“We have it in our power to begin the world again.” – Thomas Paine
Nope! I’ll NEVER leave San Jose.
You want me to uproot everything I’ve established my entire life?
A lifetime of friends, family, memories, everything?
My entire history is here.
California is part of my being, my personal fiber, my…
I can’t leave. I won’t leave. I will never.
Boy, did I eat my words. Isn’t it funny how things can change so quickly when you are backed in a corner, wondering “how do we get out of this?”
How do we get out of this? By picking up and moving. That’s how. Selling that gold mine and getting out of Dodge. No, I’m not talking about the business, that’s really more copper than gold.
I’m talking about our house in San Jose, CA. The one thing I was afraid to sell because it was our one major asset. The one asset that if sold would force us out of California because, in our situation, we would have to downgrade. Don’t think so, not doing that I can’t even count how many times I’ve said “I’m never leaving San Jose”. I meant it too. Until I didn’t. So what changed? That corner we were backed into started to become uncomfortable. We had to get out of it.
Let me back track and start with how we got in that
uncomfortable, claustrophobic corner; the walls closing in, the air getting
thinner, it’s hard to breathe…
Panic…fear…anxiety…
I won’t go too deep in this article because I will be writing more in the future that will deal more specifically with the ins and outs of Go-Go Babyz and its history. In a nutshell, what happened is we built up a nice little business, got comfortable – maybe a bit complacent – and WHAMO! A couple competing products hit the market and sales dropped – big time! Again, more about that another time.
Did we get discouraged? Sure.
Was it hard? Absolutely.
Did we struggle? You better believe it.
Did we lose hope? No way.
Did we give up? Absolutely not!
Truth be told, we did waiver a bit on the hope and faith and had idea that we might have to close up shop on more than one occasion. Fortunately for us, when one us wavered the other remained strong and believed in our ability to pull through. We did struggle for the next several years, downsizing, cutting expenses, foregoing pay, and over borrowing, just to name a few. We finally hit the point where we had exhausted all means for financing. We were at the point where we had to look to our assets and borrow against them or dip into what minuscule savings we had set aside for retirement. These options were not the answer. If we went that route it would be a band aid only to lead us to the same place with fewer assets than when we started.
Kerry has wanted to leave the area for years and fell in love with Idaho twenty years earlier when she visited for a friend’s wedding. She even planned a family vacation about seven years ago to try and convince the kids and I. I definitely loved it, It was a great place. To visit, but San Jose was my home. Until it wasn’t.
I had to look at all the options. Really dig deep and see what was keeping me. Family, friends, history. San Jose has been becoming more and more expensive, crowded, unfriendly, and dirty year after year. Was I truly happy there? Is it really the best place to raise my kids?
My family & friends will always be that to me no matter where I am. And, history? Well, history is history, you can’t change it.
So, with my back against the wall I accepted the idea that it was time to sell and look for a new place to call home. I opened my mind, embraced the idea, asked for inspiration and guidance and everything just fell in to place. It was like it was meant to be.
Here I am almost a year later Go-Go Babyz is heading in an upward trajectory, we are not constantly struggling, the kids are happy, and…More about Idaho later, in other articles. I have one more story to discuss about jumping in the fire before I bring it all together to close out the series.
Stay tuned for the next edition when I get tired of hearing…
Everyone else: “You should bottle this stuff, I’d buy it”…
Me: “Okay, fine, I will but you better put your money where your mouth, pony up and buy a few bottles big spender.”
Talk Soon,
Kevin W
Owner-Operator @LEAP272
you have to leap if you want to live.
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