I hear it a couple times a day, “I have just been so busy” and it’s the most boring answer to the simple question of, “how are things going”. I have been running Fohr Card with Rich and Holly for 3 months full time now and people ask me all the time, “how are things?” and I make a point to not talk about how busy we are.

Instead I say I am having the time of my life. That I wake up every day and give thanks for my station in life. That I feel like the person I have always wanted to be.

Boring people are busy, the great ones are just having fun. 

It was snowing the night my Father told me how disappointed he was in me. I will forget a lot of things in my life, but I will never forget the way the wet snow sounded crunching under my size 5’s.At the time I was stunned with how loud the sound was but looking back, I think it was his silence that was so alarming. 

I grew up in a house were passion was assumed, excellence expected and effort essential. My Dad used to call all of us brother’s the “Future Leaders of America” and you know we all started to believe it. So when, in the months leading up to my frosty walk, I had let my grades slip and my passions switch from homework to girls his predictions of grandeur seemed a bit more distant. 

When he finally spoke up my Dad did not say much but it stayed with me. He said [paraphrasing here], “Every great thing in this world is a product of passion. The way a Ferrari sounds, the way your favorite song makes you feel or a winning catch with 10 seconds to go. They are all products of people who love what they do, and apply themselves to it fully. Your Mother and I expect you to be great, but more than that we expect you to want to be. Find your passion, it will be your greatest asset and best friend.”

I have spent the better part of my last 10 years hopelessly addicted to my passions. I have wanted to be a lot of things and gotten the chance to be quite a few of them. I helped build a small business, took an older one into the digital space, I tried to change the way people viewed stock photography, I built a record label, I’ve done marketing consulting with some of the biggest companies in the world, I am a fashion photographer and tie maker. I celebrated youth and speed with my brother and raced for my dream brand. I’ve lived a life fueled by passion but sometimes lacking in focus. 

I am proud to say that starting today, I am going to start living out another dream of mine: running a business. For the last 6 months Rich, Holly and I have been working nights, weekends and mornings on building Fohr Card and starting today we are all focusing on it full time. 

So, when I walk from the L-Train the our offices in Brooklyn later today, I will listen to the sound of the rain and think about the crunch of the snow. I’ll stand there for a second and feel the cold of that night years ago and think about my Dad and Mom. I’ll thank them for believing we all would be great and giving us the confidence to believe the same.