I Shouldn't Entertain This... Thursday, February 22

"Biggest boxing club in Korea.... yea right.  Almost 40 and still struggling to make a living.  Family is family.  Once theyre gone, theyre gone", a commenter wrote.

You know what's gone?!  Your grade 9 level English grammar rules, for starters.

A commenter left me this comment on my homepage the other day and my first thinking was I'm too old to entertain the idea of responding but too young to let it just slip by.  I do and I don't care about what people say and think, that's the thing.  I do care enough to respond to this person's comment because I know as hurtful as it may come across, perhaps they wouldn't have said these things if they weren't so ignorant.  I call them ignorant and I can't really get mad at them because they don't know my full story.  On a Monday night I packed up all that I could into my bag and then on a Tuesday afternoon, after not seeing my family in Canada for 5 years, I showed up on their doorstep.  My family and many of my friends in Canada and in Korea still don't fully know why I showed up so of course my homepage readers don't know either.  They clearly don't know why I left Korea and all the good, the bad, and the ugly that went on there.

I can't get mad at someone's ignorance but I can try to inform them somewhat.  As for going into details, I rather not.  It was hard enough living through it the first time, I don't care to play the victim role anymore as I clearly chose to be the hero in my own story and save myself.

"Almost 40 and still struggling to make a living" sure beats almost 40 and dead though.

That's the simple truth.  

I'll take struggling any day and every day over being dead, thanks.

Am I struggling though? Really?!  I'm building a business, my third business I should note.  I left a very successful business in Korea.  I traded in my fame and fortune for my sanity and safety, so the struggle is real but now it's different.  The struggle in Korea almost killed me and that's not an exaggeration by any means.  I don't consider myself to be struggling now though, not in comparison.  I prefer to say I'm challenged.  I struggled in Korea but what I'm dealing with now, my perspective is totally looking at everything different.  I'm challenged here but I'm free, I'm safe, and now I have the ability to fully live life according to my own terms.  There is no struggle with fear.  There are only challenges to reach my potential.  

I'm an entrepreneur though, the struggles and challenges are very much a part of our stories.

Even once my business takes on it's physical location and launches, the challenges won't go away.  It just be something else that I'll be fighting for.  Whether it's additional clients, additional staff, promotional deals, or whatnot, there will be no settling and coasting through life.  Entrepreneurs are the thinkers behind a business, we're the ones with the ideas, but our ideas and our challenges to make these ideas a reality doesn't stop once the business opens doors.  We are always looking to evolve the business, to grow it more.  

As for my boxing club size, it's 10,000sqf.  It's so big that there's a two floor apartment that was built in the back part of it.

And as for the family comment, yes, this is true but remember my definition of family may not fit yours plus I think perhaps that comment is best directed towards my family.  How come it's always me who is expected to reach out to them, to drop the mad chunk of cash and make the two-plane commute over to see them.  I don't have the money nor the time and effort to put my life on pause to do this.  Nor do I have the interest either at this time in my life.  I did live in Canada, in between Korea and the Philippines, and even then how often did I really see family?!  Exactly.  Even then, it was me going out of my way to see them, spending hours on public transportation when they all have cars.  Don't even get me started.

I see where this particular commenter is going with the family comment but the attack on my business in Korea and my age, well, haters are going to hate.  I can think of a million and one "almost 40 and..." situations that are way worse than being almost 40 and starting over.  That's what I'm doing; I'm starting over.  I left Korea to save myself, literally and figuratively, because I knew if I stayed there I was going to die.  And that's not me speculating, that's a fact.  So if that's what you want to attack me on, that I should have stayed in Korea, and if you still want to stick with your comment then you my friend are not ignorant but are instead stupid and cruel.