***ORIGIN***

I went fishing the day after September 11th to get away from the TV, so I could clear my head and try to make sense of the darkness heading Our Way.

I was a month away from my 35th birthday and for the first time since high school I considered joining The Military.

America was going to War and I thought about all the death and destruction and about those who would sacrifice to keep US safe.

Standing on The Rocks I could see my reflection in the water and I didn't like what 9/11 had forced me to see.

As a young man I "wanted the ball" and all the responsibility that came with it. As an adult, I willingly let others carry the ball and the burden so I could have my fun in the Cape Cod sun.

As fate would have it, I celebrated July 4th 2000 by leaving a "job" to pursue an American Dream. But on 9/12 it seemed more likely than not, that my Dream was over. My business was already on shaky ground and I was losing faith.

It was clear My American Dream was about to fall to the terrorists.

So, I decided my personal response to 9/11 would be a 'First Promise to God' to see my American Dream through to the end... no matter what the cost.

IT'S TRUE. On September 1, 2001... my struggling business went online with a first of a kind Behavioral Health Program for college students. Having learned many lessons from the dot-com bubble, the business model included a subscription fee paid by colleges.

Trying hard not to rush into things, the previous 6 months were spent convincing eleven colleges to test the idea.

But "my plan" didn't include 9/11.

Imagine for a moment being a young entrepreneur, having burned through all your savings and original investments just to get to the day that "the test" could begin... and to be in possession of a one of a kind product (sparse as it was at the time) dedicated to the issues of stress, depression, anger and grief.

Well, what would you do in the immediate days after 9/11?

Most of you would do what I did... give the program to as many colleges as you could, free of charge.

After all, men and women were heading to war and some of them were about to literally give all they had to give. In my mind, the absolute very least that I could do... was the very best that I could do at the time.

The choice to offer the Outreach Program free to colleges was a fateful decision.

The original business proposition proposed a test to determine if a branded website could reach "at risk" students ahead of risky, violent or otherwise dangerous behavior. Including suicide.

It's not hard to see the value to the schools... if it worked.

Reaching just one student could be very valuable.

I didn't know it at the time but giving the program away free meant that instead of needing to reach a troubled student, two or three... any successful new business model required that I reach millions... maybe stressed... but otherwise very healthy young men and women with commercial health messages that they didn't need.

Over time I came to believe that a healthy person not only doesn't need to hear about the symptoms of depression... but that general mental health education that distributed vague and sometimes misleading "symptoms of depression" could possibly plant the seeds of depression or at the very least- feed it.

In the Fall of 2007 just as I was preparing a HUGE business launch... I woke-up from a dream to the idea that my work, no matter how well intended... Well, if it all worked as intended... my business could do a great deal more harm than good.

...and I could NOT live with that.

Face to face with that DARK reality... I eventually pulled the plug and flushed all of my hard work down the cyber drain.

To make this long story short...

Somehow, I lost the ability to give-up on my dream.

Each day that passed I learned a little more about what it takes to make a dream come true... so I stayed true to my dream, believing that one way OR another it was only a matter of time before my dream finally came true.

I started sharing what I was learning about The American Dream in April of 2003 when the earliest version of W.A.Y. was posted free online.

The simple act of 'sharing' fed the part of me that wanted to become a part of 'the solution' in any way that I could.

I didn't know what to expect at the time... but I certainly didn't expect to receive so many emails from people who said the book helped them to regain their Faith in God or that because of the book they found reason to hope again and how grateful they were that I had posted the book free online.

It was because of the readers' words and emails that I began to develop a deep sense of responsibility to make sure the words... weren't empty words.

So, I decided to live by the words.

That was easier said than done, but over time I found that some of the original words were wrong and caused by faulty beliefs.

I worked very hard to find and change the beliefs that needed to be changed.

The more change and pain… I… was willing to embrace... the deeper and better the words became and W.A.Y. became a much different book as it became part of a much bigger plan.  

NOTE: This picture was NOT taken on the day after 9.11. 

It was taken after that.