As My Dream Failed, I Found Purpose
How failure and loss can give rise to what matters.
What do you do when your dream is dying, but you won’t quit?
What if you go deeper?
It’s 2023, and my company is failing. Revenue is down. Our category is shrinking. We are in serious trouble.
But it’s not financial pain that eats away at me. It’s emotional. It’s spiritual.
This is my life.
I’ve poured myself into this. Together, my partner and I have produced something astounding, something that makes people go “Holy shit. I can’t believe this exists!” It has been my gift to the world, a muse for creators, and balm for the hurt. And now it’s slipping away.
At night, I am tormented, fixated on finding a solution. I cannot sleep. My mind races and spins, searching and searching for an answer. It finds nothing.
The day comes. I must invent something, something to make meaningful success possible again. I’m in my garage, on my knees, head on the floor.
In the face of all that’s failing, what can I do?
What can I do that will matter?
COVID has happened. The world has changed. People are more isolated than ever… and yet somehow also more connected to what’s really important. Some of the curtain has been drawn. We’ve become more aware that how we’ve been living isn't serving us.
What will I be proud of when I die?
I put myself on my deathbed. My life is over. What matters now?
I look back at what I’ve done. Who have I been? How have I been? How have I been with the people in my life? And who have I been for the world? Did I live some version of the biggest life I could imagine? Or did I settle?
My results don’t seem to matter much now. Very soon they will be dust. Who I have been for people and the world, for myself, that’s what matters now.
If I stayed safe, if I settled, I will regret that tremendously. What a great waste. I’ll never get that chance again. No one will. No one but me had that chance, and I didn’t take it. So very sad!
If, however, I choose to grab the torch and make a charge…
I will die happy. I’ll die fulfilled. At 50 years old, I begin.
What can I do with the time I have left? What can I do with my chance?
One thing is clear:
If we, as humanity, do not find a way to come together, once and for all,
and create the world we all really want, a world we all love,
we will have wasted the opportunity we have been given,
and quite possibly, squandered our chance to continue existing at all.
Pissed away. Wasted. Destroyed.
Life for us all is at stake.
I must give myself to this. I must find a way to make it happen. The longing I’ve had my whole life, the longing I’ve seen in all people, the longing for a humanity that honors the life we have been given… I can contribute to that. I can help fulfill that. I can help all of us fulfill this undying longing we all have together.
Life has been calling us all for so long.
Honor the gifts you’ve been given!
Make your life and your world an expression of the miracle you are!
The time has come. Technology has connected us globally as never before. What if we use our technology to come together, once and for all?
Maybe you've felt it too. The sense that this is now possible. That which we have always wanted is calling. Do it! You can now do it!
It may be hard to hear this. Human life is awfully messed up right now. We seem as incapable of coming together as we’ve always been. We are insane.
There is much strife in the world. We are killing ourselves in so many ways. Destroying much of what’s good for us. We are so far from an honoring, united force for the glory of all.
Do not be deceived! You do not know what is possible. None of us do. None of us even knows what this all is!
Somehow, miraculously, we have the opportunity to choose what our lives are about.
This opportunity is not available to all of us. Many are struggling just to survive. This is the brutal impact of humanity’s worst and most acute failures. Approximately 9% of people are living in extreme poverty. Another 2% are at war. Another 3% are severely ill. And about 8.5% are simply too old or too young. That’s over 2 billion people who cannot choose what their lives are about.
Nonetheless,
The game is not over.
It’s up to us.
If you’re reading this, you can contribute.
You have a real chance.
The opportunity to cause humanity’s triumph is calling you. It has called me. It won’t let me go. I must do all I can now for what I see is possible. Anything less would be crushing.
This did not save my company. Alas, the company failed. And many, many friends and all those who bet on me lost their investments. This is a real failure.
If you are one of those who supported me and DR HOPS, thank you for everything you contributed. It was you and your support that brought me to the floor of my garage again and again, looking for ways to make good on the possibility you saw in me and in the business. I am here because of you.
If you are just joining me now, welcome. This is the beginning of an epic journey. UMA is an endeavor to make us all proud of what we have done with our lives when we die.
If you long for an honoring purpose, for something to feed you, for an opportunity to contribute the best of who you are in life ... UMA is for you.
This is just the beginning.
Thank you for being here.
Help us grow.
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Together, we create it all from right here. It starts with a conversation. UMA is the conversation for the world we all really want.
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