Yeah, that's me. Or rather a facet of myself I've wanted to indulge for a long time. I started this page because I believe I have a story worth telling and that might help other people in similar situations as I was; stuck in life and eager for change. I also wanted to indulge my creativity and hobbies in ways that my paying career does not permit. To that end, my page is divided into disparate yet interconnected sections based on a few of my life's mainstays which have been my guideposts. Much of what I write here is proscriptive in nature, but I will also dedicate large portions of this page to that which motivates and inspires me personally.

 

At times, each of these sections can serve as a catalyst, or as a goal. For example, poetry can lead to inspiration, which can lead one to travel, and to finally taste exotic coffees (I have thought this way personally.) Or else, coffee can lead to inspiration as it often does, which may  cause one to write/read poetry, which may further impel one to travel.

 

I have no products for sale. But I do have a story to tell, and I believe that if you peruse this blog you will find many of the steps I took to change my life and career are able to be emulated by anyone. Here I would like to underscore that I am not businessman or a monetarily rich man. I am an idealist first and foremost, and consider my greatest career success to be that I am able to make a good living doing something I believe in.

 

To that end, I cannot speak from experience about how to get rich quickly as that is not the paradigm of success I am operating from. Instead I can share how I turned my sense of purpose into my career, how I escaped generational poverty, and the many hard lessons I've learned and continue to learn along the way.

 

I also believe in enjoying the fruits of one's labor when the chance comes. Not everything is about work after all. Most of us work for or toward something, and not for the sake of work itself. If we didn't take time to smell the coffee, where would we find any reserves of motivation to pursue work at all? Endless labor defines the "rate race" most of us long to escape. 

 

I encourage you to learn more about the greatest coffees and coffee-concoctions in the world with me, to imagine the incomparable smells and the inevitable caffeine lift. Think of the place you want to sip it. Think of how many stories you could write, the conversations you would have, the sights you could behold. Not because delicious coffee and exotic locales are all the sources of motivation you will need to radically change your life. But because higher purposes are just that - higher, while the real world looms before us. Inner resolve is possessed by virtually every successful person, but that resolve is crafted and tended to in specific, often tangible, ways.

 

If we all simply decided to be optimistic, open-minded, congenial, disciplined, people with excellent personal habits - we all would be successful already. Obviously life is more complicated than that. But, it's also simpler than that; it's food and drink and memories which can impact us in deeper ways than many of us can appreciate (more on that to come). It's lodestars to guide us, as well as the uninspiring act of plodding along once we find our way.

 

My name is Marshall. I'm a former welfare recipient, janitor-turned-US-diplomat, poetry writer and consumer, lover of coffee, and burgeoning world traveler. Please take a look around.