10/04/2026
The first week of October.
The leaves are turning and everyone is talking about the changing of the seasons.
So let's talk about the seasons the world says our lives are supposed to have.
In 1978, a psychologist named Daniel Levinson published The Seasons of a Man's Life. He mapped adulthood into eras. Early adulthood. Middle adulthood. Late adulthood, which starts at 60 and is described as the time for reflection, retirement, and coming to terms with the life you lived.
That map was drawn from interviews with forty men. Every one of them was between 35 and 45.
Not one woman.
Not one person who had lived the season being described.
I am in that season now.
Anyone who wants to call it the final stage can suck it.
This is my best season.
Here is what I am sure of.
I have held on to my integrity through every season. My parents taught me early that doing what was right mattered more than what anyone else thought. When I was 10 or 12, one of my aunts asked my mom how she got me to do my homework and get good grades. My mom said, "She just does it."
Genetics? Environment? I don't know.
The quest for knowledge was born in me and it has only gotten stronger. I call myself the nerd, because we used to have to work so much harder for information. Now, good or bad, it is at our fingertips.
I chose to be a good person.
Early on, I confused being a good person with being a nice person. Let me explain.
You never intentionally do anything to hurt or harm another person. That is 100% true. But "nice" is something else.
Sure, I'll help.
Sure, I'll do that.
It is one of the hardest lessons I have learned, and I learned it repeatedly. Just because I can do something well does not mean I have to do it for anybody who comes along and asks. If there is a choice between my kids eating and your kids eating, I choose my kids. They are my life's purpose, and I hope my legacy shows that. I don't plan on leaving this earth any time soon.
I am pretty sure one of the reasons I did not choose the best life partners early on is that they had a different vision of doing the right thing than I did.
It is as simple as it is complicated.
I have often wondered what all of this doing the right thing has cost me.
My time.
My money.
My opportunity.
Here is the truth.
Integrity is a gift.
I never took anything from anyone. When I realized I did not belong in a job, a relationship, or a business, I moved on. That was not the easy road. It was the right road.
About ten or twelve years ago, I went through a very introspective time. It wasn't pretty. I took responsibility for my actions. The ones I took and the ones I didn't take. What I had settled for. What I let slide. I realized that some people were my "friend" because of what I did for them. I made them feel better about themselves. I helped them financially. My work made them money. Even the most affluent people could not buy what they were missing, which was self esteem.
I know it is great having me around. I don't do drama. I solve problems. I think positively, and I believe in lifting people up, because you never know what somebody is going through. A random kind word or a check-in can change a life. People have done that for me and I will never forget it.
I have faced my mortality.
I honestly can't wait to see where we go after we die, because I know my soul is going somewhere.
Ten years ago I signed my name to an oath.
It sits next to my desk, wherever my desk may be. It comes from Napoleon Hill, and it starts with the idea that "no wealth or position can long endure, unless built upon truth and justice." It goes on to promise that I will take part in nothing that does not benefit everyone it affects. That I will earn the help of others by being willing to serve them. That I will trade hatred, envy, and cynicism for love of people, and believe in others the way I ask them to believe in me.
Following it has not always come naturally.
People bring me opportunities. Products and services they want to launch or promote. At the outset, their mission often feels aligned with mine. More often than not, I realize it is not, and I end the relationship.
I am never really starting over, because I never lost anything. I was cutting the potential for loss.
Nice is dangerous.
Doing the right thing is the power.
Over the past ten years, I have learned every piece of real estate. I have seen how afraid people can be of buying a house. That big number looks scary. It is also one of those things where, if you do not take the scary risk with the right people on your team, you miss the entire opportunity.
There is a line often credited to Andrew Carnegie: "Ninety percent of all millionaires become so through owning real estate." A millionaire in his day, more than a hundred years ago, was something else entirely.
I am determined to help people get there.
In this season, I am smarter, more powerful, and totally focused on using my knowledge, my gifts, and my abilities to help others. One person. Groups of people. I am not teaching for myself. I cannot keep the promise I signed my name to, the one etched in my soul, without sharing what I know. What a waste it would be to amass all of this life experience and let it die when my time comes.
I love the fall because letting go is such a beautiful thing.
It is a new start that comes from an ending, and it is all beautiful.
