My first trip to New York City was one week after the attacks of 9/11/01. At the time, I was a truck driver. At that time, I could still see the smoldering buildings near Ground Zero. It was a surreal scene and a very somber tone to the whole city that day.
Here I am, 11 years later, in New York again today. I’ve had apartments and offices here. From my hotel room, I can see the Freedom Tower. It’s 1,776 feet tall, WAY bigger than any other building around it. That’s also the year the America declared its independence. America came back bigger and better after the attacks. So many lives and businesses were lost that day, but now, we’ve built ourselves back up.
I made a decision 11 years ago that I wanted to live in New York. I saw beautiful brownstone apartments I wanted to live in the first time I was there. Fast forward almost exactly six years later to 2007, and I was living there. In 2008 we launched PRO, and in 2010 we had an office for PRO in the city. And I ended up living in one of those brownstone townhouses just two blocks from where I thought about living that day.
Being there again just made me remember how inspiring it was to me. Everyone here is doing something big. If you’ve never been here, put it on your bucket list. You’ll have some kind of wake up call that will trigger a huge event in your future. It’s the greatest city in the world, and it stands for freedom and self expression. It will inspire you.
When you make the decision in your heart that you’re going to do something, you just “know” you’re gonna do it. We’ve all made this happen in at least some small way in our lives. And you have this moment when you realize you didn’t know how powerful you are. If you’ve ever done something that you didn’t think you could, you know this feeling. Just about everybody I know can tell a story like this. Anything is possible in that space when you just know you’ll never quit on your desire to make that special something happen.
Jay Kubassek’s WAKE UP call is every Tuesday at 10:30 am ET. Catch this week’s call here.
Inspiring story Kuba, thanks for sharing. NYC is amazing place, I can just imagine how it feels to live there 🙂
Gerry Lafleur. gerrylafleur.ccpro@gmail.com I never been on a Plane, I never been to Melbourne Beach (Florida). Until, March18/10 That was a Huge Goal to full fill for me.
Kuba,
I quit college to sell vacuum cleaners door-to-door. I figured if I could make all that $ that I didn’t need a college education. Wrong. I DID make good money but then when I desired a change no one would hire me without a college degree. So, eight years later, I return to school full-time while working full-time and completed my degree in business management. One of the “highlights” of personal achievement that came to mind immediately.
Hey Jay,
I have listened to you for a couple of years now but that call on Tuesday really was truly inspiring. It changed me in a way that I have not been changed before. Just wanted to say thanks and wanted to tell you that you are truly a leader in my eyes and I am glad to be a part of the PRO U family!
I used to be recommended this blog by my cousin. I am now not certain whether or not this submit is written by way of him as nobody else recognize such exact about my difficulty. You are amazing! Thanks!