What are your why's? · The AI Advantage

What are your why's?

Hey everyone, I hope you all learned something impactful and actionable over the past 3 days. I tuned into day one live, but am having to catchup on YouTube for the remainder.

I was curious, what is your why? I'd like to tell you a few of mine, and a little about my story I guess. Maybe it gets a little personal, you be the judge - but I think being vulnerable can lead to breakthroughs.

When I was 11 years old, first year of secondary school (high school for my friends across the pond), my parents divorced. My dad was the breadwinner, while my mum did work, my dad was the real family earner.

After their divorce, my dad would remarry after a few years, but my mum never did.

To this day (they divorced in 03, 22 years ago), my mum still struggles financially because of the divorce. Her finances were a mess, which was okay to some degree when she was married, because my dad took care of everything, but with him gone and 3 hungry lads to feed, my mum struggled. A lot. The cliche of 'pick food or heating, but you can't have both' was a reality in my household. We couldn't even afford toilet paper sometimes.

She's a teaching assistant, and works 12 hours a day, way above and beyond (especially for the remuneration) what is required - she works more than the teachers she assisting.

So that's my mums story.

My dad, he grew up in the harsh Belfast 60's. Well, he recently retired after 50 years of beings a tradesman. He was 'forced' into early retirement this year due to a double hernia operation, and decided his final year of work post-surgery wouldn't be worth risking further injury.

He and his wife decided they would sell everything (they never owned a house, they lived in affordable housing), his work tools, the van, the car, and all of their possessions, to live out their retirement in Italy, in the small village his wife was born in.

Life happened, and without going into details, Italy didn't work out. He made the tough decision to move back to England - no home, no car, no work van, and no tools to return to.

He's currently homeless, and that breaks my heart. He has some friends that are allowing him and his wife to temporarily stay with them, and he's rotating a few friends.

My old man never missed a day of work in his life, and here he is approaching 70, without a damn penny to show for it, nor a roof over his head he can call his own. Honestly, just writing this is taking an emotional toll on me.

With the money he made from selling essentially his entire life, he was able to buy back the same car he sold (at a ridiculous mark-up), some cheap work tools, and a van. He's got some work lined up already, but he should be on a beach in Italy soaking up the sun and enjoying his hard-earned retirement. Instead, he's getting ready to tie up his boots again and go back to work.

My parents are very different people. But they both have grit, and have endured their share of life's cruelties.

I'm a parent myself now, married with 2 incredible kids.

I need them to know:

No matter how tough life is, no matter where you start from; you can make something of yourself
I never want them to experience what I did as a child, and what my parents did

I live and breathe for my family.

These are my why's:

I want to retire my dad, properly
I want to pay off my mums debts, and then retire her
I want my kids to be proud of who I became, and a role model they want to become themselves
I want to retire my wife
I want to feel worthy
I want to be happy, and
I want to spend more time with God, and learning about his Kingdom to come

I hope I can connect with people here, hear your stories, and help support one another to become free in this life. I'll be purchasing the bootcamp once I finish off day 3 (I've got about 2 hours left).

Looking forward to seeing you all there.

God bless.

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