Relentless Romero Blogs

What if 90% of your work was pro bono and only 10% of the time you were paid? This is the situation I find myself in at the present moment. I became a Keynote Speaker a few years ago. When I first began speaking, I spoke for free 100% of the time. I called schools, service organizations (Rotary, Lions, Optimist, Kiwana, Knights of Columbus Clubs), churches, youth detention facilities, homeless shelters and residential recovery centers for adults and asked to speak to their youth and adults free of charge. When I spoke to groups, I was consistently thanked for sharing my story, being vulnerable, talking about tough topics like depression and fear, and teaching how to believe in a dream and accomplish the seemingly impossible. I had people encourage me to continue sharing my story, they told me I was the best speaker they had ever heard, and some told me I said exactly what they needed to hear at that moment. This feedback encouraged me, and fueled my desire to pursue a career

Recently, I had the shocking fortune of running past a building that I thought was going to topple over on me. As I ran past the building I noticed that it was a triangle on the bottom and a square on the top. The different shapes at different ends of the building made it look like the building was "twisting." I have not been able to shake the thought of this building. As I researched the building, I discovered that it will be the 4th tallest building in the city, and the "twist" is actually supposed to strengthen the structural integrity of the design. The building has attracted a lot of attention because of it's "difference" of architecture. Critics have come out in droves to suggest that the building is sinking, or that each floor is one inch short, or that construction has been halted - all of which are untrue.  This got me thinking about how we humans interact with one another. As a norm, the masses are more comfortable with homogeneity -