Wake Up Call

It was 8:13am on April 7th 2012 as we drove to Santa Barbara for a full day of wine tasting R&R. A rather nice end to a 2 week hiatus if I don’t say so myself. Time has zipped by like the Santa Ana winds and in this transient time I consciously decided to liquidate my commercial dreams to cash in on life. This was my wake up call.

The past 6yrs has etched my life like the Colorado river engraves the banks of the rocky mountains. With each experience I take the good with the bad and try my best not to become hard hearted. I surround myself with intelligent, hard working, accomplished, compassionate friends and colleagues. Much of which has helped shape my personality, success and character in positive ways.

I recall friends asking in passing, “How’s life?” The usual reply is, “Living the dream or a version of it.” We’re working 12-18hr days on the regular! How is that the dream? In what twisted reality can one truly be sustainably happy with that life style?

Life is a series of stages that come and go and in the process influence your mantras. Be wary of any lifestyle that lacks balance and guard your health like a mother lioness does her cub.

There are two forms of happiness: Natural vs Synthetic. One motivates long term and the other needs to be replenished on a regular basis at a cost to it’s host. All the success and money in the world is worthless if you lack the two most significant aspects: Good Health & Social Interaction.

“Natural happiness is what we get when we get what we wanted, and synthetic happiness is what we make when we don’t get what we wanted. In our society, we have a strong belief that synthetic happiness is of an inferior kind.”–Dan Gilbert, author of Stumbling on Happiness.

The tech industry is a fast paced and rewarding line of business to be involved in which I’m grateful and humbled by. I’ve been dubbed by colleagues with a number of nicknames that describe my enthusiasm, drive and tenacity in business. As of today I’ve made the commitment to invest more time into my health in order to lead a healthier lifestyle. I encourage you to make your health a priority to live life to the fullest.

Could it be the very dream we work our entire lives to achieve is exactly that; a long winded rarely realized fantasy? Is it possible that the chase is the dream, but we most often fail to realize it until it’s too late? Enjoy the ride whether you’re in a pinto or a benz, either way your happiness depends on who’s along for the ride.

“The Dalai Lama, when asked what surprised him most about humanity, he said:

Man.
Because he sacrifices his health in order to make money.
Then he sacrifices money to recuperate his health.
And then he is so anxious about the future that he does not enjoy the present;
the result being that he does not live in the present or the future;
he lives as if he is never going to die, and then dies having never really lived.”

By Nima Jacob Nojoumi

Die hard entrepreneur, startup adviser, world traveler, blogger, inbound marketing addict and evangelist of the American Dream. Helping people is my passion, business is my vehicle.

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