memo
Trust the universe, trust God
Strength comes from within
meditation
#draft
Very interesting morning today. Almost divinely memorable. This is one of the instances of a black swan where the unexpected happens. Going to the airport is second nature since I’ve done the New York to Newark route. Find the train, hop on the LIRR, and check in. However, today coming from Long Island City, the entire entrances were super confusing and missed the connecting E Metro line. Not only that, I had not set up Uber yet, nor any of the travel apps on my work phone, causing mental chaos and unexpected Uber request.
Turns out, the Uber ride took a twist for the miraculous. Had an incredible conversation with the driver, a Haitian immigrant. Somehow the conversation got to his life, a sacrifice, an opportunity, and ultimately his faith in God. His story was interesting, starting off with dreams of being a doctor, but ultimately derailed when he was 18 and got his girlfriend (now wife) pregnant.
You were counted how difficult life was making money, working at Popeyes to support his child and later getting his wife to the US. Through sheer persistence, belief in the divine, he worked his way up to send his baby girl to college where she’s 19 aspiring to becoming a nurse. She also has a real estate agent and is flipping homes to make additional cash flow.
His biggest advice to me was that sexual sin is the greatest to avoid. He paid the price early in his adolescence, but somehow what seemed like an end of a career and life-changing decision blossomed into a beautiful opportunity that led him to the United States, family, his wife. Such a beautiful immigrant story that reminded me of my own parents in the struggles and sacrifices that go between generations. It gave me perspective and saw through him as a father and his advice to me in finding a partner where finding the right life partner is not only essential, but as he put it, heaven-mandated.
His advice to his daughter was to find a stable income source and gain stability. For her, this was nursing and the real estate business and side hustle. This way, she had optionality and much more leverage in being selective with collective with potential male partners. He recounted that guys usually try to impress the girl but ultimately after spending an evening, they move on to the next. Women are the same way. And that in order for you to weather the storm to find the right haven, having runway gives you leverage and more optionality to choose the right person.
His ultimate belief in the negative spirit, health, the devil in temptations all around echoed as I saw this firsthand when I was at the Fred Again concert and the energy drain this sexual desire can cause in men. That spirit, as he put it, manifests everywhere and causes chaos, derailing even the most hearty and well-rehearsed of plans.
Eisenhower once said, “Plans are useless, but plans are everything.” Meaning that even the best plans fail, and that only through action and execution are objectives realized. That’s the same with dreams and any ambition, where action— even in the face of uncertainty—creates momentum and ultimately gets you closer. Right action comes from the right mindset and focusing on the right values.
It’s funny how life throws you into situations, serendipity in the magic of randomness. But it’s ultimately on the frontier where your values and beliefs are tested that you grow the most. To my friend Brian, in the spirit of serendipity.
More immediate for me, points of friction have been deciding whether I need to spend money for more time with people on ski team, how I allocate my new salary, and also getting TSA pre-checked.