Your daily LinkedIn post idea, by The Content Lab

Question: Who inspires you?

Post Template:

Hook:

My career path couldn't be more different than my parents'.

My dad (Paps) got his very first job working at a steakhouse (and even missed his one shot at a Doobie Brothers concert to go to his first night of work).

Tease:

After college didn't work out, he worked for a paint contractor for a few months, and at 22 he started his own painting business. Besides managing with a bum co-founder, he got really good at painting, and soaked up his first experience as a founder. And - one of the many things Paps and I have in common is that we love to lean into the unexpected.

So Paps went into the army as an M1 tanker at 29, and served in Desert Storm. When his 4 years were up, he then opted not to go home to North Carolina, but instead returned to where he'd been based in Colorado to work for a real estate developer.

A couple years later, after meeting my Mom, he opened his own real estate company. My memory starts to pick up around this time, and some of my first recollections as kid are from when he opened up his own construction company, Blue Diamond Builders, and built the most beautiful homes Trinidad, CO (my hometown) had ever seen.

I spent a lot of time skating around basements that didn't have floors yet, playing my Nintendo sitting below the windows in empty rooms he'd just carpeted, and following him around as he turned nothing into something with his bare hands.

Paps is the dad who can fix anything I break. Truly anything, no matter how I shatter or crumble it. Everytime I'd run to him, tears in eyes, broken sentiment in hands, he'd spend hours with a light under a microscope gluing it, piece by piece, back together for me.

Value:

He's taught me that even if it takes a little longer, there really is nothing you can't teach yourself, and nothing you can't do for yourself.

He's showed me that a life that is non-linear can be just as fruitful, and full of community, triumph, and adventure, as a life that is set on a clear trajectory.

He's taught me how to cut tile, how to paint baseboard, how to insulate walls, how to drive a Bobcat, how to stain a deck.

He's showed me that creativity lives outside museum walls - it lives in finding a place on a windowsill where you can use the extra hardwood you didn't need for the floor.

Creativity lives in math, and mistakes, and making the most of what you have in front of you.

This one goes out to Mr. Popular, Mr. Fix-it, Mr. Singing Bohemian Rhapsody at the Top of His Lungs, Mr. Make It Work Despite All Odds, Mr. International Man of Mystery, Mr. Jokes On Jokes On Jokes, Mr. Trivia King, Mr. Spontaneous, Mr. Do Anything for the People He Loves.

CTA:

Thank you for showing me what it looks like to live a life (career and all the rest) on your own terms.

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