It was early 2013. I was reading financial news articles on my iPhone 3GS in the little room these family owned shops have for customers when in walked Corey Rose. He was casually dressed with a nice beige jacket partly covering a polo shirt. He wore slacks and comfortable looking walking shoes. Corey didn't look like a customer. His face gave the look of a man on a mission. He asked a mechanic if the owner was around. The guy yelled, "Bruce!" Out from behind the counter, where his office is located, walked out a burly man. I couldn't help but listen to their conversation. What a confident young man, I thought, listening to Corey's pitch. Bruce looked intrigued. Business cards were exchanged and Corey thanked Bruce for his time. But I wasn't just going to let a star in the making leave without me getting a better grasp of his business. I wanted to know what he was all about. Why he was pounding the pavement, for example. Almost two years later, Corey is here on CCM blog to tell you his interesting story of entrepreneurship. Enjoy!
“If you don’t design your own life plan, chances are you’ll
fall into someone else’s plan. And guess
what they have planned for you? Not much.” – Jim Rohn
Going “out on your own” sounds like a scary prospect. With two young children and one on the way, some
people called me crazy. Others assured
me I had made the greatest decision of my life. What voice was I going to listen to? How would I know I would be successful? What if I lose everything? What if I achieve everything that’s in my
heart to achieve? These are some of the
questions that every “crazy” person is faced with when taking the path of an
entrepreneur; when there’s both potential for great loss and great gain.
To me, working a job offered great security with good salary and benefits. It also gave my wife peace of mind (super
important if you’re married). And it was
the life I once dreamed of having while in college. As I settled into the comfortable living that
Southern California is so famous for offering, I felt another part of me grow
discontented and disoriented. Living in
the “land of opportunity” and seeing it all around me, I felt the familiar and
unquenchable passion that had always been within me to create something. Not to
make a name for myself, but to prove to myself first, then to my children, that
it’s ok not to settle for “normal.” I found
inspiration when I read great leaders and thinkers like, Steve Jobs, Bob
Proctor, and Jack Canfield.
I believe that when you take a leap of faith, then the right
people and opportunities will chase you down.
Since starting my marketing consulting business, Local Fame Media.com, I have met inventors, business owners, authors, and other
entrepreneurial go-getters. I have been
given percentages of companies and learned a ton. However, I’ve also liquidated savings
accounts, borrowed money, and had many sleepless nights. It is exciting, scary, fun, relaxing, and
stressful at times. It’s also what I plan
on doing all of my life.
The American Dream over promises and under delivers. How? By
making us believe that if we do everything the “right way,” (the way my
grandparents successfully did it) working the same job our entire lives, staying
in the same career, owning a home, raising large families, and taking great vacations,
then retiring with many years of “the good life” will be doable because of a
pension. This is a model that is dead! But it is still the mold students are pressed
into at high schools and universities. 60%
of college graduates who follow this plan today work for under $45,000 per
year. The number of college graduates
working minimum wage jobs is 71% higher than it was just ten years ago. Compound that with an average of $30,000 in student
loan debt and you have a broken system. Numbers
like that can make one even more afraid to “go out on your own,” OR it can
stir-up the sleeping imagination that we ALL have to make something happen!
Having been tried by fire and gone through the victories and
defeats of being an entrepreneur, I am now in a position with my company to
pick and choose. I have opportunities
that I never would have had if I had stayed in my comfort zone. Taking a leap of faith is the hardest thing to
do. You may land in quicksand. You may land on a bunch of tacks. You may land on a pile of soft feathers. None of these will kill you. From quicksand, tacks, AND feathers you can
make a mountain of money!
Corey Rose
760-515-9885
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