The Foundation for All Success
to help other people or even myself. And I know for a fact that I don’t ever want to go backward to where I was as a kid. After I explained all of this, Joe could see that I was getting emotional. And at that time I was thinking to myself, “Well, I found my why!” But there were two more questions left for me to answer. Joe looked at me and asked, “Dean, why don’t you want to go backward?” At that point, I couldn’t hold the tears back; they were streaming down my face. The first things that came to my heart were my children. I said, “I think I know it. I think I know my why. I want to give my kids the choices and the options that I never had when I was a kid.” I want my daughter and my son to be able to choose where they want to go in life and have the ability to become their best selves. I want them to live without the worry over money chok- ing them. I want them to know that they’re financially secure, so if they want to be teachers, or astronauts, or be in rock bands, or teach yoga, or anything else, they can. I want them to have the freedom I never felt like I had growing up. I’m not saying I want to raise two entitled brats. I work very hard to make sure that never happens. I’m talking about giving them choices to be who they want to be, not spoiling them so much they don’t have to make any choices at all. And the more I thought about it, the more emotional I got. I said to Joe, “I know my why! It’s my children.” But then he said, “I bet you started working really hard be- fore you had children, didn’t you, Dean?” He was right, and I had one more “why” left to answer. “Dean,” he said, “thank you for sharing this, but I have to ask you: Why is it important that your children have choices?” And my true “why” emerged like a miracle; it just flew out of my mouth. I said, “Because I want to be in control.” Before that moment, I’d never thought or talked about want- ing to be in control. And I’d never felt that surge of passion run through me to my core. I realized at that very moment what my whole life was about. I finally realized why I wanted to go
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