Peter Fountain

Category: Life

Life

It’s been a while

Mar 14, 2018 #business, #entrepreneur, #freedom, #no regrets by Pete

I haven’t posted to my personal blog recently. My excuses are that I’m too busy, I’m too tired, or sometimes I just forget. 

Excuses. Plain and simple. Worthless, good for nothing excuses. 

And they need to stop. 

I have allowed myself to be lulled into a sense of complacency, especially at work. I currently work full time for one of the top companies in the U.S. 

I also work part time for the #2 best company to work for in the U.S. 

I have been working in both places for over a decade, and I have nothing to show for it (well, I still have a roof over my head, and I can feed my kids). 

My hopes and dreams of climbing the corporate ladder were simply an illusion. 

I work with many talented, kind, and intelligent people. 

And I’ve seen many people promoted into positions for which they had no aptitude. It seems that much of corporate America confuses management with leadership. 

I am grateful to both companies for keeping me around, and for fueling the myth that I could become better, that there are limitless opportunities waiting for me to grab. 

Maybe it’s me. Maybe corporate life is not my cup of tea. The red tape, the politics, the irrational decisions made only to enrich shareholders. 

None of which is wrong. In my heart I believe it’s me who is wrong. I’m a fish out of water. I bristle at the red tape, the slow decisions, the promotions of people who continually screw things up. 

It’s taken too long, but I feel that the time has come to put up or shut up. 

I believe I have what it takes to build something of my own. I believe I have the thick skin to weather the storms and to deal with the adversity. 

Worst of all, I feel that I will deeply, deeply regret not taking a chance to prove myself, and regret is the worst thing of all. 

I prepare for bed tonight feeling the discomfort of change, the pit in my stomach as I prepare to leave my comfort zone. I see so many “successful people” who quite frankly don’t appear to be any smarter than I. 

It’s time to prove my theory. Time to stand up and be a man and to claim what’s mine. 

It’s time to stop living a life of fear and regret, and start living a life that is bold and full of abundance. 

Life, Uncategorized

What Can We Control

Aug 16, 2017 by Pete

Lately it seems like the world is losing its collective mind. North Korea wants to pick a fight with nuclear weapons, protesters get mowed down by a fool in his car, nonstop criticism of the presidency, even here at home we have flooded lakes and people being arrested for having sex with dogs (not making that up). 

It feels like only a fraction of a small percentage of our lives are actually within our control. 

It may rain nuclear warheads tomorrow. We may get mowed down by a nut in his car while walking down a sidewalk. Who knows???

In recent year’s I’ve tried to focus on that little percentage that I can control, but more importantly to focus on how I react to the numerous things I can’t control. 

I voted, but I certainly didn’t influence the outcome of any election. I can barely point North Korea out on a map. 

In most cases, I try to tune it out. There’s little I can do to stop a child like dictator from turning my city into a parking lot. The president, congress, and any elected official? No secret that no on in those groups cares that I’m alive. 

But would I allow those things to drive me to hatred or to mistreat other people? Would I burn a building or beat someone up or steal because I’m mad at the world. 

Hell no! 

I’m not a mindless drone. I control my reaction to things, even the outrageous one’s. There is no “i had to beat him up because he disagreed with me”. 

Rubbish (as they would say in the old days). 

It’s time for people to grow up, accept responsibility for their actions, and to stop making excuses. 

You don’t get to burn a building, kill people, or act like an idiot because you disagree with someone, or because you don’t get your way. 

Humans have been around too long to be acting like this.