From airports to airports and meetings to meetings. Coffees and lunches and sometimes even dinner, I often find myself asking in my own head like an out of body experience, “how did I get here” and “what am I doing here”? Yes, I am sure I am not the only one who has often out kicked the coverage a number of times but this is something I regularly do.  

Man crush:

A few years back in a different life, I attended one of those fancy galas where people get all black tie’d, in Minneapolis, MN. You know, the “red carpet” type gala that would bring in some of the world’s most important and relevant voices and other really famous speakers. I found myself there in my three piece tuxedo with my date doing the red carpet thing. Once we take our seats, I start looking around and realize that yes, celebrities are out tonight. Miley Cyrus is in the house, Meatloaf is doing his thing, and the obvious athletes are surrounding us. We sit, and a group of overly caffeinated secret service men walk no other than President Bill Clinton in to sit at the table next to mine. This was very well organized. He walked in when everyone was already seated so nobody would speak with him. The perfectly orchestrated ceremony is going off without a flaw, then President Bill Clinton gets up and walks into the back (green room I am sure) to prepare for his keynote. Well done. I somehow get caught the middle of the secret service as they are escorting him from the stage to the side door. He looks at me and I extend my hand out to shake his. It was at that very moment that I understood what everyone always said about him, how dynamic he is, how charismatic he is, and I realized how much of a man crush I would have on him after that. That dude puts you in a trance in no time.

Fast forward eight or nine seconds and Bill says, “Where are you from?” (typical question from just about anyone), but I bypass it and quickly say, “This is our second time meeting. The first time was with JPHRO when we were working in Haiti after the earthquake.” He digs into his back memory and I am saying to myself, “No way he remembers” and just before I could finish my negative inner thought, Bill says, “Yes, with Sean Penn and my Dominican right hand man” and I say, “Yes, good memory.” We then take a picture. What and how did I get here runs through my head.

Private Marzan:

You may have read about a life changing voyage I went on once with my uncle and aunt. If not or you were lazy and didn’t read that far back, here you go (click here). It would be wise to read that one first before reading this post. Continue… well, I had to make a very strategic decision on that trip. I needed to go back to school in San Diego, which meant that I needed to cut my voyage short (and I didn’t even get to La Paz). Two weeks was all we got as a Christmas break in college and I was already three days late going back due to me sailing down the Baja California coast, taking advantage of all the life lessons that I was being presented with. We pulled into a port close to La Paz where I just remember seeing the largest boat I have ever seen (superyacht status). You could see the crew preparing the boat for the owner, whoever he was, to land on his plane and get ushered onto his superyacht. Well, while they were busy doing their pre-work, my aunt and I and the kids were going to go drop off some mail to send back to our loved ones. We took the dinghy to the dock, climbed on, and walked to the post office first. We dropped off our mail and the guy at the counter was shocked that black people were speaking Spanish so he obviously started asking questions. Blah, blah, yes San Diego I said, and I need to find a way to get there from here. I asked him about the bus line terminal and what other options I had because I needed to head back to school. He then said, “The Ambassador to Australia is landing here in his plane from Tijuana. Maybe you can talk to the pilots to take you back with them”. Of course I could, I thought. So I waited until the plane landed and the Ambassador walked out with his family close and got taken away to board the boat. The two pilots came out and I approached one of them. 30 minutes later I am flying out on the Ambassador’s plane back to Tijuana. A ride that would have taken well over a day was cut down to a two hour flight. There I sat eating the Ambassador’s pretzels on my way back to school. Again, how did I get here?

November 2013:

On the ride to Washington County, I laid my head on the seat headrest and closed my eyes to act like this ride to jail was not bothering me when it was actually killing me inside. The girlfriend that I was so excited for at the time was probably driving herself crazy and in circles around the airport when I did not come out or answer my phone. Her parents would be wondering what happened to me when I didn’t show up for Thanksgiving dinner the next day. Then I thought that when the media found out they were going to have a field day (which they did). But the worst part was thinking about what my family would say. Ouch. If you didn’t read that one either, I highly recommended it (here). Once again, the thought came to mind, “how did you get here?”

Right where I need to be:

In every facet of my current life, from Miami to Santa Monica to Germany, one point keeps showing up. The universe keeps telling me that I am perfectly at the place where I should be. Years ago, I would try to bulldoze over the universe’s revelations for me, but I don’t let myself do that anymore (I guess you can say that I am learning to listen to the vibes more clearly). The more I think about it, I realize things are exactly the way they should be. I needed to take this challenging startup road, with a very hard company to stand up, knowing the impact it will have will be globally game-changing. I am where I am supposed to be with the people in my life who love me and want nothing more but to see me win. I am exactly where I should be and it feels like all the hustling is working. Thank you for continuing to align things and for giving me the ability to drive and never take no as an answer. Oh, and for making sure I knew that these people are the ones who really matter.