The Real Me

The best thing that any person can do on this earth is find out who they really are, be true to and improve that character, then offer themselves to the world. I fully believe that we are all blessed with our own strengths, talents and interests so that we can add value to this world.  I can only be the best Jake Frei, not the best Abraham Lincoln,  Thomas Edison, Albert Einstein or Shakespeare . As inspiring as these men are, they created their greatness by following their passions and being true to their character, following their interests, improving their strengths and blessing the lives of others with the best thing they had to offer the world and that was themselves.

In an effort to live the same legacy as these great men and many others I am offering the real me to the world in hopes to connect with those whom I will be able to serve best.

The true Jake Frei is passionate about fishing, family, spirituality, self improvement, entrepreneurship, and service. Currently through my business, Frei Style, I am offering my talents and abilities to the world as a life/business/fishing guide. 

Interesting right? I agree but let me share with you my brief story of how I came to such an interesting idea.

I started working at age 5 tying fishing flies for my dads fly tying business. He supplied all of the local fly shops in the white mountains for several years. I had the privilege of going with him on his trips to stock up the stores. Many of the shops were by a lake where  I would sneak  down by the waterside, find old fishing line and hooks and try to fish. I was obsessed at a very young age with fishing. Later at the age of 12 I was going door to door in the fall asking people if I could rake leaves for cash. That led to me getting a full time summer job managing a yard each summer. With the experience I got from this job I started my own landscape maintenance company at the age of 17 and did quite well. This ruined me as an employee. Having the control over my life and making more money doing my own thing in one day than I could in a week with my other job, I have not been able to "fit in" in the corporate world ever since. I then served a 2 year mission for my church. When I returned I tried forcing myself to work a desk job at University of Phoenix and that lasted about 6 months. I was partners with my older brother in a window cleaning company called Pane Frei Window Cleaning and I got burnt out of the valley heat and the big city so I sold my part in the business and moved to the mountains. I also worked for a company called Agriscaping technologies twice, did pest control for 2 different companies, managed production in a warehouse, worked for my dads window cleaning company Streak Frei Window Cleaning and I have tried several other things. I was on a 6 month cycle of changing jobs or opportunities. The thing is that all of these companies are good companies and just like everything else they have their difficulties, but the point here is that you can only fool yourself for so long. If you are not living your passions, no matter how much money you make, you will burn out and be dissatisfied. Like Stephen Covey states in his book 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, you don't want to spend your life climbing a ladder just to find out when you get to the top it was leaning against the wrong wall. Luckily I was able to realize I was on the wrong wall before I spent my whole life climbing. I have spent the last 4 years climbing different walls that were not right for me. So many people decide to trade their true identity for money, or fear of rejection or the unknown or to please others.

I love fishing and can do it every day 18 hours a day and not get tired of it. I can catch 100 fish in a day and fish number 100 is just as fun as fish number 1. I can take a friend fishing, set them up with the same things I am using and out fish them by double or more. This is one of my talents and passions.

I can have a business conversation over lunch and get carried away in the conversation just to look down and see I have not touched my food in the whole hour it was sitting there. Trust me I really like food and it takes a good distraction to keep my attention off of good food under my nose. I cant seem to talk about anything else when I am around other business people. I love it.

I can't help but bring up lessons to be learned when friends and family share difficult times with me. I always find myself quoting books and self help leaders to give hope and understanding in those difficult times. I spend many hours discussing self help principles and plans on how to apply them in life with family and friends and I feel joyful and fully energized when I do.

These are good indicators of things I am passionate about and that I am good at. I want to be able to offer services that I am 100% invested in and this is it. I want to help people experience the beautiful creations in nature, provide guidance to live a joyful fulfilled life, and share my entrepreneurial mind in hopes to increase the success of others. This is who I am, who I want to be, and what I have to offer the world for now and there are plenty of people just waiting for me to be me so I can really help them with my individual talents. Now the real question is who are you and are you willing to be that person?