I’m sitting in an airport lounge in San Diego, waiting for my flight. For the past ten days, I’ve visited all my old haunts– places I grew up, schools I went to, places I went with the very few friends I had as a kid. It’s been strange and emotional.

I was just at Montgomery High School the other day. Well, I drove past it. It reminded me of how useless I once felt. How much of a loser I felt like. I now live thousands of miles away from that school. I don’t even live in the same country. But the pain of those feelings still stings.

I remember PE class. I hated that class. Always. As much as we were told schools were a place for learning, every awkward kid quickly learns it’s the place to divide the winners from losers. That’s when we played a team sports and the strong kids were team captains and they picked their teams.

I was always the last to be picked. On a good day, I was second to last. That hurt. I can still feel it.

Throughout our lives, we have hangups. We have things that bother us or make us feel we are not good enough. Some of those come from our parents. As a parent, I pray I didn’t screw my kids up too badly. But a lot comes from the kids we were surrounded with.

This will sound very conceited. But I love it when someone calls me cool. I love it because I know it’s not me. If you think I’m cool, I know I fooled you. You fell for the facade I try to put in front of you.

I’m not cool. A 15-year-old kid proved it to me when they let me stand there until the end of picking teams. They proved it when they looked past me. They proved it when they treated me like a non-person.

I don’t care how unsuccessful they are now. I don’t care that they are working in a gas station and I have meetings in London. They showed me who I was a long time ago.

And I succeed because I continue to try to prove them wrong.

I guess I should thank them for all that I have now.

This week, I’m in San Diego, California– the city I grew up in. It’s brought back a lot of memories. I never thought I’d be living in a foreign country creating apps back when I was a kid. Heck… there weren’t even apps or the internet back then.

I’ve come a long way. I’m still growing. I don’t feel like I’ve reached my limits by any stretch of the imagination.

I’m here as Eric in his 50s and thinking about Eric in his teens. I didn’t feel like a grown-up then. And I still don’t feel like one now. I’m still eager to learn the next thing and build more great apps.

One of the things that bothers me with some of the questions I get on the YouTube channel is when people ask about how to get to the end stage. Like “How long will it take me to learn Android?” or “How long will it take me to be successful?” Those questions are all relative. If the younger me looked at me today, he’d be impressed. The current me is not impressed. I have so much more I want to do. If I told the younger me how much work it took to get here, he’s probably say “no thanks.”

We grow, and we tackle each issue one at a time. Each day brings another opportunity to grow, along with an opportunity to stagnate. I cringe at the thought of how many times I took that latter and am proud of the times I took the former.

Be strong and take those growth opportunities. There is NEVER a guarantee of success. But momentum beats standing still every time.

Hope you are healthy and safe. Sorry for the lack of videos lately.

And… I shouldn’t have to say this but… I wrote this myself. No AI. Just me.

It’s amazing how fast time flies. I remember my Dad talking about that when I was a kid. A few months is an eternity for a child (such a long wait between birthdays) but it flies by for an adult.

I have been out of the Army for over 21 years now. I run at least 3 times a week and have done for years and years. And it’s funny…

At least one in every run I go on, I get the Army cadence in my head…

“One mile, no sweat. Two miles, better yet. Three miles, I can take it. Four miles, you can take it. Here we go.”

Some things never leave you I guess.