Would you believe it’s been 2 years since our last post? Probably not, you’ve probably moved on to newer and better things. This, I don’t blame you at all for. I started Tactical Survivor out of hobby, something to do in my spare time. But hobbies turn into passions, and if you’re lucky enough they’ll turn into your career.
Throughout the last 16 years of my life I’ve been a passionate paintball player. The camaraderie of the sport is its lifeblood. Everyone belongs, everyone contributes, everyone struggles. Around the time of the last Tactical Survivor article I joined up to write for a website called MagFedPB.com. This was a website that focussed specifically on the growing niche of magazine fed paintball markers. Quickly, I was assigned the position of editor in chief and things went boom from there. All of a sudden we were reaching massive levels of brand support, tens of thousands of daily viewers and a massively growing audience. We had struck gold, but without the gold.
Blogging, writing or spewing your mind online is a pretty thankless job. Not to mention it rarely pays. So this is where passion hits the pavement. If you put in the time, you’ll accomplish the same with your goals. Achievements don’t come without struggles though.
In early 2013 I was a newly stay at home parent. I found out while I was on my leave, that my job would no longer exist when I was set to return. 2013 was the time of cutbacks, layoffs and corporate shrinkage. I became desperate to find my future, what I didn’t know was how well I work when I am desperate.
Without my wonderful wife’s knowing, I took the last $200 I had to my name and started patchpanel.ca. Filling an unexploited market, things boomed. Around the middle of 2013, I received the opportunity to distribute a single paintball product in Canada. Its glowing success led me down an even bigger alley, to distribute an entire paintball brand in Canada. My dreams seemed at my grasp all of a sudden, but it wasn’t without its sleepless nights, long days, and non stop work. I certainly did not prepare myself for what was ahead of me.
In 2014, I got to experience the brands biggest growth in history. Our niche market became the main stream, and we were at the head of the pack. In the past almost 3 years I’ve learned more than I could have expected to learn in a lifetime. I’ve learned that the people you thought were your friends will be bought in a heartbeat, and the people you least expected can become some of the greatest influences of your life. Success is all fine and dandy, but it’s useless without the people you care most about.
I started Tactical Survivor to inspire people to think on their own. I’m not the foremost expert but I improvise, adapt and overcome. Over the past couple of years, I’ve still felt like I was forgetting something and I now realize what it was. It was this, the people I don’t know, and may never know. I’ve learned so many great things from you guys and become a better person for it. Maybe now I can return the favour.
I’ve got a mountain of gear to start reviewing again, we’ll even start doing some of them in video format. Back to the grind.
