“A man is the sum of his misfortunes. One day you’d think misfortune would get tired but then time is your misfortune.” – William Faulkner, The Sound and the Fury
You still want to know who I am huh? Of course you do. Why wouldn’t you? I’m a great guy! I guess you will be the judge of that.
I get it though. You want to know who this guy is that you are following. You want to know who this guy is that writes these silly words and posts them on the internet thing. The words you take precious time out of your day to read. Maybe you even pay for some of my writings, or even more, my consulting.
So, of course you want to know who I am. It’s a fair question. So, let me answer. I am Kevin Barry Williams! I have also been called Kiev, Vito, Kevlar, Funk Master Kev, and plenty of names that I do not wish to share here.
That’s who I am. And, as the quote states – I am a sum of my misfortunes. Why do I say that? Because my mother always said “the world is a classroom.” Boy, I sure hated that but, hindsight is 20-20 and she was right.
Although, I would like to think that my “sum” includes some of the fortunes as well. What I take this to mean is that the misfortunes, the bad times, and all the negative stuff provide the greatest lessons, at least, the greatest opportunity for lessons. So, learn from all that “stuff”.
Fortunately, at some point in my life I made a decision to do just that. Not always gracefully or willingly, but in the end I did it. I am still doing it, actually, because as long as I’m still on the north side of the dirt, the journey is still going and I have something to learn.
To keep with the Faulkner theme, in high school I took a Faulkner class with an EXCELLENT teacher, Mr. Tom Alessandri (RIP). If I recall, when we were preparing to read The Sound And The Fury, Mr. Alessandri said something like “the child is father of man” which I believe was a quote from a William Wordsworth poem.
Again, if I recall, we discussed how the personality characteristics and temperament of a child is an indicator of what the child will be like as an adult. It makes sense to me. I still have many of my childhood traits alive and well in me today. For instance, I was a huge daydreamer as a kid and I still am today. Sometimes I just love to escape into all these different visions. I think this is part of the reason I am a serial entrepreneur.
Back to the quote. Take all of the “components” that make up a person; Biological, psychological, emotional, intellectual, spiritual, etc. Then take all the misfortunes, as Faulkner says. Then add all the external influences; environment, experiences, circumstances, family, friends, etc. Put it all together and we have the ingredients that make up who we are.
So, who am I? Well, I just told you. I’m of product of my environment and all that other stuff I mentioned!
Oh, that’s not a good enough answer for you, huh?
I’m out of time so I guess you’ll just have to stay tuned…again!
Talk Soon,
Kevin W
@LEAP272
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