Whether it be in your career or in your daily life, the significance and importance of mentors can not be understated. If you are like me, then your environment does not encourage you or give you the tools that you need to in order to pursue what it is that you love. The people around you are encouraging you to pursue a very standard life with tried, proven and safe methods. All around you, you see people pursuing respectable yet safe paths in life. My family for example. My brother works in a warehouse, my mother works in a printing company, my father works in a meat factory and my sister works as a school teacher. All very respectable jobs which assist in providing for their families. I love them all dearly. However, for me, someone who is extremely passionate about building a brand dedicated to adding value to people's lives through sharing life experiences and philosophical content, their is no clear defined path as to how to achieve such a thing. Some could consider this as an Entrepreneurial path which i believe is an overused term these days.
It took me a long time to commit to this path as for 1, there was no one entrepreneurial around me growing up or in my life who i associated with. 2, i had been raised in an environment where in order for you to succeed in life, you must complete university and get a good job. If you don't complete university then you have no hope in life and are looked at as a disappointment. So with no one to show me another path, and with no knowledge of anything else, i pursued a very safe path in which i chose to study Financial Planning. I did this because it would make my loved ones proud, i thought i liked it and i thought it would be good. It wasn't until i found myself repeating the same mistakes in my career that i realised the path to becoming a Financial Planner wasn't for me. Throughout my career, i had worked in finance related roles. The first 2-3 months i would start off energetic and enthusiastic as it was a new job. Then about 4 or 5 months in i started to lose motivation and enthusiasm which in turn led to me making mistakes at work. 6 or 7 months in, work became mentally draining and i couldn't stand the job anymore. Then i would convince myself that the place i was working for was the problem and not me and i'd start looking for other jobs. Some workplaces however were quite toxic but regardless, i realise now that i shouldn't have been there in the first place. This process repeated itself for about 6 years. 6 years of trying different jobs and having the same outcomes. It wasn't until i met my girlfriend (now fiancée) that i realised if i was going to get married to this woman, i would need to provide for her and i wouldn't be able to provide for her if i kept repeating this unfulfilling process. I started to get very frustrated that i couldn't turn to anyone for guidance or assistance. I had no one to talk to that could help me shape my own path pursuing something that i actually enjoyed. This was no fault of the people around me ofcourse but this was a frustration that had genuinely begun to bother me. One night i sat in bed watching YouTube videos and randomly came across a Joe Rogan podcast in which he talks about the importance of living a life filled with purpose, discipline and happiness. The video on YouTube i am referring to is specifically titled 'Joe Rogan's Life Advice Will Change Your Life'. This video ignited a fire in my mind and in my heart to begin the pursuit of finding what i love. Through numerous days of self reflection, i started to really think about what made me happy and what i was truly passionate about. I kept coming to the same conclusion which was simply helping people. I couldn't pin point exactly how i wanted to do it but i knew i wanted to help people. I proceeded to seek out more and more videos similar to the Joe Rogan podcast i had come across. As i did this, i came across multiple Gary Vee (Gary Vaynerchuk), Simon Sinek and David Goggins videos which continued to fuel my mind. So much so to the point where everything i had been encouraged to do growing up from people in my environment and peers became irrelevant to me. It became irrelevant in the sense that i no longer believed in pursuing a path of safety and security through an unfulfilling job. Instead i dedicated myself to following my heart and following what made me happy truly. I still didn't know how, but i knew that regardless of how long it took, i would not give up until i truly found the how!
It wasn't until earlier this year when Covid-19 started forcing many people to work from home that i finally figured it out. I was going to create this brand...The Philosophers Army. My interest in Philosophy and wanting to share experiences in my life in order to help people formed! It only took about 2 years haha but i got to the idea in the end. The idea of following my passion, creating something i truly love and how to do it was an accumulation of the videos i had watched over the years. Looking back now, i must credit my parents for me the way they raised me which is to never give up but i also need to credit the people i mentioned before. Joe Rogan, Gary Vee, David Goggins, Simon Sinek etc. All these people were and continue to be my mentors in life. I look to them for guidance. In business and pursuing my passion, i am motivated and inspired by Joe Rogan, Gary Vee and Simon Sinek. When it comes to overcoming adversity and challenging myself, i look to my parents and David Goggins. My parents most definitely more so. If you are asking "why?", this will be revealed in the book which i am writing. The book is a true story of my families journey from war torn Iraq in the late 80's - early 90's to Australia as illegal immigrants. So my friends, the point of this blog is to show you just how important having mentors are for all aspects of life. I never had anyone to show me how to do my own thing nor anyone encourage me that it was okay to pursue what you love.
I still to this day am working on my transition out of the corporate world into this passion i love which is this brand, The Philosophers Army. But the difference now is that my mind is clear and i know what i must do in order to achieve what i want. I want to become one of these mentors for people who are lost and do not know how to reach their goals. I want to be able to help people who were in my position by being a mentor for them. I hope to provide clarity by giving practical examples, philosophies to live their lives by and by having this community be open to people wishing to share their failures in order to become the best version of themselves.
Think about who your mentors are in life my friends. Seek them out if there are none. I am always happy to help.
