I push the snooze button, yet for another time. It is now 6 a.m. and know it takes 40 or so minutes to get to work and still smell like shit. But, all I’m going to do is sit in my cubicle and look at my computer screen. So, I  skip the shower, wash my face, brush my teeth, put on my wrinkle as can be collar shirt I wore last week and to the club (which still smells like smoke), and run out of the door to my car. I hop on the beltway and quickly realize that I have gotten on a paying road, where I am setting in traffic. I finally make it to work, as I get out my car I think to myself, “Should I take the stairs? They wouldn’t know exactly what time I got in? I should talk to a couple of friends so it looks like I have been here for quite sometime”.

I finally arrive inside my office and my boss gets on me for being late and said he will need this and that for a presentation later in the morning. I get started and complete the work, not caring one bit. I make it to lunch and decide to sit in my car. I sat there in the car (no a/c, started transforming the car into a race car) and thought. I thought about what I have been up to in my life. I thought I was a failure, and thought ‘is this it?’ Damn, I was having a quarter life crisis 2 years before the actual time and didn’t even realize it.

When I started to examine my life, I knew something was missing, I knew I had to do more for myself. I was an expert in the automobile field, but didn’t want to be that guy that could only talk about cars and didn’t care or relate to other topics that were important to people. I knew I sorta liked reading and eventually would read whatever I could, but knew this was a slow process. I didn’t want to continue to watch television and relate to people for 5 minutes on a show that wasted 30 minutes-1 hour of my life. So, I started to listen to podcast and to stretched my net as far as I could: while at work I listened to politics, audio-books, everyday life, current events, pop culture, social media, technology, business, and whatever else.

Now almost 4 years later, I wanted something more, something I could really do for myself. I wasn’t getting the excitement from work and the year before I finally found my true passion, writing. I heard one of the podcast I frequently listen to mention an author I enjoyed reading (I mean listening to, his books were long). I kept on hearing, “When Opportunity Meets Preparation”, over and over again. I stopped and told myself, this is what I need, this is what is going to drive me to places I didn’t know possible.

The book that has been sitting on my center table for 2 weeks, the one I think will push me to new highs is Outliers, by Malcolm Gladwell.

Lessons I think I am going to learn while reading:

-The Symptoms of True Success: what are they and are they inherited or can be learned?

-Steps I can use in my writing to expand my passion: I have been writing everyday since the first and have increased my time to 45 minutes, what else can I do to get better?

-What other things other than hard work will warrant success: We all know hard work is needed, but what else is there?

-Why did and still now when I hear, “When Opportunity Meets Preparation”, hits so close to home to me: I even have the quote on my bed post.

Possible Lessons I’ll Learn from Outliers from Oaks Real on Vimeo.