The Art of Work: A Proven Path to Discovering What You Were Meant to Do

But the marketing? He loved that part, something he
never would have learned if everything had gone according
to plan.
Realizing he had a knack for attracting new clients, Matt
started his own company, Fast Lane Consulting, as a side
project in 2002 while still working at the golf course. But on
July 1, 2003, a date Matt remembers because it was the day
after his birthday, the unexpected happened. His dad let him
go. The timing wasn’t great, but he knew it had been
coming. “It should have happened a lot sooner,” Matt
admitted. That was the first time he got fired.
During the summer of 2004, Matt spent half his time
working with a congressional political campaign in North
Carolina and the other half doing online marketing for
consulting clients. This was a time when he continued to
hone his online marketing skills, further falling in love with
how words and images could motivate people. “I could
spend thirty-six hours straight designing a website without
any sleep,” he recalled.
By the end of the campaign, Matt’s clients no longer
needed his services. Once again, he was about to face
unemployment, and he didn’t have a plan for what would
come next. Running out of cash and living at home, he was
relieved when a friend called, asking him to design an
insurance website. It was just the kind of project he had
been praying for, and it came at just the right time. But it
was only one gig, and Matt needed more stability as he was
getting older and wondering what he would do with the rest