We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Gray Koenemann. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Gray below.
Hi Gray, thanks for sharing your insights with our community today. Part of your success, no doubt, is due to your work ethic and so we’d love if you could open up about where you got your work ethic from?
The unusual advantage I had growing up that created a strong sense of work ethic in me was my parents age. Born in ’57 and ’58, my parents were nearly 40 when they had me. Through my experiences in life, I’ve come to realize that there is something inherint to the boomer generation that instiled in them a very strong sense of work ethic that was in turn engrained into me. My father taught me from a very young age that if I want something done right, I must do it myself. Although this may not create the strongest sense of cooperation, it creates a sense of urgency and responsibilty over ones life that is extremely difficult to ignore.
Everything that I have, my nest egg, my relationships, my career, can be attributed to my work ethic. Time and time again, in my life, the sweat equity that I have contributed to every endeavor in life has become proof that you can never truly lack the necessary skill to accomplish a task so long as you have the discipline to try it anyway.
Great, so let’s take a few minutes and cover your story. What should folks know about you and what you do?
My biggest endeavor in life, currently, is the conception of my first child. I have wanted nothing more in my entire life than to be a good father and lead by example to show them how to lead and create a life full of experience, generosity, and knowledge. With that being said, everything in my professional and personal life reflect that endeavor and the necessary principles to embody the exact person I need to be in order to be succesful as a father. I am a professional communicator. I have a health & nutrition coaching business that I run in my free time, while working for an investment firm, Greywolfe Investing, during the day. As I grow in both roles, I realize the coalescense between the two industries. Wellness, both mental and physical, are paramount to being successful in the business world. Entrepeneurs and intrenpeneurs alike are both high acheivers. In the fray of today’s society, behind the veil of social media and the public eye, are a group of people like myself struggling to maintain a balance to being a father family man, and a business man. My goal is to proove to my community and my family that it is not only possible to be successful as both, but is, in fact, the only way to be successful and fulfilled as both a family and business man.
At greywolfe, we create almost entirely passive streams of revenue for our clients, so that they can continue building fortifiable wealth and sustainability for their family, all while enjoying more freedom of time to actually spend with their loved ones. We are a family owned and operated business whose vision for their families is one in the same for their clients: health, wealth, and freedom.
There is so much advice out there about all the different skills and qualities folks need to develop in order to succeed in today’s highly competitive environment and often it can feel overwhelming. So, if we had to break it down to just the three that matter most, which three skills or qualities would you focus on?
Work Ethic: As mentioned in my first answer, the only truly prerequisite characteristic to any endeavor, is your attitude toward it. If you know you can work hard and be disciplined, anything is possible.
Confidence: Like many good men, I haven’t always been sure of myself. In fact, I think a healthy dose of self-doubt keeps us accoutable. However, how you do one thing is how you do anything. So, you may as well approach everything with confidence. I have countless experiences in life that came to fruition simply because I mustered up the confience to do something I otherwise doubted my ability to do, and succesfully completed.
Who has been most helpful in helping you overcome challenges or build and develop the essential skills, qualities or knowledge you needed to be successful?
The answer here is multi-faceted. On one hand, the most impactful person in my life has and always will be my father. His work ethic, stoicism, and utter compsure when faced with adversity makes him, in my eyes, perhaps the most respectable human being I’ve ever known. Not only has he been an unrelenting force of motivation for me, but a true friend and mentor in times when it really mattered. For any man, there is no one like their father to teach them life’s lessons, especially for an aspiring father like myself. On the other hand, my biggest teacher has been not a person, but the failures and consequences of my own actions. If you can learn to embrace failure as a teacher in life, then you are unbound in your ability to learn and grow. I have, like many, been humbled by my own failures. But its what I’ve learned to do with those lessons that have made me who I am today.
Contact Info:
- Website: greywolfeinvesting.com
- Instagram: instagram.com/trainlikeakavemann
- Linkedin: linkedin.com/graywithgreywolfe
Image Credits
I own all of the images.
