting its growth stride.  Sitting in that chair I reflected on the many changes that I’ve had happen in the last 13 months, and can only think of how far I’ve come–how so much of the past year can be chalked up to hard work and annoying persistence, but I also have to give destiny and fate some credit.

….And, this time around the meeting seems to have the real potential to provide something tangible and an ongoing relationship as a sponsor.

2013 was a year of learning, work was going well in some regards but we weren’t translating that into real money dollars.  Frustration was high among the co-founders.  We weren’t drawing anything close to a steady paycheck.  The dollars that were coming in were going right back out to programs.  We had so much stuff in the pipeline but in the slow moving industry, it wasn’t enough.

This translated into _my_ home life as well.  That lack of a steady paycheck as I chased my dream was putting a serious strain on the finances.  I/we had made decisions with the expectation of 2 paychecks coming in and all of a sudden we were operating on one.  It wasn’t a pretty situation…trust me.

this is what it feels like to be standing on the edge, eh?

And then L filed for divorce after I found out about her ongoing misdeeds with the other guy (again).  It was one of those gut-check moments in life that made me re-evaluate exactly what I needed to do in life, for myself, my family and those around me.  I had a very hard conversation with my trusted sister, I offered to walk away from my dream of building the NPO if that’s what it was going to take to fix things…and she replied with “you need to do what makes you happy.  You need to make sure you don’t do something to make yourself miserable in the long run.”

And I evaluated, I thought hard—and looking back 6 months later I realize that whatever the course was that got me here, that destiny had to play a serious part of it all.  As I deposited another sponsor check today (woohoo!), as I see many of these relationships I’ve spent years building translating into money-dollars for the organization—I know my persistence and drive to pilot this organization to where we are was the only “right” choice I could make.

“Save the world, lose the girl”, right?

On the flip side, “save the world, find the girl”—but that’s another blog for another day, isn’t it?

I’m feeling pretty content tonight at what the rest of 2014 has in store.  And looking back, jumping off the ledge of decisions that got me here is something I will forever be able to stand by.  Happy, Healthy, Helping and Hopeful–amazing what change a year can make.

I think Journey said something about, “Don’t Stop Believing”.  It’s true.

-th