Jeremy

Many of you know a little about my past life outside of business, if not I would like to share a bit.  Throughout all of my 20's I worked in Emergency Medical Services or the Fire Service in some fashion.  I started working on an ambulance, and shortly thereafter joined a busy volunteer fire department where I gave almost 10 years of service, and became such good friends with Karl.

That entire period of my life is what I would consider a defining moment.  To this day it still defines a lot of who I am.  Although I don't miss the pay, I do miss the experience of helping people and genuinely making a difference in people's lives.   Throughout these 10 years I did learn a few life lessons that stick with me today:

1. Life Is Short, Live With No Regrets - I saw people depart this world at all ages and stages of life for reasons I still can't figure out.  You never know when your number is going to come up, so live every day to the fullest.  I don't ever want to be on my death bed regretting not taking a chance at something in life.

2. Most People Are Victims Of Their Surroundings - The areas I worked in had million dollar neighborhoods as well as slums.  Some may consider this stereotypical, but from my experience, people live their life up to the level of others they surround themselves with. Therefore, as I always say, surround yourself with successful people.

3. The Best Trust In The World Is Trusting Someone With Your Life - In the fire service we would go into ominous situations quite often.  When firefighters call their bond a brotherhood, it is a real thing.  Each one of us would stay in a burning room and die trying to rescue a fellow firefighter before we would bail out to save ourselves.  The lesson here is that there are different levels of trust in this world, and don't trust just anyone.

4. Family Is The Foundation Of Everything - When all is lost and there seems to be no hope, you should always be able to count on family.  People take this for granted when times are good, or there is nothing catastrophic in their life.  In Fire/EMS you see just how important family is when people are in the midst of experiencing some of the worst moments of their lives.

5. Miracles Can Happen - I know anymore it is frowned upon to mention religion, or anything to do with a higher power of some sort.  But I have seen miracles happen where people have been revived who shouldn't have been, or others who survived incidents that 99.9% shouldn't.  The lesson here is to NEVER give up, and don't be afraid to expect the unexpected.

6. Your Life Is Not That Bad - Too often you hear people complaining about how the economy sucks, bills are tight, their job sucks, etc.  Well, let me tell you, your life is not that bad.  Try seeing a 30 something loved one collapse and having to do CPR on them in front of other family members and children until the paramedics get there.  When you see this first hand.... it puts things into perspective.

7. Your Life Is STILL Not That Bad - So maybe your life really and I mean really sucks; you're filing bankruptcy, you lost your job, and you see no hope for the future.  Try being in a vehicle minding your own business with your wife and kids. Imagine getting slammed into by a drunk driver.  You survive, but get out of the car only to see others in your family have not.  I have seen this.....Your life is not that bad.

Life is all about putting things into perspective and realizing that things could always be much worse than they are now.  One of my favorite sayings is "If this is the worse thing that happens to me today, I am having a pretty good day!"