Starting Point

Every journey starts at the same place: the starting point. When we look forward from where we are, we always feel like we are at the starting point. But once we actually move forward, its hard to determine exactly where we started. Such is the case for me today as I prepare to give a workshop on ‘Practical Persuasion’ to a large audience in Venice, FL.

I look at the URL for this page and see my name… talk about awkward! When I was a kid, the internet was effectively owned by America Online (AOL). Now that I ‘own’ a few pieces of worldwide web property (www.AndrewBustamante.org, www.MeNowMovement.com), I look back and wonder how I got here. Was my starting point that first time I popped a complimentary AOL CD in my dad’s bulky IBM PC?

Perhaps my starting point was during some painful military exercise, when I was cold and alone on a mountain in Colorado. Or during a covert operation with CIA, trying to evade surveillance while maintaining a low profile in a country I didn’t belong. Wherever my starting point was, I can’t see it now as I look back. Maybe where I started isn’t really what matters. Maybe what matters is that I chose to start at all.

Every one of us has the choice to move forward. We can all go from ‘our name’ to ‘branding our name.’ The starting point is now. It always has been. I have the opportunity to teach others because I started teaching. What will you start today?