Felipe recently moved from Chicago to Los Angeles. Felipe does not like writing bios about himself, especially when he is speaking about himself in the third person.

Felipe prefers conversations so do you mind if he has one with you right now?

Great, appreciate that.

Hi I’m Felipe, this is going to be a long talk so feel free to respond via email, talking to your phone or laptop, yelling if necessary and whatever other methods you can come up with.

If you were to catch me on any other day you might get a completely different bio but luckily for you, you caught me today! So let’s see if we can get this down on the first try shall we?

Most ‘About Me’s’ will put too much focus on a highlight reel of ‘monumental’ moments like when they got a certain degree, award or other type of accomplishment. I could tell you that if I went that route, my accomplishments would quickly be eclipsed by my multitude of failures.

I also believe that this is the truth for all of us.

We all know that a great resume can get you the interview but only a great interview will guarantee you the job; so here’s why you shouldn’t hire me.

I’m going to share with you three crucial elements growing up that have had a lasting influence on my life. These foundational moments and people in some way or another, till this day, always affect my decision-making and behavior

I. My Parents

I grew up in a loving home with loving parents who respected each other. I was extremely lucky and I realize that. My father was and is very open minded he often talked in larger terms. For example instead of saying,

“This is good for the country” he would say things like, “this is good for the world”. Instead of saying “that’s the way our city works” he would say, “that’s the way our society works.” A real subtle change that engraved in me somehow that we were all in this together, part of a larger habitat.

My father was and is a very decent man but he was also a big disciplinarian growing up. With a single look and few words he taught me to have respect for Authority, others (strangers or not) and most importantly my mother. He wouldn’t stand for me ever disrespecting my mom and so I learned to keep my mother always in high regard. While my dad minced his words with me when we had disagreements it was my mom who came in as an all-star buffer, diffusing the tension between us. She was the communicator; I learned to express myself in a profound manner in big part thanks to her. The both of them made a great team and are fantastic parents. Not flawless but fantastic.

So Felipe I thought this Bio was supposed to be about you and you are telling me about your parents growing up? What gives?

Well, patience young grasshopper.

Often times, to know who someone is and how they think it helps to know where they come from and what they’ve been through, such is the case.

I grew up with books in just about every room of the house (though I hardly read as a child), maps on the walls and TV’s in only two rooms – my parents and the family room. For years I debated them on what I thought was rational reasoning and valid merits to put a TV in my room and for years they denied my request. Something I was resentful about for a long time; after all, my friends seemed to all have them in their rooms and I was a huge cinephile – that means someone who loves films. I just learned that word so I thought I’d plug it.

My parents though were not anti-TV they were simply pro-conversationalists and wanted us to stay connected to each other. As an 11 year old, I remember having in depth conversions with 50 year olds. I remember at about the same age or even younger welcoming guests into our home – taking jackets, opening and closing doors, doing the initial small talk, etc.

“How was the traffic? How was the weather? Come on in.” In Spanish or English.

I don’t think that was the norm for most kids at that age but it was for my sister and I and it was by design.

Walking into a family party or any other social event my parents laid out the expectation for us at a very young age that “you say hello when you arrive and you say goodbye when you leave.” It made sense – manners 101. And so when my sister and I arrived at a family party with our parents and saw 50 individuals there we knew we had some work to do. One by one my sister and I would go and shake hands, give hugs and kisses, small talk, let people mess with our hair or pinch our cheeks and most importantly, smile.

It was exhausting. It was like a lifelong boot camp for politicians in the making or something. Finally an hour later we would get to our cousins and get to play for the rest of the night.

This social experiment my parents did was something that was natural for them because it was how they were raised to be social, respectful of elders and well mannered. It was tedious for me at first but it eventually became second nature for me as well and something I enjoyed.

This crucial skill that I learned at a young age is what I attribute a lot of my success to at a later age. The skill of going up and sometimes talking to strangers, trying to find common ground between that person and myself, and always always being authentically curious about that person’s story or perspective.

That curiosity was also by design.

At home when there was a word any one of us couldn’t quite understand or define we would defer to my mom who has a vast vocabulary and if she couldn’t crack this puzzle she would walk down to the basement get the red oversized 900 page hardcover dictionary bring it back up to the kitchen (where we probably were) and proceed to look it up and explain it to us. (Pre- “Google it” days this was pretty proactive).

When we were watching global news and heard of a report from somewhere and questions came up about the location; an answer would quickly be followed by a trip to a world map nearby and quick analysis.

When I was eight years old or so I asked my mom what a condom was and she proceeded to go to the store, get condoms, open one up and fill it up with water to show me how it works?

(Truthfully, I don’t remember too much about this experience but legend has it, along with my mother and sister that that’s how this particular episode went down, ha. I don’t doubt it either)

My point is…

We were encouraged to be curious, to be inquisitive. We weren’t punished for asking questions, stupid or not.

More then telling us that experiences were important, my parents showed us. We never really ate out, we didn’t have flashy clothes or new cars every couple years. The only pair of Jordan basketball shoes I ever had were hand me downs from my cousin. They were frugal, good on a budget and saved the rest.

That’s where the magic happened…

With the savings we would go on cross-country road trips in an old Toyota Van. We visited a good percentage of camping grounds in the Midwest and sometimes for summers at a time my parents would ship my sister and I off to Colombia to spend time with our grandparents. They wanted us to practice our Spanish, get to know our heritage and its culture and build relationships with our family there. I’m sure they wanted a break from us as well but nonetheless these experiences were priceless.

Still though as I reflect back with honesty at eleven years old I was still a naïve American boy living in the suburbs of a large city with an un-American name. At that point I was still very much living in a bubble.

II. Colombia

Then as a family we moved to Colombia for nearly four years and all my weaknesses were exposed.

My shitty Spanish, my bad soccer skills (I thought I was pretty good before I got there), my lack of natural instincts or ‘street smarts’ which most kids that grow up in inner-cities innately have because it’s a necessary tool for survival and so many other things I would learn about myself and life in that short period.

In Colombia it was where my life up to that point really got exciting. I got into fights and got beat up, I got into trouble, I got robbed more then a few times, I had my first kiss that wasn’t the result of playing “truth or dare”, I got my heart broken a few times and learned to dance, sort of.

It was also just exciting to be permanently exposed to a whole new culture and way of life. Colombia as a society is certainly much less organized then the US but they also seem to be happier. From the business owner to the lowest ranking employee everyone is always looking for a reason to ditch work to simply hang around with friends and family talking, exchanging jokes and sharing drinks. There is an engraved sense of cheerfulness, gratitude and respect in the culture that is welcomingly intoxicating. I met so many families and individuals that financially were struggling, living day by day but in a couple words were just happy and hopeful.

The kids my age were also extremely smart and years ahead of my contemporaries back in Chicago. This is where I realized how sheltered I had been. I don’t blame my parents that was just the norm back in the states. Kids in Colombia weren’t just book and street smart, they were also socially advanced. They were given love and guidance from there parents but were also encouraged to go and figure things out on there own. An 11 year old figuring out bus routes and schedules, catching the bus and fetching groceries for the family was normal there but not where I came from.

My parents, adjusting to the norms of the new environment, slowly loosened the leash a bit on my sister and I and allowed us to experience our new world. When we moved back I did my best to keep the leash as long as possible. Something I succeeded at sporadically.

By the time we moved back to our same home a few years later in the outskirts of Chicago proper, high school had begun and I slid right back in with my same classmates from a few years earlier.

III. High School Years

At 14 I was back where I had been born and raised for most of my life but I was changed forever. After one month traveling Europe with family and living abroad I couldn’t help but see the world differently, little did I know that would continue to evolve – one of my most impactful experiences was next.

My high school was not like yours.

In Colombia, everyone is Colombian. There is a complete lack of cultural diversity and they love nicknames. The fat kid in class is known as ‘el gordo’ aka fat kid (term of endearment, really). The only guy from the US is known as ‘el gringo’ aka me.

At my high school those nicknames would be redundant.

Cook county (where I resided at the time and where my high school is located) was the third most diverse county in the country. Maine East, my former high school in its student body had somewhere around 130 countries represented. Just to give you an idea there are roughly 200 total countries in the world so we had representation from every region of the world.

It wasn’t unusual to walk down the hallways between classes and hear nearly a dozen different languages being spoken. You name it.

“Filipino.”

“Spanish”

“Polish”

“Russian”

“Guyurati”

“Punjabi”

“Arabic”

“French”

“Assyrian”

“Serbian”

“Greek”

We heard it all.

Oh, and English…the American kind, mostly.

It was glorious. I thought to myself, “this is USA baby.”

My group of close friends consisted of a couple Assyrians, a Lebanese guy, couple Colombians, a few Polish guys, a Mexican, an African guy and a turkish guy to name a few. We were the united nations of friends. It worked because we were really all the same. Our parents were all hard-working immigrants; we were all first generation kids living in the Midwest. Living comfortably but certainly not rich.

I was being exposed to new cultures and its traditions, their points of views and general outlooks on life, the amazing food and the importance of loyalty to family. I became obsessed with learning as much as I could and would try to learn at least a few words in different languages.

I have found that when you speak to someone in his or her native language they tend to appreciate you in a special way because you have put forth effort to learn about something that is important to them.

All of these experiences were preparing me not just for urban and diverse America but also for the World as a whole and as a member of it, I felt that was important.

Remember that movie “The Breakfast Club” where a few kids have to sit in detention all day on a Saturday and they each fall into a different stereotype?

Stereotypes such as: the jocks, the preps, the punk rockers, the theatre kids, the band geeks, the druggies and the nerds.

Ironically, parts of that movie were filmed at my high school and we did have all those groups. They were represented with absolute diversity.

I though, never really felt like I fit in any one of them but instead into all of them at some point through high school.

I loved playing sports but was certainly no jock; getting cut from the soccer and volleyball teams reminded me of that. Theatre was a shoe-in for me once sports wouldn’t take me. During lunch hours I sat with troublemakers and intellectuals alike. On the weekends I went out clubbing with teenyboppers, the early 2000’s version of greasers and punk rockers. I was all over the place. I couldn’t commit full time to just one group. Though it was difficult to balance, I enjoyed and still do having friends in different circles.

I believe there is many of us like this that enjoy meeting people with different ideologies, backgrounds and strengths. This has been a crucial element in influencing my outlook on life and society because I like to hear others perspectives.

This is the brief story of my life for the first eighteen years leading into adulthood. The real foundation of what led me to create “Ways of Wealth”. In the fifteen years that have followed I have had a “Wealth of Experiences” as well – some good, some bad but all of them rewarding.

Throughout the blog I will share some of these experiences along with stories and lessons from other guest bloggers.

One of my most rewarding set of experiences that I am very proud of is the more then 45 different jobs I have had in my lifetime.

I have kept pushing myself to have experiences, to learn, to meet more people, to suck at something so much until I either get better or get tired at sucking at it and find something else to do. I hope you will also continue to push yourself until you find your calling.

You will see me sign with a different occupation I once had or still do have at the end of all my posts. So here’s a memorable one.

Your Pool Boy,

Felipe

Photo credit to Junior Saucedo a respected photographer in the Los Angeles area.