Sometimes the Universe is Trying to Tell You Something

From a Dusty Book to Personal Growth

I believe the universe may have been suggesting that I divide the original Medium piece into two separate stories. I managed to write most of the below without remembering that I covered it in 2016. Thus, I split the original work and kept the most valuable lesson from Tony in a separate piece on Seed Scapes.

I got a call out of the blue from my good friend Joseph Megna from high school. Joe and I were the only two from our graduating class who got into MIT's undergraduate program. Joe used to joke that the only reason he got in, being Puerto Rican, was because they had a quota to fill. (His joke, not mine!) Though Joe wasn't known as riding with the smart bunch back in high school, he wouldn't have survived at MIT if he didn't have the brains for it. While at MIT I am not sure if we even saw each other. In a top engineering school, students often spend the majority of their time with classmates who are pursuing the same major as well as those who live in the same housing arrangement. In this case, our living groups were on opposite sides of a river and we were pursuing different majors.

An Unexpected Call Sparks My Journey

Anyway, here he was, calling me out of nowhere 10 years after we graduated. He was back in town and wanted to visit. What was he up to these days? Turning around businesses while living on a boat in Hawaii!

Part of his outreach was admittedly wanting to pick my brain for clues that successful people leave behind. What? At the time, "successful" was not a category I would have placed myself in. If I was more brutally honest with myself, I think "lost" would have topped the list. Though we had a good time catching up, it turned out I was learning a lot more from him than vice versa. His "success leaves clues" mantra came from Tony Robbins. You mean that guy with the big teeth that has those infomercials on late at night? Yes, him.

Joe said I needed to buy this book called Unlimited Power and I did just that being sucked up with the energy of the moment together.

The book ended up in the back of my clothes closet. Yes, somehow it was there, not even on a shelf where it would be visible. No, I don't know why. It's not as if I kept a stack of unread books back there, and this one showed all the obvious signs of being perfectly unopened. If the universe hadn't kept knocking on my door after that, well, that is pretty much where this story would have begun and ended, friends. But the universe had other plans in store.

Years later, with enough subtle nudges in between from other sources, I finally dusted off the book - and I mean that literally. I don't recall the exact trip, but I remember reading it in Florida while on vacation from New Jersey. The more I read, the more interested I became. It opened my eyes to techniques and possibilities I'd never been exposed to before. I hadn't done much recreational reading over the years. I'd avoided most "required" books in school, and the only fiction I read for pleasure was the occasional Tom Clancy thriller. Otherwise, I was a magazine guy, into tech, only reading to learn about the latest innovations. But now, I was excited about this book - not for the characters' story, but for the story it told about the character hiding inside me.

Pushing Through Resistance

Coming back to reality, I shared my excitement with my company's HR director. Yeah, I should have realized my enthusiasm wouldn't translate well. After all, it was a book I hadn't even wanted to read at first. But the resistance went even further - in his mind, the author was a charlatan. Yes, to him, Tony Robbins was too good to be true, a fraud. I realized I'd hit a wall there and wasn't going to push it further.

It wasn’t long after that when our interim COO also mentioned Tony Robbins. He was excited to attend a live seminar. As pumped as he was, he was also skeptical of the hype and wondered if he'd find "chinks in his armor." He wanted me to come along too. At the time I was suffering constant sinus issues, so I put off that nudge from the universe once more.

Somewhere in between, I did get through Tony's Personal Power audio program. I was hooked - those tapes, yes, tapes back then, took me even further than the book. After my interim COO returned raving that I needed to attend, I finally made it to my first UPW event in Florida a year later. (To place things from a general perspective, the book was the trailer to the black and white silent movie of the audio program, and the live event was the IMAX full color immersive experience that is impossible to describe to anyone who has never gone to one.)

Finally listening to the universe, I emerged from that experience a different person. There were other Tony Robbins seminars after that, including what was then called Mastery University (a much different program than what exists today). His teachings, and those of many others, have led me to where I am today. The concept of personal growth wasn't something I knew or could model from anyone I knew - I had to dive into deeply uncomfortable waters. The result was not only learning to swim, but being able to teach others as well. I'm still deep in this journey that started with a book it took me years to open. I have the universe to thank for kicking my ass more than once to keep going.

On a side note, if anyone knows where Joey Megna from the MIT Class of '86 is today, drop me a note!