Sitting at his desk Fernando thought back on his failed printing business and sighed. Was everything in his life like this? Having an alcoholic, and abusive step father had once defined his life. Now, still in his mid thirties he had spent some of the previous years of his life blaming everything on the circumstance this man had obviously put him in.
As a teenager he’d taken up skateboarding, a good excuse to get away from the house and even better for explaining bruises that showed up every couple weeks at this man’s hands. However, when he turned 18, and was on his own, skateboarding, at least in this town, put him into a culture of drugs and illegal activity that all too much reminded him of his step dad. Fernando chose instead to pour himself into his job at a small town paper.
It was weird that this little paper still even existed as most news was now found on social media and You Tube. However, his tiny town was generally older, and the old folks still picked up the “free rag” supported by local business ads at the local market, gas station and pizza joint.
When Mr Smith asked him if he’d like to take it over when he was retired last year, Fernando jumped at the chance! You see Fernando had long since CREATED that his step dad wouldn’t determine his future, and he would CREATE himself as a resilient, powerful man. He would CREATE his future, and would never again let what happened in his past determine his was and would become.
It was right then that it hit him. He would RE-CREATE the failing paper into a printing business. However, with the population quickly turning younger, and with influx of “20 something” Californians the paper would soon no longer be viable. It was in this CREATION that he came up with a thought. Many of these young people had been moving out of California’s Silicon Valley. They had left the crazy, bloated, over-priced culture, and were looking for a new home. It was then that Fernando’s CREATION came into it’s own…
He sold the old broken down printing presses, gutted the huge industrial space, and with favored “grandfathered zoning” CREATED small apartments up stairs and work spaces downstairs. He marketed quickly to the young “Silicon Valley immigrants” a place to live, and CREATE their own future. After all the local Internet provider had just installed high speed in his block with a super fast T-1 line.
Rent would be a base rate and office space would be offered at a reduced rate for a small founder’s stake in the budding software companies. Within a week 3 apartment work spaces were rented, and by the end of the month friends of friends were piling in tables and chairs, white boards, computers and the building was lit 24/7.
We CREATE everything! Many people spend their time CREATING from their past. It sounds something like, “Because this happened to me, I am now…” Fernando did something different, he CREATED himself into the future as a resilient, powerful man. He had tapped into something truly transformative. He CREATED his future!
As self-defense experts we often find ourselves COACHING survivors. They are powerful people that have survived sometimes the most violent pasts you can imagine. However, after emotions of the past are expressed they all end up choosing. They choose to CREATE from their past, or their future.
The future is undetermined. We get to CREATE who we are, and what that means. As Life Defense Warriors of Life, what will we CREATE, and just as importantly, where will we CREATE it from?
Allen Hughes
Warrior Way Life Defense
#lifedefense #create #allenhughes.
