As I handed the nearly completed copy of my book to my editor and disbursed it to friends and associates for test reading, I was incredibly proud of my creation.
“9.9 out of 10 stars.”
“Would recommend!”
Yet it was missing something. Despite being a “student of life” since before I could adequately describe what that even meant, I couldn’t put my finger on what it was. It was good. But it wasn’t great. It was missing a major piece of me. The real me. The authentic me.
Then, as I prepared for a TEDx talk, the host of the masterclass I attended laid out the emotional rollercoaster any good speaker takes us on.
Typically a good talk, book, movie, or anything that evokes a response in us follows the same journey. It starts high, goes low, and then builds and builds until the hero prevails. Overly simplistic, but you get the idea.
So as the host delivered the prompt, “Write down a few times you were at your lowest of lows. What lessons came from these times? How did you use them to claw back, to become greater for the struggle?”—it hit me like one thousand light bulbs, all illuminating simultaneously.
This missing piece was the dark hole I found myself in, barely twenty-five years old, and what it took to claw my way out. I was hiding it from you, my beloved reader, because I was still hiding it from myself. Too painful to revisit.
I’ve navigated some rough seas in the last twenty-five years as an entrepreneur. What I learned during that time, which I discuss in the book, was that I had to honor my values in what I was doing at all costs. My life literally depended on it. If that required massive and sometimes unreasonable change, I had to find a way to take those steps. There was simply no other option.
See you on the journey…
Rodric
PS – Your Flip Flop Fam is waiting for you here.
PPS – My book, Million Dollar Flip Flops – Peace, Prosperity and the Courage to Change Course in Life and Business is available for pre-order here!
PPPS – Be on the lookout for my collab with Jason Marc Campbell by following my journey on Instagram.
