Twenty years ago, I made a declaration that changed everything.
They say the average person makes three to seven career shifts in a lifetime. By the time I was 31, I had already made seven.
I was searching. For purpose. For direction. For a way to use the gifts I knew I had, but didn’t yet know how to aim.
Twenty years ago, I had very little certainty about my mission. Some of you knew me during that season. You saw it happening in real time.
I had left the corporate tech and management consulting world in 2001. Then 9/11 happened, and it shook me awake even further. It forced deeper questions about meaning, contribution, and impact.
In April 2004, my dad passed away.
That loss changed me. I went deep into nutrition and health, not to optimize performance, but to take responsibility for my life and my energy.
That season grounded me. It taught me that impact without health is fragile, and that clarity often comes through loss, not before it.
By the end of 2005, I was unsettled. I had just moved back to Queens to be closer to my mom. My core peer group was scattered. Internally, I knew I had a voice. In almost every room I walked into, people listened. I could feel it.
But externally, I had no clear way to use it to create lasting impact.
Then, in late 2005, I attended Date With Destiny.
For the first time, I made a clear declaration: My mission was to inspire others to find their God-given voice.
Not long after that event, while walking into New York City one day, I stumbled upon a book. The 8th Habit by Stephen Covey.
When I opened it, I was in tears.
The core idea of the book was exactly what I had just declared at DWD. Inspiring others to find their voice. To step into leadership. To live with purpose.
That was the moment it clicked. This wasn’t random. This wasn’t coincidence.
Where focus goes, energy flows.
From that point on, I realigned my life around that mission. I launched projects in alignment with it. One of those became Success Circles, a peer-to-peer accountability community founded exactly twenty years ago.
At its core, Success Circles wasn’s just about about productivity or goals. It was about helping people find their voice each day. Helping them step into their day with intention. Helping them not feel alone while doing meaningful work.
Over time, the mission evolved. We began supporting high-level entrepreneurs and C-suite leaders. People carrying big responsibility. People who needed a place to think, reflect, and stay aligned.
Today, our community has spanned dozens of countries, including Israel, Australia, Portugal, South America, Canada, and beyond.
Twenty years of helping people win the game of life, work, and play.
Looking back, it’s clear that the clarity I gained at that event set everything in motion. At the time, it didn’t fully make sense. It only made more sense later, as more references and confirmations appeared.
My advice to you is simple.
Get clear on what you want. Define a mission that matters to you. Know your values. Cut away distractions and noise that pull you off course.
Those choices compound.
In the last twenty years, I became a dad. We launched multiple companies. We built social impact initiatives. We impacted thousands of people around the world. I even wrote a book last year called Dare to Play, Bigger, Bolder and Better.
All of it traces back to the same mission I declared twenty years ago.
To inspire others to find their voice.
If you just attended Date With Destiny and made your own declaration, you’re standing where I was twenty years ago. That clarity you gained is real. The question now is: what structure will support you in bringing that mission to life?
Success Circles was built for this exact moment. It’s a place where your declarations become daily practice. Where you’re not alone in the work of becoming who you said you’d be.
