The Investment I made For Myself...

"Your time is limited, so don't waste it living someone else's life.

Don't be trapped by dogma - which is living with the results of other people's thinking. Don't let the noise of other's opinions drown out your own inner voice.

And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition.

They somehow already know what you truly want to become.

Everything else is secondary."

- Steve Jobs

I'm not here because I'm the smartest of them all… On the contrary, I am lucky enough to be surrounded by wonderful, intelligent people, who teach me something every single day... They teach me (either purposefully or unbeknownst to them) things I didn't know but needed to know...

Case and point - In any environment, you will encounter those who feel that the very fact you are in the position you're in, is an insult to them, because of the road it took for you to get there. And then you will also encounter those who take time to see the good you bring. Those people will usually offer you the support and appreciation you sometimes need to feed of off, to keep you motivated and going for more and better.

It’s amazing, the expectations we impose on people but mainly that we impose on our children…

I was a very carefree young girl and all I really cared about was dancing and hanging out with my friends. So far from the ideology my parents had for me. Among 11 brothers and sisters, only my brother DD (J) and I stood out as the "odd ones," as school was never a priority of ours and our friends were not all to the approval of my parents. Recently, my mom was here and we had a good laugh - reminiscing of the past and how I used to have her so stressed out. The one story that always comes to my mind (with still a genuine level of amazement) is when at the age of 16, I got my first and ONLY beat down in my life, period! But the more important fact was, that 1st experience was given to me by one of my parents; my mother.

She had received a call from someone who was looking for me because I was late to the set of a music video I was cast in. That day, as soon as I stepped through the doors of our home, it felt like I entered the 4th dimension. As soon as she uttered the words, "Where are you coming from," I knew the tone of her voice was just different… That’s the only thing I think I had time to analyze (the tone of her voice) before begging for help from my brothers, sisters and even Jesus (while I had become a living punching bag)...

To this day, although I was well bruised afterwards, the pain is not what I remember…

I just remembered thinking, “Wow… My mom beat me… naaaaahhhh, it can’t be!” But the look my brothers and sisters gave me confirmed it…Yes, she actually did beat me…

And ‘till this day, even though I know her rationale, I still don’t understand it. Her perception of who I was and what I did, was so different from who I actually was, that I couldn’t, and even now can’t understand… But I get it…

The investment I made for myself is to create this fundamental principle I decided to obey from that point forward - “Know that not everybody will understand your choices or your needs, not everybody will recognize or appreciate your worth and ideals, and not everyone will welcome your opinion or input, BUT just as long every step you take is made for the betterment of yourself and this by standing by your choices, be unwavering when it comes to your standards. And by understanding others' right to disagree with you, you will amount to something!”

While I was considered a “rebel” among my book-worm siblings and by my parents, I made sure I invested in myself. I placed a bet on the only thing I could control, and that is me… I trusted that I would know best for myself and would make decisions that would directly benefit me...

At the end, it is the person you will build yourself to be that will demonstrate the true success of who you are. It is the bits and pieces you will keep as references; it is what you will hold on to along the way that will show the true investment you made for yourself. Whether you abide by your own creed and follow through is up to you to decide. You can't live by someone else's philosophy, and then live in regret when what works for them doesn't yield the same results to you!

On my way to the airport for another business trip, I got to talking with a family friend. He said, “Rose, you need to make sure you remind the kids everyday why you do the things you do… Why you sacrifice the time you could have with them by being away from them. Remind them to work hard every single day because they should strive to be their own boss one day and along that way, they should be able to provide for themselves… Tell them, Rose, the reason you are doing all you do is to provide for them the right opportunities. Keep telling them how important school is and how college should be their number one priority…” So funny… Those were the same words my parents use to say when trying to make us understand the decisions they made or were making. Funny, because back then I used to think, “Whatever, it’s all a bunch of blah blah blahs…”

But now I get it… So I said to him, “You are so right not everyone will be as lucky as me!”

“No Rose” he said, “It’s not luck, you worked hard to be where you are, you may not have taken the easiest way but you took the way that felt comfortable for you and you learned. You applied and learned some more”…

I was on the plane thinking of this conversation and I realized for a quick minute, I forgot about my principle. And I realized how when you become a parent yourself, your frame of mind takes a slight left from what you had been marching to for years. True enough, nothing is ever just “luck,” especially when success is involved.

Don’t lessen what you’ve accomplished because of the unconventional way you went about it. It actually takes discipline. The "rite of passage" for a parent is to be able to say I’ve been there, I’ve done that and I want to save you from the unnecessary trials and errors and show you the quickest safest way to a successful life… I truly get it now…

RosieSandz