This is the first in my series of 6 question interviews with people that I admire, work with or think that they have an interesting perspective on a topic that I want to explore more.
The first person I am going present is Paul Jun. He writes a blog called Junhax.
I first found Paul’s writing through a guest post he did on ProBlogger where he posted about doing the bare minimum in life. Since I’ve been known to post about setting goals and trying to achieve more, I appreciated the post and retweeted it, and that led to our conversation and this interview.
Paul’s blog is about blogging, writing and personal development, so you should check it out.
In the interview, Paul makes some really interesting points about taking the time to identify what you want to do, overcoming obstacles, and facing down challenges. What’s cool is that Paul also turned it a little bit differently than I imagined and he talks about some of the cool things that have occurred for him since he managed to overcome some of his obstacles.
My questions will be in bold and Paul’s answers aren’t. With that, I turn it over to Paul Jun:
1: What has been the biggest obstacle you’ve overcome in your life or career?
Breaking out of my comfort zone. About a year ago from now, I was confused, angry, and lost with my life. I was failing in community college and never could properly answer, “what do you want to do with your life”?
Breaking free of my comfort zone, finding my passion in writing, and breaking the easy habits of doing nothing all day are part of my slow and steady success. I think a lot of it had to do with realizing my flaws, working to fix them, and focusing on my strengths. I think everyone, once or a few times in their life, faces an epiphany and something inside them switches gears, causing them to become determined, motivated, and unstoppable. People have it inside them all along, they just don’t realize it yet.
2: When you found yourself faced with this obstacle what steps did you take to begin the process of overcoming this challenge?
I made sacrifices – a lot of them. I had to sacrifice a lot of my time hanging out with friends and doing activities that yielded no results. I stopped going out as much, and I spent a lot of time reading and researching other professionals in my field to emulate them and learn from them. Making those sacrifices is just as hard as breaking out of your comfort zone; but it’s absolutely necessary in order to make changes. I didn’t do it all at once. It took me a while to get started. Having a good head on my shoulders – as some people would say – and just being hungry for success and change was the fuel to the fire. The whole idea of becoming a writer and blogger started to snowball little by little.
3. Who were your mentors and guides as your worked through this process? (Did you turn to mentors? Who’d you ask for advice? Things you read? Etc.)
My best friend, Eddy, is much older than I am and I met him through paintballing. Because of that hobby, and how well we connected, we became best of friends. Luckily for me, Eddy has a lot of experience in parenting, corporate america, and making a living online. He showed me the door to blogging, and I opened it and put my foot forward. I am also very blessed to have a great group of friends who I’ve been friends with for over 10 years. They’re all ambitious, young, intelligent, driven, and great listeners. This is when networking is king. No one can be successful by doing it alone. You have to network, learn, grow, meet new people, and connect all around the world. Having my close friends is important to me. I can rant and share my ideas and thoughts on my work and hear honest feedback. We also talk about success and goals, and I think actually talking about it and venting about it really helps a person become motivated. It almost feels like if you don’t take action soon, you’re just a whining cry-baby – and no one wants to ever feel that way.
4. How much help was this advice? (Did it hurt? Bad advice? Did you get ideas that you could put into action immediately?)
It changed my life, but it took a while for it to sink into my head. It’s hard to listen to someone telling you that you’re doing something wrong or doing nothing at all. It was a major eye-opener to both life and myself; but I’m very glad it did happen because I wouldn’t be here today.
The one thing I did become good at: listening to advice from different points of view. I think it’s important to listen to what people have to say. They’re the ones that see you on the outside and what your actions are saying. It’s nice to have someone kind of tap you back into place so you don’t drift too close to the edge. With the advice I took into consideration, I immediately began making changes – literally the next day I told myself and wrote down all these notes and ideas of how I was going to change my life around. There really is no better time than today.
5. Where in the process of overcoming this obstacle did you reach a turning point? (Did you recognize it at the time? Or did you not realize it?)
I started the blog the night after Christmas, December 2010. From that time to about … three months ago, I can say that I was clueless about blogging and writing. I was unaware of the intrinsic values of blogging, and at the time my writing was that of a fifth graders journal.
Not until a few months ago I really focused on my niche, design of my website, and improvement of my writing. The last few months have been tremendous progress yielding me two guest posts on problogger.net, and helping me understand what I wanted to do with my blog; it has helped me pursue a goal of writing an eBook.
I had to go through this “wandering of the web” in order to really find myself. Most people don’t make it this far, but I always told myself not to give up – to keep pursuing this dream and to make it a reality. I’m starting to really believe in it now. This opportunity and interview is a perfect example. I would have never thought I’d be ask to do an interview, but it feels refreshing to know that it did happen.
6. Why did you keep going when it got really tough? (What motivated you? What tools or coping methods did you use to keep you from quitting?)
Passion had a lot to do with me not quitting early.
Desperation is also another factor.
I think I stepped into blogging out of desperation when my life felt like it was crumbling beneath my feet. I felt like if this wasn’t it, then it was onto working for someone or some company my whole life. The thought of losing my freedom to work at my own pace, be my own boss, and create something that helps people, was a very frightening and stressful thought. So, I lowered my shoulder, put my head down, and persisted. It’s like that saying: “When the going gets tough, the tough gets going.”
Failure is necessary.
Without failure, I would be blind to success. I wouldn’t know what mistakes I made and how to fix them. This is dangerous and risky. I think having multiple failures in such a short amount of time really molded me into the person that I am, and it continues to do so. Recovering from failure, turning a negative opportunity into a positive is a mindset and skill that I had to work on – and I still do.
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