WAS IT REALLY IN ME?

I didn't always want to be an entrepreneur.  You have to understand what an entrepreneur is first.  I always thought it was "those people" because my family wasn't born like them...or so I was told.  Life is hard, you have to struggle, you never get ahead, if work was fun it wouldn't be work.  I heard all of it.

That's all changed now.  And it can change for you, if you want it to.  Would you like to go on your own adventure into entrepreneurship?   I can mentor you and coach you to do the same

ONE FINE DAY

South central Missouri was another one of those places I had never been before.  I'm such an adventurer that I thought, "why not?" when offered the job there. 

My parents had recently died and I had lost contact with my brothers.  I just HAD to get back to the United States.  I was a 47 year old orphan!  Or so I felt. 

I wanted roots and being the midwest girl I am, Missouri seemed like a perfect fit.

I soon found out, however, that the restlessness I was feeling wasn't just wanting to go back to the States, having a new job or finding roots.  My restlessness was ME. 

After 20 years of government service I as bored out of my mind!  It didn't matter what the job was or where it was, I was sick and tired of working 7:30-4:30 and having to ask permission to run an errand in the middle of the day; I was sick and tired of following rules that may or may not make sense to me; I was sick and tired of being told what to do. PERIOD.

Then one day when I was bored silly at work, I was surfing the web and came across a site that offered a 5 day clinic in Vancouver, British Columbia on how to become an internet marketer and make a bizillion dollars in just a few short months.

Sign me up!  I was going to blow this popsickle stand and tell the government "thanks, but no thanks."

IT’S IN THE BLOOD

I spent 10 years as a naval officer.  During those 10 years, I had 7 different duty stations.  It seemed that I was destined to move all over the United States and experience firsthand that there really is a difference between southern California and northern California which, in turn, is a whole different world than Albany, NY.  I even managed to get stationed at one of the most remote places on earth…Diego Garcia, BIOT (British Indian Ocean Territory).  

 Diego Garcia is in the middle of the Indian Ocean 472 miles south of the equator.  How isolated is it?  We used to say, “Diego Garcia isn’t the end of the earth but you can see if from here.” 

There is no “off base.”  The whole island is a Navy base leased from the British (who also have a small contingency of military members stationed there).  We worked together, played together and lived together 24/7, 365 days a year. 

If you didn’t get along with someone, you were in trouble because there was nowhere to escape.  Luckily it’s one of the most beautiful, pristine places on earth with anything and everything to do that doesn’t require snow.  J

However isolated and remote Diego Garcia is, it was a prime location for getting military flights to Singapore and Japan…which I did.  And because it’s in the middle of nowhere, flights have to stop several times before getting there.  As a result, I made a layover in Europe on my way there and got to visit Naples, Pompeii and Rome Italy, Lucern, Switzerland, and a handful of cities in northern Germany where I stayed with some German friends I had made as a student at the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, CA. 

WOW is the only word that can describe that experience.  In the 15 months I spent in the middle of the Indian Ocean, I did more traveling than I had ever done before and I vowed to never stop.

SNAKE WINE AND THE RED THREAD

I had never been to Guilin China.  Heck, I had never even heard of Guilin China before signing up for the 9 day whirl-wind tour of China that April of 2000.  I had given myself this tour as a 40^th birthday present for myself.  After all, who doesn’t deserve something special for achieving such a landmark period in life?  Little did I know, however, that my life would be forever changed during that tour.  My sense of adventure had taken me to a place that I never imagined possible.

I grew up primarily in central Ohio but we moved around a lot.  I went to three grade schools in Columbus and even started junior high there.  We then moved to south Florida where I finished up with middle school and started high school.  Midway through my junior year, we packed up and moved again, this time to Fayetteville, West Virginia.

I guess that’s how the travel bug started.  Going to new places was no big deal to me after all of that.  It was just a part of my life.  Later on I realized that experiencing new places was more than “no big deal”—it was incredible and I actually loved it.  I loved the excitement of going somewhere…anywhere I hadn’t been before.  It was fascinating to get to experience someone else’s way of life, if only for a few days or even hours.  My motto became, “if I haven’t been there then let’s go.”