The Viable Alternative

I was 25 years old, had graduated college about a year and a half earlier, and was working a 9 to 5 at IBM as an associate consultant.

On paper, everything looked good, but I hated my job and hated my life. All my friends who graduated around the same time as me seemed to have it all together and looked like they were on to big things while I felt I was just stagnating. What’s more, with my limited real world experience, I knew of others who were older than me who were the owner of companies or found their niche in a career and would wonder, “Hey, what about me?”

So, I scheduled a time to meet with my Pastor on a Sunday morning before church service to get some advice and guidance. At our meeting, I expressed to him my frustrations and told him, that at the end of the day, I just wanted to be “successful.”

After my vent, my Pastor calmly responds, “You say you want to be ‘successful,’ but if you break apart the word, ‘success,’ you’ll see it’s part of the word, ‘succession.'”

His words stopped me dead in my tracks because they were unexpected and profound but at the same time I didn’t want to hear them because I wanted a NOW NOW NOW solution that would propel me to success.

The fact of the matter is, looking back years later, the man was right, but at the time, I was really too immature to understand what he was saying.

What I realize now that I didn’t realize then was what I really was after was finding out my purpose, and that through finding my purpose I would find the fulfillment that I also desperately sought which would bring a sense of meaning to the money that came with it.

A lot of people are in the same boat – they desperately want to find their purpose for being and don’t know where to start.

If this sounds like you, how about this, why don’t you start with looking at the persistent struggles you’ve been battling throughout a good part of your life (if not all)?

My Pastor saying to me that “success” is part of the word, “succession,” describes the process of how we overcome our struggles. Through our trial and tribulations, we gain the knowledge and wisdom to gradually go to the next level, and the next level and the next level until hopefully one day, we’re able to surmount our struggles.

Well, what happens to all this acquired knowledge and wisdom?

Often, we were “gifted” with this struggle by the Creator because it is our purpose to help others going through similar challenges. Because you’ve had similar challenges, it makes you more authentic and trustworthy to those going through the same thing so you’ll be able to connect with such people easier. Real recognizes real.

As for me and my 25 year old self, fast forwarding years and years later, I’m currently working on a platform to inspire people that’s comprised of a book I had recently completed about how to develop an authentic self esteem which is based on what I learned from my life time of struggle with it, and also an upcoming men’s underwear line that was created because I wasn’t getting the opportunities I wanted as a model and I decided to give these opportunities to myself and inspire into doing the same.

Really, I see that my purpose is to empower people, namely men, to develop into more whole and balanced, better, stronger versions of themselves because I’ve struggled and still struggle with this very issue, however I’ve picked up some gems along the way that can be helpful to others dealing with the same struggles.

Life is riddled with examples of people who were able to use their struggles to bless the world.

Former UFC Champion, Georges St. Pierre, and former world heavyweight champion, Mike Tyson, were bullied as kids and learned to fight to learn how to defend themselves.

Viktor Frankl was able to pen the impactful book, “Man’s Search for Meaning” and conceive the concept of logotherapy that he taught others about which says that man is motivated by a desire to have meaning in life through his experience of trying to survive as a prisoner in the Nazi Death Camps.

There are dating coaches out there who help hundreds of clueless men learn to become successful at dating women that found their profession because they once struggled with the same thing.

There are personal trainers who are now in great shape but because they struggled with obesity are now able to use the wisdom they gained in their roller coaster battle to become fit and healthy to help others who have the same issues.

So, if you’ve been feeling lost and frustrated because you don’t know what your purpose is, take a look at your persistent struggles and challenges, your purpose may be lying within them in some form.

This is The Viable Alternative.

Hope this helps,

Ike Love