My best friend is my wife, Elisangela. And it is not because she is sitting right here with me listening. She's been my best friend for a lot longer than we've been married. The last year that I was in college, I was in a really rough spot. I was having a lot of depression issues, a lot of life issues, and it all just kind of came together into an atomic bomb where I just was not a good place.

And she was there to help me through that. And that's just something I'll never forget. She really didn't want to marry me, but it was very important to me that we stayed friends because she has been the truest, the best, the most faithful and loyal friend that I have ever even heard of. I was kind of a prick when we met. I was still figuring things out. It was a stony exterior to somebody that just wanted to be nice. But I didn't know how to interact very well with people, which is because I'm a slow learner about things, but she's funny and she's smart and she says she's timid, but she's really outgoing.

She'll approach anybody. She'll help anybody. One thing that I really admire her, admire about her is that she looks for opportunities to help, and it's just there's just things that don't even see like the elderly struggling to put the groceries in the car. She says, I'm gonna help you, whether you want me to or not. Or if there's some of that. She knows that she recently had a baby. She just said, I'm gonna go help her, she made dinner, took it over, and she cleaned her house just because that was the right thing to do.

She's very opinionated. She's very strong willed, which is something that I respect a lot. She once, she has an idea. You have to be very careful because, yeah, if it's not the right idea, it'll take. It'll take some convincing, and if it's a bad idea, she'll admit it eventually. But if she has the idea, it's because she's got this pretty strong reason to do it, and so it'll take some convincing, but she's just...she's the force that I needed to really, to really elevate in life, and I'm really glad that I have her with me.

So yes and no. And so when I'm talking to people, I will call them friends but in my head, when I think about my friends, it's a different story. And so I don't do that to be fake or to be two faced. It's just...there are people that you socialize with. And then there are people that are your friends. Like when you think about the people that you talk to, you know which ones would drive 50 miles because you ran out of gas and which ones it say, No, I'm too busy and like... I'm not saying it's just an excuse because it's totally valid.

But you know which ones have dropped things to come help you? And which ones say they, if you need anything, anything at all, you just let me know and you let them know and they're like, "well, right now is a bad time" and you're like, well, right now was a bad time for me too. But thank you. Thank you for letting me know what kind of friendship this was. So no, I don't trust all my friends, but yes, the friends that if you ask me who my friends are, the ones that names that come to my mind, I do trust them.

I know that I could depend on them. I know that if I tell them something, it's not gonna get out. I know that if I have a struggle there, there with me, and so I feel like we need better words at the end that there's friends. And then there's friends, and I feel like there should be a different word, but without it being offensive to who's that kind of friend, But that's just my opinion.

One of my closest friends, his name is Mike and he's not duck, and I like it. He tends to jump from interest to interest, and the way he does it, I think, is really interesting. I mean, I'm not saying I agree with all his life choices, but it's interesting to watch him grow and progress. I'm just at his own pace and in his own way, had. Sometimes when leads um bounds, which is when the president, sometimes it's a little bit slower than his wife would like, but it's good to watch.

He helped me out a lot when I was...when I had some pretty low points. I have some struggles in my life just like everybody and at some point they got pretty seriously. I'm sure it happens to basically everybody and he was there to pull me out of it and I really appreciated that. He was living really close by, so we got to see each other a lot until he just decided one day "I need to move back to live with my parents to build up some savings and we're gonna and then we'll take it from there"

And so, I miss him a lot. It's been hard. His wife is actually pregnant now with their first, and we're really excited for them. We're excited to see how he's gonna be as a dad. He's gonna be a great dad. I'm just excited to see what he does because he's crazy. But it will be good. It'll be really excited for them. He's really kind. He has...He is a different way of explaining things where at the same time, sometimes it feels like he's saying too many words and other times you see... you feel like he's not explaining enough, but I love the guy.

He's helped me a lot, and I've helped him a lot, and we have a really good relationship.

I think that humans just physiologically need to have friends. I think it's just important as eating, sleeping and have a eating, drinking, breathing and having a place to sleep. I think social interaction on a confidence and trust level is essential to any semblance of a healthy human being. It's been said lots of times, no man is an island, everybody comes from somewhere, everybody is connected to someone.

And I think there's a reason for that. We are built to, individuals, we humans as individuals are built to build as a community, if that makes sense. And so we're just hardwired to come together and seek a common purpose and work together to meet that goal, and friends and having friends and having that social interactions that is a big part of that. I mean and sometimes that end goal. It's not always the best, right, because humans were very faulty, we make a lot of mistakes, but it's it's also the best part of us were our best, and we are our worst when when we get together and so I think it's really important to choose very wisely the friends that you keep near you because we are the ... I've heard it said that we are the average of the five people close to us. And so, that social interaction we just need, I've heard it called a social mirror.

We understand ourselves as by the reactions of those around us. We understand what's acceptable, what's not acceptable, what's good, what's bad, what hurts, what's nice, based on how the people around us react. And if you ignore that, you're ignoring a core part of being a human being.

I actually don't think that I make friends easily. First reason is that I'm not that interested. I don't feel the need to have a big circle of friends. And we visit them all the time. I prefer to have a few very close friends that I trust and be friendly and polite with everybody else. That's not to say that I'm rude or that I'm not interested in other people, I just don't... I don't feel the need to open up to a lot of people.

That being said, I'm also very timid. I'm a shy person. And so it's hard for me to just walk up to a person and say, well, I can walk up to a person say hello, but after that, I usually kinda straggle off and don't know where to take the conversation in there. Oh, no. I mean, there are some exceptions. There's some people that you just kinda that you meet and that you really like and any strike things up, that's how friendship works. But for me, I don't feel the need to do that with a lot of people.

And so, my wife. On the other hand, she is. She says she's timid, but she's very open. She's very playful and friendly and loud and people like her and I kinda just sit and watch. I'm there to support and but I don't make friends easily, mostly because I don't really want to. I'm not a mean person. I like to talk to people, I like to interact and have that such interaction. But I don't want to bring a lot of people into my life.

What are my passions and how can I turn them into work? Well, that's actually it's just in question, because I struggle with that. I can't do something unless I'm actually interested in it. But a lot of things that I thought were worth doing made a lot of study, and that was that was something that I wasn't ready for at the time. My solution was to not focus on what I like to do, but focus on why I like to do things.

And so I work in insurance, and I like insurance because it affects people's life so much. And I get to hear crazy how crazy people that are every day. Just cause that's what they're facing, and that's what they're going through. And that's what they think about. And that's what they need. That's what they need cover. They need protection from it. Insurance in and of itself. Just studying it on paper is about the most boring subject I can imagine. And but focusing on why I want to do it and why it's important and how it affects people that's been my passion.

I love to help people I like to listen to their stories and and get to know them and here who they are and what they're, what they're about and what their needs are and what they're afraid of and find something they can protect their life in some small waited. If something happens, make that... may getting through that at least a little bit easier. And so that's... sometimes you can't focus on what you like to do. I like to watch movies, but the only way to get paid for that is to be a movie critic. And that's hard to do.

So, for me. How to turn passions into work, find a reason that you're passionate about and find a job that fills that need for you. For me, it was helping people. It was helping people overcome fears. But that's a kind of passion, I think you could turn into work.

Obstacles reported life and nothing worth doing is easy. One of the things that's been a struggle for me my entire life has been I've been diagnosed with with ADD (attention deficit disorder). And it's interesting because with this disorder there are some benefits. But there are some major obstacles that make it hard to do things. I'm able to hyper focus. And so once I get my brain into something, I can stay doing that thing until it's done. And it's that some of this help me.

But also turning it off is not easy. And so once it's time to move onto something else, my brain has trouble switching gears. Also, if something isn't natural to me, if it's not something that I'm interested in, I can't make my brain do it like other people can. And that's not just a question of grid and grin and barrett, its's I'm not. My brain doesn't like doing that. It's that's been hard.

I've also struggled with depression in my life. And that's been hard. Just feelings of lack of motivation, feelings that, well, things actually get better. But I am overcoming those slowly but surely, my wife is an excellent resource. I can't thank her enough, but those have been those of my struggles. But my achievements are that much more important because of them. So I'm grateful for these stumbling blocks that helped me learn how to walk.

What are some of the greatest achievements in my life? Well, first of all, the hardest thing I've ever done is convincing my wife to marry me. She was not interested me in that way when we first met. But I wore her down and all I can say about that is that prayer is real. I'm also very proud of where I've come in my career. I'm not at my final destination yet. This isn't where I wanna be for the rest of my life, but I feel like I found a good place for myself on I've come a long way.

There are a lot of tumbles and stumbles when I was trying to find out what I wanted to do but I fell into insurance. I'm really happy that I did I feel that I excelled. It's not easy to do. It's a very dry subject. But I like the way that I feel that I'm helping people. I like how I feel like I'm offering. Not just a product, but a service that really does matter to people and affects their lives in a positive way.

My daughter, she's beautiful. She's very... she's actually very obedient, and I'm really glad of where me and my wife are taking her and the way we're raising her, we're not perfect. Things are hard sometimes, lack of sleep. It is a factor, and that's not easy. But we just see her growing and developing, and we see her trusting in us and her love for us and our love for her, and I can't think of a greater achievement than that. I think the family should be the greatest achievement that you have in your life. And I'm happy to say that for me and my wife, that's true.