Plan B --

The past year has been a remarkable journey for me.  Not only because of the realization of Rollerstar; more important than even that was the confirmation that only in taking a great risk was I able to shape my life into that which I imagined.

In all honesty, until I shared my carefully guarded creation with the world, I was not convinced that a decade long apprenticeship on wheels had proven itself a wise investment of my time.  In spite of having no example to follow and zero promise of return, I embarked upon a very unorthodox career change just over one year ago, deciding in the midst of an economic crisis, "What the hell... I may as well manifest my dreams in the process."  Friends and family observed with very concerned "Are you sure about this?" expressions on their faces.  At times I wondered the same myself.  But when is anything worth doing a sure thing?  Never, that's when.

Fortunately for me (or unfortunately... depending on how you view your glass), what brought my decision on was the departure from a career I had been holding onto for all of the wrong reasons.  What made this decision frightening was that it preceded the onset of our current financial crisis by a mere few weeks.  Facing the stark reality of some really dry times approaching, I asked myself what the single most unique contribution I could make to the global economy was at that point in time and the answer became quite clear.  In a pool of thousands, with little to no enthusiasm for my present career path, I stood to starve in the current state of the nation's economy if I continued on the same path.  I needed to tap into something much deeper within myself to ride this impending wave out.  I needed to turn a dream into an action plan.

But doing so is far more difficult than following the status quo.  That is probably why so few people dare to make the same decision as I did.  Far too often we are told to be rational in our approach to securing a livelihood.  My approach was hardly rational.  Continuously, we are assaulted with fear-based messages questioning our deeply held ambitions.  My ambition was foolishly nostalgic.  Thankfully, I was spot on in my assumption that the world was ready for my foolishly nostalgic and irrational creation.   Sometimes circumstances that prevent us from following the soundest course are truly a blessing in disguise.  In my case, I am thankful my resume got lost in the thousands piling up since last September.  For if it had been circulating in a boom, as opposed to a depression,  Rollerstar would still only exist in my mind.  And that is not where it belongs.