I'm one of the most curious and growth oriented people I know.   I can't think of much more important than life skills and learning how to find happiness regardless of who you are or what you do.

  Fear brings me alive as much as I still hate facing it.  All of my fondest memories come from times that I have thrown myself outside my comfort zone.  My biggest breakthroughs and most profound personal growth are also the result of doing the things I least wanted, but knew I should.

After university I held a job as a Hedge fund analyst in the financial industry working until 2 AM on my birthday.  I then switched gears and decided it would be fun to play poker professionally.  I have learned immensely from each experience and am deeply grateful for the opportunity to do both.

I have an immense amount of gratitude for many of the events in my past.

When I was young, my parents moved to a new area and I started over in a new school with very few people.  The teacher immediately disliked me and it made my transition a rough one.  I went into my shell and stayed there for the next 6 years.  Because I was surrounded by a very small number of peers, they got used to me being the quiet kid. 

Eventually when I decided I wanted to try to change, I found it was difficult because people kept treating me as if I was still the same quiet, dorky, social anxious kid.  I remember someone once telling me to "Stop trying to be someone different.  Just give up because you're a loser and everyone knows it." 

I'm grateful for that event because it made my decision to go to school away from home much easier.  There I started to force myself to socialize and I quickly started to open up.

I repeated the same process when I showed up to University.  I tried to take as much advantage of my clean slates and the fact that nobody knew me or had a preconceived notion of who I was.

At one point, I hated the teacher I had as a young child who changed me almost overnight from a popular and gregarious young boy into a closeted shut in.   But in reality it helped set into motion what has now become a life long journey and passion for growth.  I'll never stop growing now and had things seemed easy when I was younger I might not be the person I am today.