Money doesn’t change you...it exposes you.

My pursuit of happiness has been such a long journey, that I do not think I have ever had the time to figure myself out.

Until now.

The need for higher education was something I felt I had to do. It would make my parents proud and at seventeen years old I saw no other path outside than college.

Obviously, I needed a well paying job after school. So the goal of making money and happiness will follow eventually inevitable. Right?

Now, I have seen some success in life, but what have I been trading for it all this time?

Who Is Justin, Actually?

• I am a proud father. I was a stay-at-home father for 2 years as we navigated COVID-19. My son just turned 3 years old and he's amazing.
• I am a proud husband. I met my wife the first day of college 16 years ago. She has been with me since Day 1.
• I’m an unapologetic, and oftentimes nerdy, gamer. My brother showed me gaming when I was very young due to our 14 year age difference. I still play and will always be a gamer.
• I am a Sommelier. Wine is great. (I am a German Riesling kind of guy)
• I am a Commercial Real Estate Agent. A career that I have been working towards for nearly a decade now
• I am a Real Estate Investor. Trying to change our family’s trajectory through passive income and generational wealth.
• But most importantly, I am an introverted extrovert. Is that even a thing?

Yes, I am an introvert. I feel that so much of my life has been chosen and/or scripted for me that when I am alone, I look for silence and calmness. The concept of being true to yourself never made sense to me because I assumed that in certain spaces, I needed to be a certain person to appease certain people. After-all, that’s what society teaches us, right?

Well, here we are. I have time to breathe and focus on me and my goals and visions for myself.

It’s been hard. Writing this article has been hard. But I realize I have been chasing money for so long that I have finally exposed myself. Money isn't the goal. The lifestyle is what I have been chasing. The freedom to be who I wanted to, around everyone, is what I have been chasing.

Cheers to who you ACTUALLY are.

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