If you landed on this page and you’re cringing, rolling your eyes, and thinking, “Who the heck is this guy? He looks like he’s 15 years old and he built a freaking website to talk about himself? What the heck is his problem?! What useless crap is he selling or trying to promote?”
If I was you, this would be my natural response if I stumbled across my website. So here’s the deal, I’m actually pushing 40 (I have my driver license, made it through puberty, and am married with three kids). I love being a husband, dad, business owner, musician, realtor, and entrepreneur. I’ve grown up here locally and over the last four decades, have had some pretty interesting adventures that have significantly changed the way I look at the world. My goal isn’t to sell something or promote myself, but try and share valuable content that will inspire and motivate others to be stronger leaders and be more intentional about how they live.
The unique challenges I’ve overcome have ultimately sent me on a deeper search for purpose, happiness, and significance. While getting buried with juggling the responsibilities of being a dad and business owner, I’m still driven in the midst of all my limitations, ambitions, and failures, to change the world and make it a better place! I want to be intentional about the legacy I live and the people I invest in. I want to give back & inspire others to truly live a great life. I want to use this space as a resoure to do this.
With that being said, as someone writing and sharing personal stories online, I’ve noticed that every couple of months there’s a new algorithm or online platform that comes into existence to help people connect or share content. Instead of riding that roller coaster, I’m choosing to have everything I create live here on this website then share (if desired) on other platforms.
Also, one of the big disadvantages I’ve seen in creating online spaces like mine is that they easily (and usually unintentionally) give a false impression of who a person actually is.
Over time online platforms end up becoming highlight reels of only the most exciting moments. It gives a limited perspective and only a small snapshot of who that individual actually is. At best it shows only a small slice of life that might be interesting.
No matter what you might discover about me in the process of digging through this website, there’s always going to be more to the story, additional context, or missing info that I didn’t think was helpful in making my point.
As a way to be more authentic with my community of readers, this is my ‘up front’ disclaimer acknowledging that I understand (and I hope anyone else reading this does too) that the stories shared are only a small part of my actual life. For every exciting moment, there are many more unglamorous everyday events that also contribute to who I am as a person. So as you read, hopefully, you’ll see my ultimate intention is not to narcissistically share random things about myself, but instead, sincerely help others learn to become stronger leaders.
Let’s not judge, let’s discuss. Let’s not criticize, but understand each other’s perspectives. Let’s not ‘just survive’ but instead as a normal human being, be intentional about living a great life that can actually change the world!
-David Olson