I was going to write a book (about myself) called Turning It Around. I decided that total sales might be < 10 units, so I decided to post it all here instead. This is the introduction.
Hi. How are you? Good, I hope. Since I’m going to be talking from here on out, I thought it might be polite to ask you how you’re feeling.
This is not a book of advice or recommendations. It’s a not a prescription for improvement or a self-help book on how to turn things around. It’s just a short tale about how incredibly backwards and out of place my life had become and the short, fun journey I took to turn it around.
Who knows what tomorrow holds? I don’t. I felt compelled to tell my story because I know there are so many fellow beings out there who have met with defeat, failure, and negative bank balances. Isn’t it an awful feeling to see a letter in the mail from your bank – knowing that it’s an overdraft notice? How wretched! The mental balance sheet failed again.
On September 1st of 2008, I found myself standing on the New Jersey Transit platform waiting for a train to Manhattan. I had just arrived from London to the meanest, most unforgiving city in America. I had no job, no apartment, and a mountain of credit card debt. To top it all off, I was on the down side of my first (and my last) experience with ecstasy. These would be all the ingredients necessary for a perfect emotional storm. I sat there next to my suitcase, wondering why I was about to try New York City for the third time – starting from my worst position yet. At least in 2006 I came armed with a few thousand dollars and an insane amount of green, naive ambition. This time I would truly be starting from scratch.
Today, things are better than ever. In the last 18 months, I’ve paid off my debt, invested money in the stock market, rented a ski house for the season, traveled to Paris, Austin, L.A., the Hamptons, Houston, Nicaragua, Florida, and Kentucky, worked for New York City, started two businesses, loved more than ever before, and discovered a new sense of self worth. I’ve read more books and written more in the last year and a half than I have in my entire life. Things can change quickly if you have a burning desire and a willingness to learn.
Don’t give up on anything!
Byron Sorrells
Friday, May 15, 2010
