Chris and Me

You're here because of your choices. So am I.

Listen here.

Today is Super Bowl Sunday. Susanna and I will be lying low since we got the shingles vaccine (finally). But while many are gathering for cheese dip, Lil Smokies, and doing deep research on who the heck Bad Bunny is, I’ve been thinking about choices.

1994. That was the year I started my 1st engineering job. I walked into that building excited. No more homework. I was going to make money. It was the start of a new married life. I soon realized I had so much to learn, and I was out of my depth.

But I stuck with it. 30 years in corporate.

There was another guy who thought he wanted to be an engineer.

Chris Stapleton.

Gregory Shamus/Getty Images

You know him now as the country music artist who can sing anything with anybody. He sang the best national anthem ever in 2023 (OK, Whitney Houston was great too!).

But before all that, Chris was a kid in eastern Kentucky playing guitar in high school. He was in a band that played local shows. Then he graduated valedictorian and headed to Vanderbilt to study engineering. His dad was an engineer who worked in the coal mines, so it seemed like the logical path.

He lasted exactly one year.

After meeting some Nashville songwriters, he wondered, “Wait, this can be a job?” He dropped out and moved back home. Sold cars. Drove an ice truck. Worked at a pizzeria. Kept writing songs and playing bars.

In 2001, he moved back to Nashville and got a publishing deal four days later. Spent the next decade writing over 1,000 songs for other artists.

Then in 2013, he went solo. First single hit #46 and tanked. Mercury Nashville scrapped the album.

Chris didn’t quit. He recorded “Traveller” and performed with Justin Timberlake at the 2015 CMA Awards.

Traveller went platinum.

Chris made a choice with his engineering career. I made a different one. Neither choice is more valid. I’m not less of a person because my beard isn’t as flowing, and I’ll die with fewer dollars in my account.

But here’s what I do know: I am exactly where I am today because of the choices I’ve made.

YOU are exactly where you are because of the choices you’ve made. But those choices will not hold you captive unless you let them. You still have an impactful life to live.

I’m launching an Authentic Purpose Mastermind for people who feel trapped by their own success and know there’s a different life they could be living. A life in which they understand their natural gifts and learn how to use them. It’s a group where like-minded people will sharpen each other. None of us will be the same after these 6 weeks. If this sounds like something you’d like to learn more about, reply “PURPOSE” to this email or set up a short chat with me.

The question isn’t whether your past choices were right or wrong. The question is: what choices will you make now?

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