My dad has told me something for years, and the older I get, the more I realize he's probably right: people quite often don't live very long after they retire. Not because retirement is dangerous — because they lose their purpose.
I didn't really understand what he meant until April 2024.
When Everything Changed
I was hospitalized with severe pancreatitis. At first I figured I'd recover, get back to work, and life would return to normal.
It didn't.
Since then I've been hospitalized five different times, undergone multiple procedures, and dealt with setback after setback. As I'm writing this, I still have a drainage tube hanging out of my side. Some days are better than others, but every day is a reminder that life can change in an instant.
A lot of people would probably have shut their business down under those circumstances. Nobody would have blamed them.
What Kept Me Going
Looking back, shutting down the Slot Grill would have been one of the worst decisions I could have made. The business gave me something my illness couldn't take away — it gave me purpose.
Every morning there were customers with questions, orders to fill, products to improve, videos to film, and ideas I wanted to try. Those responsibilities forced me to get off the couch even on days when I didn't feel like it. Once I got moving, I found myself thinking less about my health and more about what I was building.
I'm not saying work cures illness. It doesn't.
But having something meaningful to work toward changes your mindset. Instead of counting the hours until the next doctor's appointment, I was thinking about the next improvement to the grill, the next video, or the next customer who was excited to receive something I had built.
A Common Thread
Looking back over my life, this has been a pattern. I started selling on eBay while working a regular job because I wanted something of my own. Later I built an Internet Service Provider. After Hurricane Rita, I saw opportunity where most people saw piles of fallen trees, bought a hydraulic sawmill, and started a sawmill business. Today it's the Slot Grill.
Those businesses have all been different, but they've all given me the same thing: a reason to keep moving forward.
Why It Matters
I'm not trying to become the richest person in the world. Of course I want the business to succeed, but the greatest reward isn't another dollar in the bank account. It's knowing that something I built is being used by families camping together, cooking in the backyard, or making memories around a fire.
That's a kind of wealth money can't buy.
I'm still dealing with the medical side of this journey, and I don't know exactly when it will end. What I do know is that every morning I still have something that needs my attention. Customers are waiting. Ideas are waiting. Tomorrow is waiting.
Maybe that's what my dad understood all along.
People don't just need something to do. They need a reason to get up and do it.