A Look Back At 2012 – By Anthony Morrison

Well the time has come for me to post my ‘look back’ on the year 2012. I have to say it was a great year for me and my family, but there were certainly some trying times this year that I have never really experienced before in my 30 years.
I will outline some of the things here that really catch my attention as I look back at 2012….

1. Let’s Start With The Obvious – YIKES ! I turned 30 this year on December 24th. Talk about just a shock. I started all my businesses in my twenties so I have literally gone from a kid in college with the hopes of being a doctor one day to an Internet Entrepreneur, Author, Speaker, Businessman, Investor etc etc etc all in my twenties. I gotta say being 30feel’s no different, but in my mind I know things are going to change for me. When I turned 20 I knew what I thought I wanted to do for my life. As I turn 30 I now ‘know’ what I am doing with my life. This next decade represents to me just time to pour my energy into building new businesses and continuing to do what I love to do. I think it’s going to be exciting and fun. I am so happy to have my students along for the ride.

2. I became a God Father – Yep earlier this year my best friends Josh and Susan Siegal welcomed their first child into this world, Emma Siegal, and selected me as her God Father. I didn’t really think much about ‘what that means’ until recently, but now I know just how much of a responsibility that is for the next 20, 30 and so on years. Of course it’s a responsibility I am honored and excited to accept. She’s just the cutest little baby I have ever seen and she smiles constantly. Josh and I go way back (all the way to 6th grade!) which now is like 2 decades ago for us old guys. I’ve realized that God puts you in peoples lives for a reason and it’s up to us to really determine ‘what’ that reason is on our own. I believe we are in each others lives so we can help one another become better people, take care of our families and always provide encouragement and support to each other. I couldn’t ask for a better friend, hands down, and now I am lucky enough to be the God Father of his first child. We’ve come a LONG way from a couple of arguments in 6th grade. All I can do is thank God every day we have each other as best friends.

3. Troubled Health – This year my family was faced with some serious health issues. It was the first time that I can remember ever having such ‘serious’ things happen to my parents. My mom had to have surgery around May and my dad ended up in emergency surgery in July. I am happy to say both of them are doing fine now and should live many more years, but it certainly was a wake up call for me. I’ve been so easy to just run through life, focus on my work and sort of let go of some of that ‘family time’ that means so much to me. Just ‘feeling’ like I might lose them this year really has opened my eyes and made me realize work just has to take a back seat to family so that will be one of my 2013 resolutions for sure.

4. Big Changes For My Girlfriend – This year I really for the first time had to be a real ‘support’ for my girlfriend. Her family moved from Seattle to Portland, which means she lost the home she grew up in as a child. It was devastating to her. She’s lived here with me now for 2 years and I would imagine she’s going to live with me for the rest of my life. I love her with all of my heart unconditionally. Seeing her go through the pain of just losing what she called ‘home’ really hurt me a lot. It’s made me more focused on making sure our home starts to feel like ‘home’ for her. I also realized I can really be the support that she needs in a tough time. I think relationships have to start by first being best friends. People you can count on no matter what and people you can always trust to support you. I feel like we’ve grown closer because of this and we are both looking forward to exploring Portland in 2013 and see what it has to offer us in the way of new experiences. I think we will both miss Seattle, but we look forward to something new and exciting for 2013 in Portland.

5. My Brother Hit National TV – Well it’s not to often you see your little brother follow so closely in your footsteps, but I have to say 2012 was really his year! He’s now recognized as one of the BEST speakers in the country on Internet Marketing. He has spoken to literally thousands of people around the country and helped to educate America on what it takes to be successful in the world of Social Media Advertising. Not only that, but he was interviewed on Success TV about his book Social Media Profits From Home, which has now become a hit national television show! So let’s see this year he became one of the best speakers on the planet, wrote a killer book and ended up on national TV…. Looks like I need to set my sights a bit higher to keep up in 2013….. read more about him at www.AdrianMorrison.com. And to Adrian I am proud of you for being so successful, so driven and never letting people make you think you “can not” do something. All your life people said you were ADHD and this and that well look at you now …. prime example of why if you keep faith in yourself you can always have the success you want.

6. Company Growth – I have to say overall I am stoked about the growth of our companies in 2012. We’ve welcomed many new people in our offices, some of which came from hundreds of miles away to work with us on our projects. We’ve seen massive growth in 2012 and are projected to do even better in 2013. A lot of this has to do with just staying on top of what’s happening online. I encourage everyone to stay educated on what’s going on online. It’s changing daily, but offers new opportunities to have success with every change. The Internet is here to stay so hopefully I can continue to encourage you all to take it seriously and take advantage of it.

7. My First Christmas At Home – Another ‘first’ for me this year was Christmas with my girlfriend in our home. We’ve been together now for 3 Christmases all of which we have spent apart. With her family living on the other side of the country it was impossible to be in two places on one day. This year her family came to our home and spent Christmas with us and it was a blast ! Finally not ‘pretending’ it was Christmas when she opened her gifts and all was really nice, plus having her family and mine together during this time of year was really amazing for us both. We love our families it’s very hard to consider our relationship and geographical location keeping us from important times and events with them so we’ve always been apart from each other. I look for that to change as we move forward…… and this year was a great start!

8. Saints Season Tickets – Yes Yes Yes I know…. the Saints didn’t play well, but this was the first year we got to use our Saints Season Tickets. Myself, Josh, Susan and Alexa went to most every Saints home game this year and it was a blast! I rarely take time to just do things that I love doing for ‘fun’. If works not involved likely I am not to interested in doing it, but this year I did make time for the games and it was a lot of fun. We got Club Level tickets so we went into this really nice club at the Dome and enjoyed some great food before each game. I’d say it’s the most ‘fun’ I have had in years! Let’s just hope the Saints have a better season next year.

9. Less travel – I was just reading what I posed about last year and realized I HATED all the non stop travel we were doing. This year has really been more subdued. We’ve taken some vacations to Destin, The Keys, Orange County and NYC but we haven’t spent the entire year traveling for work. It’s nice to just sit back and relax at home for awhile. I am not sure what 2013 has in store for us as far as travel goes, but let’s hope it’s about like this year 🙂

10. A New Friendship – Doing what I do hasn’t really allowed me many friends, at least not local ones. I am pretty much submerged into work (considering I run so many companies in a day) so my social life is lacking to say the least. I’m happy spending my free time with Alexa and obviously working, but this year I found a new friend. Tim moved here from California to work with me on some projects and we’ve not only been good working partners, but also become really good friends. It’s rare when you find someone that constantly reminds you to ‘take time off’ and ‘focus on your health & less stress’ right? especially when that same person has everything to gain from me working around the clock non stop. He’s really become a good friend of mine who’s relocated his life just to work with me. Like I said I think God puts people in your life for a reason. There are many things I have already learned from Tim and I look forward to working with him more in 2013 and continuing to become even better friends with him. At the end of the day work, companies, success it all comes to an end….. friends last forever. Tim I am glad to call you my friend man.