As I reflect back to the year of 2007 it’s a previous chapter in life. I’m dressed in everyday casual clothing as I walk into the building. Its a beautiful company with about 3,750 sqft of office space, a huge sign with 6 foot letters on the building, 15+ offices, a large conference room, and management department. I haven’t been to this office in several months but the people that work here are amazing individuals that I think about often.
I rarely visit this town as much, however, I like to check on things from time to time. There is a whole new entrepreneur mindset required when you are growing a business and the people you hire begin hiring people that you haven’t met yet. I walk up to the front desk.
“Can I help you?” the receptionist ask.
Me: I give her a big smile 🙂 “Yes, you can start by telling me how you like working here.”
She then quickly realizes who I am.
The challenge to manage 50 people, mentor, lead and innovate a company requiring the team work of others.
The challenge to stay in business for 15 years and within one year lose everything and be required to completely start over.
This is my story of success, failure, and success.
What qualifies someone to write about what it takes to overcome adversity exactly? The person needs to have experienced extreme failure and success. I am not talking about a failure of not getting into a college or not succeeding in a business venture. I am talking about the magnitude of going through peaks and valleys in which someone loses everything they have and goes through the deepest and darkest places of struggle one can imagine. The reality is technically there is no such thing as failures because we all learn from our experiences.
Every knock down in life is an outcome of your efforts:
Perseverance over time ends in success. If someone never experienced peaks and valleys and releases motivational material on this topic then how do you know the content has validity. It is similar to asking somebody about their experience of a car wreck or losing someone they love and they have never experienced this for themselves.
True grit sometimes requires a knock down. In order for me to write about my experiences and what I have learned was not only valuable for myself, it is valuable for the world. This is my story of the mistakes I made, lessons I learned, failures, success, and how I had to start over.
In this blog, I have written about several different topics that go into the depths of tenacious efforts that require your steadiness to never give up no matter how bad or wrong someone does to you. I also take you into the mind of someone that has been at one time, in the deepest darkest place. I would not wish this shame, embarrassment, pain, and grief on my worst enemy.
I know what it’s like to build a successful empire over a 15 year period, experience the pain of divorce and in one year lose it all. Including my soul mate.
In my lessons through these difficult times, not only I have learned to watch out for the partners I chose from the past but I have learned that when you are focused what is in front of you, when it comes to business you have to watch over your back as well.
There was someone I knew who was very wise and well known in the real estate community. Before she passed, she said, “Friendship ends where business begins.” I never wanted to believe that because I thought that true friends would never deceive or betray you. Unfortunately, sometimes friends can come in the form of gifted actors and you have to separate business from friendship.
However, in my lessons I have learned that it takes more energy to be bitter, angry, or upset. And karma. Is. Real. I am a firm believer that God and the universe works in those peoples favor that genuinely have a special place in their heart to give back to the world. You have a choice to be bitter and hold in anger. This will eat you from the inside out. When you learn to let go it will feel like you are releasing a poison in your blood stream that has been consuming you. It does not matter how dirty or bad someone did you wrong.
The only way you can start over is if you release the bitterness. If you don’t, it will contaminate you for life and hinder your future success. A state of mind of love is the most powerful effective state of mind for your future and success.
Someone recently asked me, while in a deep conversation.
“Why don’t you teach people the things you know?”
I had to pause and think about it for a moment. It quickly became evident, that it does no good to have knowledge if you don’t share with others. When you have experienced massive success, failure and the perseverance it takes to start over it makes you realize something. That its not about what you do for yourself but instead in the end its about what you learn and the legacy you leave behind for others.
Sharing my knowledge from my success and failures will allow so many people to benefit from it and help create change in the world.
In this blog I share these lessons so that you can go out and teach others the things you learn from it. Knowledge is not worth anything if you don’t pay it forward. Leave a legacy behind so that your seeds and the people you influence can grow and teach others to love strong as well.
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Until then I thank you for taking the time to read this blog. I thank you for your support. I thank you for your decision to also step forward so that you can also improve yourself as well to enhance your life.
And I only ask one thing of you. Whether its your kids, little brother, sister, friends, or even a total stranger. When the times right, give back to them anyway you can to pay your knowledge forward to the help renovate the world.
Because it is this decision in humanity that will make all the difference. We need to end wars, violence and hate.
And we all need to realize.
That Love Is Strength.
-Gilbert Quinones