If there’s one thing I’m slowly getting a grip on, it’s the reality that life moves quickly, and the music tends to flow differently at various stages of life. The other day, I was listening to a song that brought back a flood of memories.
Listening to a song in the living room from a 2019 playlist of mine.
— Cameron Tarbell (@TarbellCameron) February 17, 2021
Me: Wow, this song brings back memories of when my dreams felt so big!
Robye: … You know, you can still dream big, right?
Me: Oh, I’m living the dreams that I thought of listening to this song.
Back in 2017, I started my website design business. I freelanced through freshman year, with only small amounts of success in the process. After freshman year, I stayed home to focus even more on my business, making connections in my hometown, even becoming a website vendor for a radio station in town and for their clients, which was a big win at the time.
When I was in high school, I had made friends in Lima, Peru. One of these guys, Andres, was a self starter, someone that seemed very similar to me, except he fixed iPhones rather than websites. He was good at it too. He could have a phone fixed in 20 minutes, from cracked screen to like new.
One day, I wanted to experiment with Google Ads, but didn’t have the financial resources to make it happen, until I realized that you could get a very low CPC in other countries, like Peru. The problem was, I didn’t have a service to sell in Peru. But Andres did.
I contacted him and asked if he might want some free leads. I’d make a simple website, drive traffic, and try to drive leads.
The crazy part was that it worked. Within the first few days, we had more than a dozen leads, all for less than $20. Honestly, I can’t remember if the leads converted. However, it gave me the idea to go to Peru and try to grow this business with him.
So, I got on a plane right before new years, flew down, and got to work.
There were a few songs I would listen to on the walk to work. I remember taking a deep breath everyday, optimistic about the future and the dreams I had, both with the business in Lima and my website business.
I was scraping by at the time, but I knew I wouldn’t forever. But my dreams felt so big at the time. My goals seemed so far away, but obtainable. I didn’t realize I had obtained them until well after I already had done it.
It wasn’t until my roommates girlfriend reminded me while listening to one of my songs from 2019 that I was living the dreams that I had once desired. Sometimes, I think it’s easy to forget about what our dreams once were, as we continue looking forward to the next thing, rather than looking back at how far we’ve come.
It was a nice full circle moment. I think I’ll have another moment like that in 2 years, hopefully under even better circumstances.