MY first Empower Network Blog Post
Restored from the Empower Network archive (2011–2017), lightly edited to meet our current advertising standards. Views are the original author’s.
Right now I am about 9 minutes into the Core commitment #2 video on blogging daily. Dave Wood just said to pause the video and write my first post, so here it is. I figured I would use this post to introduce myself and share my “WHY.”
So let’s start off with who I am…
My name is David Smith, the most common name on the planet, but you know what, I am NOT a person to fall into mediocrity and commonality even though my name may suggest otherwise. My name is David Smith, but I am one in a million and you better believe it! And I say that with the understanding and realization that I’m a junior, and my own father is also named David Smith. You know what? When they made me, when God formed me in my mother’s womb, HE made me in HIS image, and he did not make me to be a carbon copy of anything or anybody other than Himself.
I am created in the image of God almighty. Jesus, God’s only begotten son, stated that I would do greater things than HE did! God’s work is creation, so I am here to create, Jesus’s work, while HE was on the earth was, and still to this day, is redemption and liberation. I’m here to save people from oppression in any and all forms, just as my Lord and savior, Jesus Christ did. That’s who I am, and that is what I am all about.
Now, as far as my reason why: I am not only a person of strong convictions and beliefs, but I am also a person who has been through very hard times. Life, it seems, has dealt me a hard hand to play. I am a single father of 3 boys. The oldest is 11 and I have full custody of all 3 24/7. Right now it’s a struggle, but I’m taking positive steps in the right direction to save myself and my sons from a life of hardships and struggle. I am currently working a 9-5 job as an IT manager for a major auto group, which means that I keep the network and computers up and running for 6 car dealerships, and even though I make a decent salary, it’s not nearly enough for financial comfort or for me to provide the type of lifestyle I desire for me and my sons. It’s not nearly enough for me to provide, for my sons, the type of life I never had growing up. I’m 32 yrs old, and I’m not done yet, in fact I’m nowhere close. I’m honestly not looking to further my education and/or further my career in the field on IT. I love working on computers, but one thing I’ve learned is that the traditional career/job model that is crammed down our throats from the day we’re born has a serious flaw, and that flaw is that any career you decide to pursue has a ceiling. It has a limit to how much you can earn, how many people you can help, and how affective you can be. The knowledge and concepts that I am learning from David Wood and David Sharp, in Empower Network, completely shatter those concepts and ideologies that have been taught to me all my life. This is day 1 and it has truly been an eye-opening experience.