My Journey to being an Entrepreneur and running Festivals.

An ex friend once told me: "Life is a journey, not a destination."

Back then, I never really put much thought into that quote but as I age, I realise how powerful of a message it truly is.

In order for my festival business to exist, so many things had to happen. I needed to go through a specific journey in order for everything to work out.

This is the journey that got me to where I am today.....

Journey #1 - Having well rounded parents that taught me the value of money and made sure that I had a better life than they did.

Journey #2 - Working at Garvey's Menswear as a teen and learning about business from the men who worked there. Working at Garvey's gave me that entrepreneurial spirit. I wanted to own my own business and live a good life like Shawn did. I would Butler for some wealthy people in Oakville as a side gig and I remember telling myself one day I'll own a business and be successful like them.

Journey #3 - Going to McMaster for economics and Mohawk for online business. Both programs have served me very well in understanding supply/demand fundamentals and utilizing the internet to grow my festival business.

Journey #4 - Meeting and marrying Katie. It took a special woman who believed in me for this to actually happen. Katie sacrificed so much for me and I consider her the #1 reason why the business has succeeded. Without Katie, there would be no IHB plain and simple. Having Katie in my life is like winning the lottery.

Journey #5 - Graduating during the financial crisis. The plan was to go into finance but that was impossible at the time. I ended up working at the cement plant and never ended up going into the financial sector because the money was too good at the plant. Had I started in finance, I'd probably be making great money right now, but I'd be stuck working till the age of 65 working for other people.

Journey #6 - Moving to Brantford. I always wanted to live in Oakville/Burlington but it was expensive and Katie was working in Simcoe. Brantford was a middle ground at the time, housing was half the price in Brantford and her Family was in the area. This proved to be a very wise decision for us. The commute to work from Brantford was motivating me to start a business, not being mortgage poor allowed us to have the savings to invest in the business and it was much easier finding storage in the Brant region for a much lower cost. Also we were able to buy our forever home for 40% of the cost it would have cost in Oakville. We were able to get a 3,000 square foot walk out lot on a raveen for a decent price in Brantford before prices really started skyrocketing here. The very same house in Oakville at the time would have cost us over $1.2 million.

Journey #7 - Losing money in the stock market. I took some big risks in the stock market that didn't pan out but if they did, I'd probably be focusing on growing my investments to retire early instead of having a successful business.

Journey #8 - Having Everett and Violet. Those 2 wonderful little people really gave me the motivation to start the business. So many missed moments working nights and weekends, I just felt like I needed to do something fast before it was too late.

So had I worked in finance, not met Katie, not gotten a job at the cement plant, not moved to Brantford, not had amazing parents who wanted the best for me, not lost money in the stock market, not worked with successful business people, not gone to both Mohawk and McMaster and not had two wonderful children, IHB probably wouldn't exist today.

My journey to financial independence was a wild ride, but in the end, it was 100% worth it.

Thank you Katie for all your sacrifice, thank you for believing in me and most of all thank you for always being by my side no matter what. I don't believe in "the one" but you're as close as it comes to finding a perfect match in life. I will always love you, I will always be grateful for all that you do and now my only purpose in life is to shower you everyday with love, gifts and travel till the day I die.