Parsifal is a mythical figure who is associated with the legend of King Arthur.  He was a knight who embarked on a sacred quest for the Holy Grail.

When I was getting my MBA at Fordham University in mid 2000, I took a class called “The Leadership Calling.”  We had to write a paper about what our Parsifal Moment was – the moment when we uncovered what our true passion in life was.

When I was 12, my mother came home from running errands and told me a new local seafood store was looking for help.  This was an exciting event because a developer had built a new strip mall in a space that had been previously occupied by a gas station.  Lighthouse Seafood was born.

Mike O’Reilly, a round, but powerful man in his mid forties, was the proprietor.  He was a charismatic man who was very proud to be in the fish business.  He offered me an opportunity to help keep the store clean for $1.50 an hour and teach me about running a small business.  I was very excited about the opportunity.  On my first day of work, I was asked to clean thirty pounds of foul smelling and slimy squid.  There hasn’t been a worse first day of work since then.

About 6 months later, Mike presented me with the key to the store so I could open and close in his absence and shut the alarm off.  In the 80’s there was no remote access to alarm systems like there is today.

That was a tremendous responsibility for a 12 year old boy but I welcomed it.  Receiving the key was one of the proudest moments of my life.

This was the defining moment when I knew I wanted to be an entrepreneur.

Since then, I’ve been on an obsessive journey to understand what it meant as I didn’t even know the word entrepreneur existed.

Spend the time to reflect on what is most meaningful to you in your life because it may lead you to your true passion.

When you find your passion and get behind it, it’s natural to get behind it through thick or thin.

This also led to My 6 Guiding Principles, which is the foundation for everything I do.

What are you passionate about?