In about one month, I will be 32 years old. 2016 was good to me and I had a ball. 2017 was a year that I broke myself apart and put myself back together. You see at the end of 2016 I started working on creating my clothing line. When I graduated last year, I decided to take a year off from college and build up my company which Is koolforlife.com. My goal toward the end of 2016 was to bring out my clothing line and continue building my brand. My goal has been since the inception of Koolforlife was created was to bring people together through love, spirit and unity. I created Koolforlife Inc with all my spirit, in hopes that it would connect me with beautiful souls from all over the world. Thus far that's what I have done. I have wrote blogs that have inspired people. I have pushed people to step outside of their comfort zone and work toward being their best self. I created a platform where, regardless of your ethnicity or nationality, you could find a place to meet through unconditional love and work together to make this world better place. I have had the pleasure of meeting people that have assisted me on my journey and shared their experience on my blog site to help me change this world for the better. I have had days where I felt like maybe I wasn't doing the right thing with my life. Then I check my email and somebody writes me that got inspired and found hope in a time they really needed it. I don't know if they knew it but their writing me gave me confirmation that I was on the right path. 

So let's get back to me breaking myself apart and putting myself together. Let's say about 6 months ago I met this guy named Kendal Ficklin. He is the creator of the company, Grindation. The goal for Grindation, in my opinion, was to bring great minds together of all ages and help us use Grindation as a platform for us to grow as individuals, and for us to have access to people and resources that can help us grow our business. Being apart of this group has forced me to really look at my life on all levels. This means I had to look at my health and how I was taking care of my body. I had to look at my business model and make some major adjustments in my strategy and my organization around my business. The last thing was I had to realize that I would never get my business to where I wanted it to be if my personal life wasn't in order. Grindation is teaching me that it's not OK for me to be great in only some areas of my life. The goal is for me to be well rounded and great at all aspects of my life. Grindation reminds me of being apart of a basketball team. We have a coach, who finds a way to bring out our greatness and make us work together at the same time. I consider Kendall my life coach and I have become a better person since we have met. I have a better understanding of what I need to do to be great. I have a better appreciation of respecting the process of working toward my goals and bringing my dreams to life. There are a lot of great people that apart of Grindation and we all push each other to bring out the best in one another. 

As I grow as a person and a CEO, I'm learning that success is only created when you are willing to put the work in. That means that you might not reach your mark on your first try. But don't let they stop you. Success is for the strong at heart and all those that know that they can do anything they put their mind too, as long as they believe so. I would focus so much on the big picture of where I wanted to be, that I almost stopped appreciating the moment. You see no matter how successful we get in life it will always be a bunch of moments that at the end of your life you can put together in a portrait that that sums up your accomplishments that you have had in your life. When you Iook back on your life, will you see a bunch of missed opportunities? Were you were too caught up in your thoughts, and you let life pass you by? Or will you look back on life and see a person that was fearless and enjoyed every moment that life gave them? Will you look back on your life and have regrets, or will you be able to say you lived life to the fullest? 

As for me, just a boy from Brooklyn, who is using this opportunity to live out my dreams. I have been through a lot in my life and I know how it feels the have a beautiful day and I know how it feels to have a bad day. 

Yet, experience has taught me that there are no good or bad days. We have been taught to perceive life like if everything goes our way, we had a good day. If we wake up and things don't go our way, then we label the day as a bad day. But suppose everyday was always perceived as a lesson or a blessing. So if you woke up and things didn't go your way, then that day should be perceived as a lesson. If you wake up and everything goes your way and you say to yourself that you’re having a great day, then label that as a blessing. I mean if you wake up, then you are blessed and if you wake up, you have an opportunity to start over. I never thought that I could say this but I have died a few times in my lifetime and I have came back to life. I am not the same person I was last year and I'm definitely not the person I was 20 years ago. I have grown and I have worked toward becoming my best self. Every year I have grown and I have added to myself. The universe has been good to me since I arrived on this planet. I have a long way to go before I become my best self but I am proud of the man I have become. Living out my dreams is going exactly as planned, every day is adventure and every day I get closer to bringing all my dreams to life. I look at life like this, I learned how swim when I was about 12. Living life and succeeding is like jumping into an ocean without a bottom. Now just because you know how to swim doesn't mean you will make it to the other side of the ocean where your dreams and desires lies. You see this ocean is filled with sharks and all types of traps to stop you from getting to the other side.

Imagine before jumping in this ocean you hear stories of how millions of people died trying to get to other side. Imagine before you get into the water your family shows you movies of people trying to get to other side of the ocean and died trying. You see sometimes you might be the only person that believes in your dream and that's OK. As long as you believe in yourself, you can achieve. I feel like I have to jump in the ocean. I know how to swim and my creator gave me all the tools needed to survive on this planet, all you need to do is believe in your spirit. You see no matter what's in front of me I'm going to bring my dreams to life. So as I approach my 32nd birthday I think to myself that I could be sleep and not connected to my spirit. I could not have the dreams and aspirations of changing this world for the better. I could be like everybody else and comfortable with the state of this world. So being that I'm awoke and I know that I was sent to this planet to make it better forever will I be grateful and thankful for all that I have and all that I am. You see the Universe, Spirit, and my Creator walks with me and guides me. I know this world is crazy but it's also beautiful and divine. Sometimes we just have to be reminded of our greatness, so that's what I will do. I am thankful that I made it through another year. I am grateful  and I am open to step outside of my comfort zone and evolve as a person. I will make this world better and I will accomplish all of the goals I create for myself. I feel that this world lacks leadership and people that can bring billions of people together through unconditional love. So I will work toward being that leader. I mean my ancestors died and gave their lives so that I could exist. So it's only right I do the same.