Life! By Design_ 6 Steps to an Extraordinary You - Laura Morton [5]
In a moment of weakness, I decided to call my dad to reach out for help.
By this time, Dad had built his business into a multimillion-dollar empire. He went from selling Earl Nightingale’s The Strangest Secret tapes to creating his own platform, speaking to audiences around the country and selling his own how-to tapes, teaching real estate agents how to list and sell properties. He was traveling six days a week, leaving on Sunday and getting back home on Friday. His week was spent speaking in different cities: Monday in Minneapolis, Tuesday in Tampa, Wednesday in New York, Thursday in Chicago, and Friday in Fresno. He was now married to a woman who helped him build their business from the ground up. I hadn’t realized how successful he had become because we hadn’t spoken for so long.
“Hey, Pops,” I said on the phone.
“I’m not your pop” was his response. “You can call me Dad or Mike.”
So, this is how it was going to be. I told Dad I had left Mom’s house. He was aware I had moved out but didn’t seem all that concerned about where I was living or how I was getting by. I asked if I could come live with him.
“I don’t have any interest in that, Tom, if you’re going to keep living the way you were at your mom’s.”
I tried to convince him that I was ready for a change. I walked down the hallway of my buddy’s house, pulling the long cord behind me so no one would hear as I confessed that I didn’t know what I was doing with my life. I told my father I needed some grounding and wanted to have boundaries. I must have said all of the right things because he agreed to come get me.
Dad pulled up in a brand-new red Mercedes 380 SL. I knew Dad was ambitious, but I had no idea he was making that kind of money. He drove me to his home near the ocean in Newport Beach, California. I was mesmerized by the view from his yard. Later that day, he took me to see his office. That was where I got my first taste of what would eventually become the “family” business.
I was fascinated by the whole setup. My universe opened up to the likes of Zig Ziglar, Brian Tracy, and Earl Nightingale. My father was right up there with these guys, making millions of dollars selling and inspiring others to make more money in their business.
Not long after I moved in with Dad, I was kicked out of high school…again. Since my father had given me fair warning about my behavior, I wasn’t surprised when he immediately told me to get out of his house. I spent the rest of the school year sleeping on the beach or at friends’ houses until I finally moved in with my older brother, Matthew, and his fiancée.
I had been working at a local supermarket bagging groceries, so I was comfortable splitting the rent three ways. I worked the midnight-to-9 a.m. shift forty to fifty hours a week, getting in as many hours as possible because no one else wanted that shift. I also started taking continuing education classes so I could get my high school diploma. I had never made it back into the regular classroom. The general equivalency diploma (GED) program required one hour of my time a week. I had my new girlfriend do most of my homework. All I had to do was show up in class, turn in my homework, and get my next assignment.
I remember having an epiphany one night at work after a conversation with my boss, who was twenty years older than I was, doing the same work, and making about the same amount of money. I remember thinking, Is this going to be me twenty years from now?
I had an awful feeling of discontent when I left work that morning. I wondered if stocking and bagging groceries was all I was destined to do.
Was this as good as my life was going to get?
Would I still be living in the same apartment, struggling to get by, and dealing with my same issues? Even though I lived in the worst part of Costa Mesa, the grocery store where I worked was in a fancy part of Corona del Mar. I was surrounded by success and wealth on a daily