The story of Gregg.

It's weird how we meet people.  But, what's more than meeting them is the story he or she tells or the lessons he or she teaches.

This is the story of Gregg; how we met and what he taught me.  

I have a MacBook pro but the CD drive and the SD reader haven’t been working.  I’ve put off for a few months now taking it to get checked, and if I’m being honest it was because I wanted to believe nothing was actually wrong, but I put off getting it fixed until today.  I finally made an appointment at the apple store and showed up at 2:45.  Much to my disappointment my fears were proven true when he said it would cost $200.00 to send off and be fixed, but he also gave me a cheaper option of buying external drivers for each running about $30.00.  Well, you can understand I was a bit upset.  Now, here is where Gregg fits in.  As I am complaining to the Apple guy this guy, Gregg, sits down beside me at the genius bar and listens to what is going on (he’s holding a huge desktop) and he says, “It must be bad news.”  After explaining my dilemma he offers his own opinions about the situation.  The apple guy at this point decides he’s finished and walks about which leaves Gregg and me. 

Now, before you get any ideas, Gregg is much older and married so my story is not heading that way. 

I obviously can’t give word-for-word of our exchange but one thing led to another and he ended up telling me about his life story and giving me advice on how to create mine. 

So, I give you the 10 things I learned from Gregg:

1.     I’m too emotional, meaning stop analyzing with my emotions and work on analyzing with my “stone-cold” side. 

2.     Make a plan for my life.  Write it down, because a plan in my head is just a dream.  So, write it down and make a timeline- day, week, month, and year.  Then execute the plan.  Make it happen.

3.     Don’t wait for jobs to come to you.  Use your plan, gain the skills, knowledge, etc., find the job and make it yours. 

4.     Your job should be something you would be willing to do for free.  If you wouldn’t want to do it for free, don’t do it.

5.     Make yourself proud.  Feed your mind with knowledge, books, travel, and people.  Stop worrying about Facebook and twitter.   

6.     Use my skills and hobbies, and incorporate them into my career.  In my case, Gregg suggested using photography to work with psychology.  Find a way to make it work.

7.     There are no excuses for anything.  There are reasons but not excuses.  Stop making excuses for not doing something or doing something.

8.     Write.  Write what you want, feel, believe, think, whatever.  Just write it down and figure out what you want from life. 

9.     Read.  Don’t read fiction or love stories, stick to non-fiction.  Make yourself smart and useful.

10.  Last, use your parents, friends, or family to help you get started.  Plans take money.  Use them to get you started and pay them back. 

It was weird at first.  I wasn’t sure how my conversation with Gregg was going to go but he had an amazing story and he gave me valuable advice. 

I had lost my motivation to learn, to experience.  Freshman year I was ready to go, I was determined to go to grad school after I graduated, I was ready to travel and see the world.  But, halfway through my college career I became lazy.  I made up excuses why I couldn’t go to grad school after graduation and why travelling was out of the question. I lost my motivation to live life to the fullest.  Gregg put it back in perspective. 

Our talk ended with him giving me his phone number and telling me he had worked as a mentor and he thought I needed one, to call him whenever I had a question or need anything.  Chances are I may never call Gregg.   But, you never know, a couple years ago I would have never sat there and even talked to Gregg much less leave with his phone number. Maybe I’ll call, maybe I won’t.