So let’s see, so far I have breezed through childhood, college, grad school and my “professional” career so far.  If you don’t remember you can stroll down memory lane here:   My journey to this point.

Dave has talked a bit about his early days as an entrepreneur and dissatisfaction with the real world (To be an entrepreneur), so I figured I better catch up.

I’m not going to bore you with all the details of my career, but let me start by saying that what motivated me to do what I was “supposed” to do (read:  go to school, get a good degree, get a good job) was the basic belief that the working world is a meritocracy.  I believed that skill and ability were valued, acknowledged and rewarded.  Looking back I have no idea why I believed this.  Naiveté.

I now realize that although I have demonstrated my abilities, they are only valuable to my immediate supervisor.  He relies on me to figure things out.  However, the decision makers have no clue what my competence level is.  I am X, I do Y for a price of Z.  I can be replaced with any number of comparable units.

Truthfully, I expected too much.  I’m under no delusions that I can alter the corporate world.  So I have an important choice:  take it or leave it.

I have a friend who has carved out a nice life for himself as a medical device entrepreneur.  He has been a great source of inspiration and also provides a great dose of reality.  It is certainly not the easiest path, but in the end, it comes down to where you fit as a person.  When discussing my frustration with the job world, he mentioned that he is always paid exactly what he is worth.

Bingo!  A real meritocracy.  Or at least as close as we get.  In truth, random events and many things outside of our control affect our destinies much more than we’d like to admit.  Some people just get lucky or jinxed no matter how you slice it.

So far it sounds like I’m obsessed with pay.  It’s a bit complicated because I really assign almost no value to money itself.  However, I became incredibly disgruntled because I constantly had to figure out how to do things for a colleague who made 2x what I make.  It just didn’t seem fair.  It wasn’t fair.  My own boss admits that.  He also admits he is powerless to do much about it in the short term.  This is just not a scene I want to get sucked into.  People sell away their life.  In the ideal world they would reward me comparably to my colleague.  In the real world the colleague gets laid off and I stay the same.

I choose not to be a unit.  I choose to be my own brand.

Dave and I hope to create some sort of value for you.  I plan to provide a lot of free content related to our product and nutrition in general.  I hope you will find it useful and join in a discussion about how to live a healthier happier life whether you choose to buy any of our products or not.

If we succeed, we will be rewarded financially.   If we don’t, we will still be rewarded with a great learning experience.  It’s that simple and I love it.