Josh

The year 2017 was quite a predicament for me. I had only a few hundred dollars to my name, but I stood at a crossroads: business school, law school, or building something of my own.
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My goal in 2017 and every day since, has been to align my life with the proclivities that energize me, fill my cup, and bring me closer to my purpose (my Ikigai AKA eekee AI).
My father, a serial entrepreneur, was quite lost in his Ikigai when it came to his career purpose. Though he worked tirelessly, economic downturns kept his ventures from lasting success, leaving him unfulfilled in his professional life. His solace?
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He had the most powerful Ikigai when it came to his life purpose. Outside of the office, my father was doing what he loved, and it completely overpowered the strain his career caused on him and made his life meaningful.

One of the last Facebook posts my father made was this:

Remember everyone, life is precious so find your passion!!

In 2020 at age 62 my father would pass away. He died from Glioblastoma, a very aggressive stage 4 brain cancer. He was a man that lived his life to the fullest. He chased powder, snowboarding across the rockies, and in the summer dirtbiking remote trails in some of America’s most stunning landscapes.

I have built a great career. The Real estate firm I started working for out of high school, I would come to own. I had grown and built the business and I would invest in my own real estate assets. Yet, beyond the office and beyond the grind, I felt emptiness. I hadn't found the kind of passion my father had lived for.
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I interviewed mentors, industry moguls, and other business owners, and asked them:
What is your passion in your little free time that makes your life feel fulfilled?
What I found was, most people connected their passion only to their career, and very few could name what fulfilled them beyond it.
In the end, we all leave behind the same size grave.

What matters is whether we were truly satisfied with how we lived. From my father's perspective, the deepest fulfillment comes not from just your career, but from what you build outside of it.

After heavily evaluating my life outside the office, I noticed I, too, had been neglecting life beyond my work. I spoke to therapists, family, and friends. I asked them, "When do you see me the most energetic and happy?"

That simple question became the foundation of my search for meaning. My search for my own Ikigai.

-Josh Horwitz

My story