I uncomprimisably believe that everything happens for a reason...from the first few years of my life when I lived with my grandparents to today in my search for a new career. Here are a few higlights in chronological order:
- my excursion to the buliding site where the elementary school that I would attend with my best childhood friend. (I was 3 years old, and yes, I got spanked and verbally reprimanded)...
how I loved large earthmovers as a child
- player on undefeated football and baseball teams
- my excursion to 8 different European countries with United States Collegiate Choir. I was one of 250 people selected from the U.S. and Canada. Some highlights are singing the National Anthem from the top of the Eiffel Tower on July 4th, 1993, spending 4 days with a host family in Holland...eating pudding with every meal, experiencing Amsterdam and the red light district with the eldest son, drinking Heineken (18 in fact, in a day), biking thru Chamonix, France, walking the streets of London, seeing "Cats", and meeting a lovely young girl from Washington State
- being a mediator for my mother and father's divorce, missing a final exam in college as a result and getting my first large traffic ticket (104 in a 65 mph zone, fleeing and eluding, and endangering a Maryland State Troopers welfare.) Not pretty, but I revieved probation
- played for the Frostburg State University Bobcats as a running back ( My teammates nicknamed me "Rudy"...my first 4 semesters of grades suffered). Coach Steven said that I had more heart than anyone he has ever coached...I still do
- gave up football and focused on studying psychology, was named the Oustanding Psychology Student of the Year in 1999
Graduated in 2000 with a B.S. in Psychology
- began a career in finance with Edward Jones in the "Star City of the South", Roanoke, VA, as an investment representative. I was the youngest broker in my region ever hired at 24 and built a successful practice under the tuteledge of a mentor who I still regard as a friend and personal advisor, Skip Brown. This position offered me a particular perk, paid dinners; where I developed an introductory affinity for the finest beverage in the world...WINE!
- moved back to my college hometown, Frostburg, Maryland and joined a local bank
- Started my own investment advisory business in 2004, Pinnacle Asset Management Group, with a great office location in the old post office building, now District Court. I remodeled my office from top to bottom; but eventually failed as I had too many irons in the fire at this point in my life and I hired two finance graduates right out of college with large aspirations for the business, but incredibly low work ethic.
- moved to Frederick, Maryland where I currently reside. I joined Ryan Homes. Was trained, obtained the highest competency score for the entire Washington Montgomery division since 1998, (my score was only matched) and began selling $1 million dollar homes in Potomac and Rockville, MD. While my intentions were good, with sales down 15% from the prior year and a rising federal funds rate, my buyer was sitting on the sidelines waiting for "Big Ben", to set the cost of borrowed money. I was terminated along with 499 others due to a "challenging business environment".

As I mentioned before, I believe all things without a hint of doubt, happen for a reason, and so I am "going to the matresses" with a renewed enthusiasm and a new zest for life. More on my new endeavors to follow...

Today I started my day with an old friend, the Leadership Bible (NIV by Sid Buzell and Bill Perkins) which I am sorry to say is now out of print. Having loaned mine to a friend, I had remebered that I had given a copy to my father. I have borrowed it, since it has been untouched since the day that it was given as a gift.
As I opened it, I turned to the table of contents for an appropriate topic, and was immediately drawn to the principle of Purpose/Passion under the personal development perspective of leadership principles. Paul is a person in the Bible that every person who believs in Christianity should know personally. Paul was a man after his own personal development until he was introduced to God, and having endured extreme hardships in his walk with God, is credited as "more than any other single person as being responsible for initiating the spread of the gospel around the world" (Sidwell and Perkins, p.1391).
Leaders must be passionate and affectionately enthusiastic. I would also add charismatic, but there are plenty of examples that anyone can note to the contrary.