Continuing on my story there on how I found my passion and decided to follow it in the “What is Stopping You?” post.

Then, another life changing event happened. I met my wife and settled down a little While I still ran my own business, in Property Management this time, and got quite involved in volunteering at the church, raising kids and paying the bills became the ‘big priority’ in our lives. My goals of teaching and public speaking took a back seat for a short while, I am not having any regrets about those decisions, I’m just stating the facts.

My volunteering at church sometime involved preaching (public speaking) and quite a bit of teaching in small groups. I also did quite a bit of training on computers and technology.

What can I say, I was never able to “shake” the IT from my life

Anyway, in the mid-90′s I was offered a job as a teaching in a local college. I taught Electronics, Digital Circuits and Computer Systems to adults. My class varied but I had up to 40 students in the electronics lab at some times. I was HOOKED! Despite the many volunteer teaching opportunities I had prior, this was my first real job as a teacher and I KNEW then that teaching was my passion, my purpose, my calling. I loved it. I had tons of energy. I could not wait until the next day started and I never tired of it. To see a student ‘get it’ when you are able to help them punch through the cloud and understand a subject, a principle, an equation or a law of physic is a blessing you have to experience to understand. These were the best times of my life so far.

Later, I was invited to speak at a trade show in Northern Alberta. I was the keynote speaker on technology for small business -a favourite topic of mine. Then the following spring (1994), I was invited to conduct a one week conference in Kelowna, BC. Business owners from across the country came for training on how to bring their business to the Internet. It was another confirmation for me that getting paid for public speaking was possible for me.

Then, I got sidetracked again and ended up with an IT job again. The danger of easy and early success and money at the wrong job is a very real thing, and it does sidedetract a lot of people. My IT job turned into a full time IT Consulting business with no time for writing, and very little time for teaching and public speaking.

And, then in November of 2009 I was able to start developing another dream idea of mine and AlbertaInsuranceExam.com was born. On this web site, I was able to finally marry my IT skills and my teaching skills. I was able to carve out my own square hole… to fit my skills, talents, passion and purpose.

I love want I am doing, my students are thankful for the opportunity to learn online.

The moral of the story, is to never quit pursuing what you want to do. You may have to do it only part time for a while, but at least you are DOING it! Who knows? Maybe your dream will turn into a full time income for a part-time job one day.

The goal for me is not as much the income as it is the opportunity to teach and to read and hear about students getting their licences because they took my course online.

I hope this two-part post was not too long, and that you will take the time to comment.

Bye for now,

Alain