Photo by shes_jack

I was broken:

Ring…. Ring…. Ring….

Me: Stephen! How you doing?
Stephen: Doing great Jun…
Me: Did you get my email? I had an amazing time interviewing with Damon and Jim yesterday. Feeling real good about it.

Stephen: I’m glad to hear it… here’s the thing. Don’t got the best news for you. After a real tough decision, we decided to give the offer to someone else. You were good, but the other person had previous experience at Universal and has been in the industry for 6 years now. I’d love to stay in touch though…

I felt lost, depressed, but most of all, I felt like a failure. It was as if a ton of brick had come down on me and squashed my heart into a pulp. During dinner, my Mom asked me if I had heard back from Walt Disney Records yet. It was salt on an open wound; I couldn’t bare to look in her eyes and tell her that I had failed to get the job.

Back to the corporate world? You betray the startup life!

I interviewed for this position for the past two months. It was a New Media Manager position at Walt Disney Records where I would build celebrity brands using social media. It would have been so much fun! If I had taken this position, would I have been in essence turning my back on every aspiring entrepreneur out there?

I want you guys to understand my thinking and mentality. I had it in my head that I would use the money from this position ($75K a year to be exact) and invest it into Future Delivery. I would invest $1,500 per month into marketing for Future Delivery and hopefully position the launch of Viralogy.com to be a huge success.

I was stoked, excited, and mentality prepared to work 55 hours per week at Disney Records, work 60 hours a week for Future Delivery, devote 18 hours a week to my girlfriend, and sleep 35 hours a week. Yes, I was a little insane, but oh was I ready for it!

I was ready to show each and every one of you that you can do a full-time corporate job, do a startup full-time, and satisfy your girlfriend all at the same time!

That phone call of rejection really hit me hard today - I felt broken. But coincidentally, Ramit and Tim were online tonight to help me see the light…

Ramit Sethi and Tim Ferriss gave me a paradigm shift

Ramit and Tim did a live uStream tonight that I watched from start to finish. I’ve read both of their books, follow their blogs religiously, but actually seeing them talk live was more impactful than anything else. My paradigm shift was this:

I am not in a foot race against the Tims and the Ramits.

That was it. That simple shift in mentality instantly soothed my stress away and allowed me to relax and reevaluate my life. Before 8pm tonight, I was constantly comparing myself to everyone around me. Before tonight, I felt I needed to publish a book by 25 and get my girlfriend a Black American Express by 30. But now I know that I’m not in a foot race against anyone. This is my life, and I need to take my time and enjoy it.

The 3 month goal

I now have a new 3-month goal that I will work hard to achieve:

• Move into an apartment in Manhattan Beach or Hermosa Beach with my girlfriend
• Surf 4 mornings out of the week
• Take a kickboxing class
• Continue to do Awesome Blogger episodes
• Create video tutorials that teach bloggers how to customize their wordpress theme
• Fully commit to making Sunday a family day
• Get a netflix account and watch a movie with Kim 3 evenings out of the week

If I am able to accomplish this within the next 3 months, I will be absolutely happy with where I am in life.

A Promise

I promise you that I will be a prime example of what the startup life is all about. I promise you that I will fail, but keep my held up high because my will and determination will never be broken. I promise you that I will work hard, but never again neglect my friends and family. But most of all, I promise to continuously give back to each and every one of you for being a part of my community.

When I do make it big (monetary wise), I will create a scholarship fund (similar to what Ramit has done) that will fund my readers that are ambitious young entrepreneurs.

Love from the Twitter and Facebook Sphere

I want to take the time to personally thank Natasha, Matt, June, Jamie, Joseph, Robert, Janet, Uyen, Josh, Kenny, and Sukhie for caring enough to reach out to me when they saw that I was down. I truly appreciate it guys.

Discussion: How many times have you failed and what motivates you to keep going?