The Great Leap
Tags: career, beginners
Published: 2020-10-11 19:11:52

One word can change everything. For me, one word changed the trajectory of my life. It nudged me into a world of unknown and excitement. This one word is perspective. 

Let me regress a little and let you know a little about me. My name is Tripp and I am from rural Arkansas. I’ve been a hard worker my entire life. When I was in sports, I was always the guy who showed up early and was the last to leave. During my college education at Arkansas Tech, I was the same way when it came to my studies. In any extra circular activities the same exact things. I always wanted to be the best I could be. So, naturally after my schooling the next milestone was the American dream. Get a career, married, new home, new vehicle, and a family. Well I did all that. I did it in record time. I was a successful Financial Advisor with Edward Jones. My Wife was a nurse in the NICU department. We had the income needed to support the American dream and also a very fun lifestyle. But something still wasn’t right.

Being a Financial Advisor I helped a lot of folks from different paths in life. I worked with people who have been very successful business owners and also worked with people who worked entry level positions their entire life. This is were the magical word perspective comes in. I had over 300 families I served. This allowed me to view a lot of different view points on life. I had this client that came in for some help. They had a small amount saved for retirement and was not saving much. This is normally when I step in talk about budgets, savings strategies, etc. but this case was different. I have never seen a couple so happy and stress free about their situation. I went into my advisor role and educated them on their financial position and how changes needed to be made if they wanted to retire. They just smiled and said thats okay we aren’t worried about that. They said to me that they love their life as it is. They enjoy going to work and living life in the now. They enjoyed all 7 days of their week instead of struggling through 5 days at work to just enjoy the 2 days on the weekend like us normal folks. This hit me like a ton of bricks and made me look at things through a new lens. After they left I spent the rest of the day thinking about what they said. My entire life has been built on doing whatever it takes to get in the best position and prepare yourself for the future. Built on struggling today so that you can set yourself up to stop the struggle early and retire. That is the exact opposite of their perspective. 

This then lead me down a path of wanting to know more about my clients view points. Everyone had there own twist of what they believed was right. I never did this. I took how I was raised and how society pushes and ran with it. My perspective on life got flipped on its head. I still wanted to take care of my family and have at great lifestyle but what changed is that I want to enjoy all 7 days of my week. I don’t want to grind through the week and only enjoy my weekends. You should not have to be miserable for 71% of your days (5 out of 7). That math does not workout. This lead me on a search to find out something that I would be engaged and enjoy doing. After multiple personality and career test, countless YouTube videos, and networking it lead me to software development. I have always been fascinated by computers. I am a very analytical guy and want to know how things work. I love to bring ideas to life and make systems better than they were before. 

That takes me to where I am today. I am a member of Flatiron School. I am being pushed to the max in their demanding program, but I am loving every minute of it. I wake up first thing in the morning and am excited to learn and grow. This is something I have never had before. Switching from being a successful Financial Advisor to an unemployed aspiring programmer is a huge leap of faith, but it is paying off! All thanks to a change in perspective. I am enjoy all 7 days of my week now!