It’s time for a change.
A couple years ago I co-founded a board game publishing company. I knew I enjoyed board games and business but I didn’t anticipate the impact it would have on my life.
My career is teaching. I studied language arts and elementary education for my undergraduate degree and I’m finishing up a graduate degree in language arts with a secondary emphasis. Thus, I’ve taught reading and writing for about four years and I’m entering into my 3rd year of teaching technology to kindergarten through 8th grade students.
Don’t get me wrong; I love teaching. I’m the type of person that needs to be doing work with meaning. I want to give back and improve the lives of others. Teaching and working with students gave me that opportunity for the past several years. The reality though, is my teacher’s salary and the decision my wife and I made to have her be at home with the kids, will not support our family long-term.
We aren’t falling behind but we aren’t getting ahead either.
How board games changed things
Technology is a large part of who I am. As a musician, I got into audio engineering and web development to help grow and promote the bands I performed in. Freestyle BMX biking originally got me into video editing by recording my friends and myself riding at the local trails and putting together our own videos with the footage. Starting a board game company gave me a reason to tap into those skills again. Not only have I tapped into them, I’m spending a lot of time crafting and refining my skills with things like online training and tutorials as well as business blogs and podcasts.
Over the past 2 years I have done something nearly every day to continue improving myself.
The big picture
So what does all of this mean? Am I leaving my career as a teacher to pursue the American dream? Hardly. However, it does mean I’m going to be doing things differently. My short-term goal is to establish a passive, supplemental income stream to make it possible to improve the quality of life for my family and community. I’ll explore this in a later post.
And what is the first step? You’re reading it now. By writing about it, I’m publicly holding myself accountable to do something about it. Finally, if you’re really interested in my progress, enter your info in the box to the right and receive monthly updates of my adventure.
Location: Kitchen table, next to the picture window
Music: Mind’s Eye by Wolfmother
Beverage: Grape Kool-aid
It’s great to see you blogging here, Jeff! I look forward to learning more about your journey through the blog.
Hey Jamey. Thanks for the support. I’m looking forward to the challenge and to sharing the journey with everyone.
I very proud to be working with you (and Lee & Kyle) on the gaming front. Excited about what the future holds down this path.
Likewise, I’ll be watching here to see how your larger, personal journey is going, and continuing to keep you and your family in my prayers.