Birthday Note

On this day five years ago, I turned 18. The web development company a friend and I were working on was growing rapidly. Also, it was a particularly memorable day as I made $1,000 in the stock market. In fact, my one year plan was to become a millionaire.

Looking back, my predictions were completely wrong. On one hand, I did not foresee a bubble bursting and losing most of our web development clients, but on another hand, I did not foresee writing a book or meeting a girl friend that I want to spend the rest of my life with.

Perhaps the biggest change has been the majority of my thoughts switching from possibility to probability. While, I think this has been good as I've been more effective, the idea of falling into conformity scares me. I sense that I'm at one of the very real turning points in life, as I believe all college students are, and I don't want to simply go from youthful idealism to adult realism.

The successful people who I've studied who've achieved success in happiness, making a difference, or making money all seem to be a little bit crazy. They seem to live in a fantasy world that through intelligent persistence, they make into a reality for others. This is the world I would like to inhabit for the rest of my life. The key is finding the balance between being a "crazy" person and a "normal" person, and just being an "effective" one.