Hello dear steeminas,
My name is Pasha Brandes, I am an 33 years old Human, Man, soon to be Father, Entrepreneur and probably a few other things and I currently live in Israel.
Before we dive it...
I have been wanting to write my first post on steemit for quite a while now, but it took me some time to actually get to it, the reason for that is that I have never been to big into social networks, due to their centralized nature , but as steemit is here to change it, I had decided to give it a try.
I have barely ever shared those moments from my life with anybody, and for sure have never written them before, so it is a bit hard for me so please forgive me if its all a bit messed up.
Thats me, In a small geodome on top of a roof in Tel Aviv
So here I am, so let me tell you a little story about my life and hopefully introduce myself with it help.
Back in 1984…
I was born in Georgia, a "small" country in the Caucasus region when it was part of the bigger USSR. The strange thing about that period in the soviet union is that people moved freely across the country, and the population from different countries in the USSR mixed up in all the countries that were part of that union.
Modern days Tbillisi, old and modern united
So my father being a Ukrainian born and my mother being originally a Russian, both raised and grew up in Georgia. You could see people from different ethnicities and religions living side by side with no conflict, just a common understanding.
When it all began
My family first came to georgia after the second world war.
My grandfather that been just released from the his service in the soviet army for 6 years, durin which he been stationed in Germany, from the first to the last day of the second world war. He came back to Ukraine, after not seeing his family for all that time, just to discover that both his parents and his sisters been hanged by the Nazi occupation and that everything he knew was gone, he then decides to move to a temporary base for soviet veterans in some remote corner in the USSR, where he met my grandmother, that also been through some crazy experiences after being stationed as an army nurse in Saint Petersburg, during the 2 years blockade by the Nazi army.
My 93 Years old Grandfather, with all hid medals
The life of both were broken by their life events, both mentally and physically, and they both found each other in the worst time of their life, but their union brought them both some healing.
After a few month in the army camp they decided to move to Tbilisi, the capital of georgia, due to its being a very friendly region in the USSR, an due to some business opportunities that were rising there after the troubled times.
image credit
One of our first apartments used to be the while columned building in the right corner
I will not go into the story of my parents to not make this story way to long, but just to put it out in prospective, they grew up in a communist period of USSR, my father also served in the army, married late to my beautiful ballerina mom, and during a certain period of their life they were actually having a great life.
My father held a great position in the government and had lots of connections, the only thing that mattered in that time, as the slogan from communist Russia says "From each according to his ability, to each according to his needs" , everybody (at least in the idea) used to get roughly the same paycheck, the real currency used to be "who you know" and "how can you help me"...
So although not without struggles their early life was quite nice.
Early Life
We all lived in Tbilisi when my brother was born, and then me...I remember we used to travel a lot, only within the USSR (as you were not really allowed to leave the region in that time), but still we been in many places, traveled quite a lot and first years of my life were quite nice.
I lived in Georgia for 10 years of my life, moving every now and then to different countries and regions of the USSR due to my father's work, not knowing much about Religion, Ethnicity, Color, everything was great.
Me and my Mom, she is no longer with us...
But then this illusion started to crumble, I remember being on an annual vacation with my family in a country house owned by my fathers friend , in Sukhumi , a city on the Black Sea coast, an amazing place where we used to spend our summers in the past few years with our family.
Sukhumi port
Young me, like every year we are visiting my fathers friend in his hotel
In one of those days, on summer of 1992 or 1993 we went to the beach as we used to do almost everyday, my fathers friend used to pick us up after a few hours with his car, but this day he didn't, we waited for a few hours, and as it was still a cellphone-less world, we decided to start walking towards our vacation house.
We walked only for a few minutes when we started to see fighter planes in the skies, and trucks with injured soldiers passing by on the road, there was confusion, and fear, and my parents weren't sure what was happening, but soon after, though a few hours late, my fathers friend arrived, looking quite troubled, and then everything happened fast....as we were, he took us directly to a train station, and because he was a known figure in the community he managed to stop that last train that was already leaving the platform and board us on, we managed to get on it in the last minute, and that was the final train leaving the country in the next several month....
image credit
Tanks on the streets of Sukhumi
We haven't seen my fathers friend for a while after that, he was last seen running into the woods from the occupation force, they took away his house, ate his horses, destroyed his hotel....the next time we saw him was after several month, when he reappeared in our hometown after surviving in the forest for all this time, he was third his size.
Later I understood that it was the beginning of one of the bloodiest conflicts in the post-Soviet area that will be know by the name “Sukhumi massacre”, that remains unresolved till this day, I understood that that was one of the first waves that set in motion a collapse of the whole idea, the whole experiment that we were part of...called the Soviet Union.
Lesson learned: nothing lasts forever...
Life is Changing
It all changed after that, we came back to Tbilisi, to a place that were crumbling down under the weight of the collapse, there were conflicts all over the country, basic services like electricity, natural gas, heating, or even water were quite scarce, and every passing day there were less and less hours during the day when all those services were available.
It took a year or two, during which it all slowly became unbearable, in certain point when all the stores were empty, and the only way to get food was through a government issued coupons for bread, eggs and other basic stuff, you had to stay in line for 6-7 hours from 5 o'clock in the morning to try to get your share, that often was over by the time you reached the end of the line....
In some point there were barely any services provided by the government, our daily lives became a survival, a martial law was established and anyone who was out after certain hours had a great chance to get shot, banks collapsed, money lost all of its value, people started to sell all of their things to barter for food, and although my family were properly established in the community, we struggled nevertheless.
I remember in one of those days when my father (although held quite a high position) had to sit daily in a rudimentary market, and sell all of our "precious possessions", a group of soldiers came to that market, everything was alright until they tried to take some pair of jeans that they liked from an old guy that had a few things he was trying to sell on a small blanket, to get food for his family, when he tried to prevent them from taking those jeans for free, one of them took out a gun and shot him right there.
I don't remember much of what happened after, I just remember my father covering me in a small metal tub that he was selling (my ex-shower), and us running while other shots being fired in the vicinity....
That was the first time in my life when i saw someone die, I was about 7 years old then....
After a few other incidents that i will not go into, when members of my family were under a real life treating danger, we had almost no food, weekly showers were done with couple of kettles per person, and there were no electricity or heating....my family decided it is time for a change.
A new Chapter, new Identity, new Reality
My father being a jew, had a "right of return" to Israel, so when I was 10 years old, my brother was 14, and my parents were over 45, they decided that although they are leaving everything then knew behind, they had to provide us with some sort of future, and decided to move to Israel.
Thats me :)
A new chapter of my life has started, I was no longer part of a country, as the soviet union crumbled apart, each country started to fight for it sovereignty, I wasn't really sure any more if I am Russian or Georgian as we no longer were part of either...it's all got complicated even more when we arrived to Israel, being the one of the few cultures that has a mix of culture and religion but also a nationality in one complicated package, for years to come i will be facing a conflict of identity within myself…
Thats me as well, sitting in front of my first apartments in Israel, a busy street in a concrete forest.
Lesson learned: you are not who you think you are, you are not your nationality, you are not your color, you are not your history...
Looking trough the window
I will cut trough a few years of my life, they weren't easy at all...my parents, both well educated people that held very high positions in their lives, had to drop out all their ego, and started to work cleaning offices and houses with the help of me and my brother, none of us knew the language, and the first few years were quite surreal for us...we had been through some crazy situations, we were refugees from a war zone, but almost nobody around us were aware of it, for them we were just immigrants from an unknown place...
I have learned fast, I learned to speak fluent hebrew within a year, being quite an observative child I learned how to be an Israeli, all I wanted to feel in that time of my life is some sort of belonging, being part of everybody around, part of something bigger than me.
Years passed, I became more and more immersed in my surroundings, I learned to assimilate myself ...but deep inside I was still an outsider looking through a window...
My birth place were an old memory, the only remanence for it was the mark on my government ID, "place of birth: USSR"... a country that no longer exists.
I was a very rebellious kid when I was growing up,
I couldn't accept any longer the notion that life is what everybody around me told me it was: study hard, get your diploma, go to the army (mandatory in israel) work for many years, try to progress in your career, bring kids to the world...I knew there is something more, I felt there is more for me to uncover, to figure out about life, about me, about my existence.
Lesson Learned: Mistakes are a great tool for learning, thought its better to let someone else make them and learn from it, for a curious mind they are still very hard to avoid.
Time passed, I finished the highschool, and as everybody else in my age, I was drafted to the army.
War...Again...
The irony in all this, is that my family immigrated from one war zone just to arrived to a brand new one, that might be much more complicated than the previous.
Once again a new generation of my family had to wear a uniform and although for a different army, me and my brother were sent to serve in Gaza strip, one of the most controversial and dangerous places on earth.
That was life changing for me once more, I was pulled out from my crazy teenage life of parties, girls, alcohol...they cut my hair, gave me a uniform a big gun and told me to forget about everything i knew till then…
One of the first weekends I've been sent home from the training, guns and uniform still seem like a game to me in this point, this will all change...
Time passed, fast retrospectively but extremely slowly while I was actually there, I was sent to the most dangerous places like Philadelphi Route, Khan Yunis, participated in hundreds of military operations, by sea, air, land ...
I have spent 3 weeks on that boat, throwing up for the first one, going crazy for the second, dreaming about real food for the third...
I became a commander of over 35 soldiers that were responsible for providing communication to the forces in the field, and although the environment were not that friendly, I have learned a lot during that period of my life...
I had been responsible for the most advanced equipment worth millions of dollars, and for all those soldiers under my command, provide them with all their needs, often keep them safe, learned to take very hard decisions under duress, work in a team,
I made lots of friends, and even met the future mother for my future kids :), she was my officer in that time...but it came not without a sacrifice...
I lost my innocence...
Somewhere in Gaza Strip...
I lost dear friends...during one of the many missions to locate tunnels that were used for terrorist attacks, an armored truck was shot down with an RPG, my best friend was inside there, they were all blown into small pieces, for weeks to come we had to collect their remains one by one, spread out on the Philadelphi Route, to bring them to burial.
Soldiers looking for exploded remains in one of the most dangerous places in the world.
I was broken, I was angry, I wanted payback...being a commander of my own unit, I could decide who will go to which military operations, and from that point on I started to send myself to the most dangerous ones...
It took me a while to understand that there is no one in particular that i can blame...this is what war is all about, people die, on both sides...and both sides think that they are the victims....
I really don't want to dive into political matters here, but I can say that, the whole Israeli-Palestinian conflict might sound like an easy thing to solve for the outside eyes, (that is the reason in my opinion why all those pro and anti organizations pop up all over the world), but in fact, while you are deep inside that conflict, it is very hard to "put yourself in other people's shoes", you and your close ones get hurt, you get angry, you hate…
Lesson learned: There is more to conflict then each side can bare….war is not good, there are no winners, just looser on all sides, war changes you forever, humanity is crazy...
My 3 years mandatory service was coming to an end, I was 22 years old, confused, angry, frustrated, tired but it was time for me to move on with my life...
PTSD?! I eat it for breakfast
I was frustrated, tired, by this age in many countries people already knew a thing or two about "what they want to be when they grow up", I had no Idea, all I wanted was to throw away that M-16 gun they gave me and get as far as possible from everything i knew, from the stress, from the daily terror attacks, exploding buses, gunshots, grenades, snipers, conflict and more conflict...but I was broke as you don't really get paid for serving in the army, so I worked in a bar, saved some money and bought a one way ticket to Thailand.
Somewhere in Thailand
He had fun... :)
Everything about there was different, Thailand was all about feeling the freedom after a very long time, ohh there were quite a bit of partying, I was probably intoxicated most of the couple month I was there.
I remember trying psychedelic mushrooms for the first time, it was sort of a mistake...me and my couple of my friends that i traveled at the time heard about this place, on a little rock hill in one of the beaches in Cophangan island in Thailand that sells mushroom shakes that we should try, drugs being illegal in Thailand and us being a bit naive in that time, it didn't come to mind that those mushrooms can be hallucinogenic, we were sure they were some kind of an local alcoholic beverage that will give us a little boost for the night, and being full of ourselves we even asked for XXL size...we couldn't be more wrong…
It was one of those nights that i barely remember, but for sure will never forget...after couple of hours we all lost each other in the crowd, I found myself truly alone, for the first time after a long time, at least that's how it felt it that time, i was alone in the middle of a little island in Thailand, I had no idea where I am going, and no idea what i want to do next...after that night, the whole experience opened something in me that was locked, I felt truly free again, I felt something that i could not really explain, everything that i never payed attention to suddenly had true meaning, nature, sunrise, the rivers, life... and everything that i was sure was my identity suddenly turned out to be an illusion in my eyes…
Lesson learned: There is more to life than existence.
Long story short... :) I decided to go to India....
Karma, Synchronicity, Meditation, healing begins
I am visiting in one of the numerous temples in india
Cows are everywhere there, they are considered sacred so they are allowed to roam free, so every now and then you see some crazy funny situations
If I would go through every life changing story I had in India, this "introduction" of mine will not be ending anytime soon, but let's just say that, for the first time in my life I found a meaning, I felt that i belonged, I felt that there are other people like me in the world, and that I am not as crazy as i sometimes though i might be, i found out what means to truly love a woman without any attachments, without the need to control or posses, I found out hell lot about my self, discovered some entrepreneurial skills, met with lots of amazing people, even became vegan by "mistake" and had adventures and experiences that i never could even imagine i would.
Those girls simply must braid your hair...so why not...
I would suggest everyone to visit this mind-blowing country at least once in their lives, it definitely puts some things in perspective.
Varanasi, Bodies are burned every day in cremation ceremonies near the banks of the river— often up to 200 cremations a day are performed.
Loosing weight, but the smile is getting bigger :)
In the last few month of my travels I met a "crazy" brazilian guy, he was basically me but from a different corner of the world, he was just been traveling in india for that past several months, in a similar journey of self discovery as me, after he spent couple of years living in New Zealand, picking fruits, traveling... we shared so many things and had some mind blowing adventures together, and after a while it felt like we traveled for many years together..
Me and Thiago in Goa, cruising around with our motorbikes
After a few month of travelling across india, we ran out of money, so he had to go back to Brazil, before parting away we promised to meet again...and after several weeks my 8 or so month in India were coming to an end...i had to go back to Israel...
Lesson learned: Time is relative, an hour in different places in the world will mean a different thing...sometimes to get to know yourself, you have to leave everything you know, everything you think yourself to be.
Meditation is an amazing tool of self discovery, it can help you navigate through a stressful life, it can help you find your center and learn to control your emotions and negative thoughts.
Back to Reality (?!)
Wow coming back to Israel was not easy, It felt like I came from a different planet, the time felt different...everybody seemed to be doing everything faster :))
Jerusalem market, one of the most controversial cities, Palestinians and Israelis living side by side, 3 religions...you can cut the tension with a knife
Acclimating back took some time, so skipping a few parts, being a gaming enthusiast and computers in general I started to work in, some might say one of the nicest, easy going jobs that somebody that just came back from India could ask for, I started to work as a QA analyst in a company that made computer games...so basically my job was to play games all day long and find things that are not working as should....i was quite good in this, and got promoted couple of times in short period of time, my paycheck was growing, the co-workers were great, amazing work environment...all was great, but once again i was an outsider looking in through a window....
Its not that i was an introvert or anything, i am quite a friendly person...it's just while i was there, while i was living my day by day life, my mind was somewhere else, my mind was climbing mountains, jumping from waterfalls, discovering itself...so being all great and all, after less then a year i had to go, i sent my brazilian friend a message and told him i am going somewhere, not sure where...but somewhere...and if you can you should join...
Being trough his own stuff back home, he wasn't ready to go immediately, but to sum up his answer "its about time you said something smart" :)...so as i already quit my job and was all packed, he told me to come to Brazil for couple weeks and then we will go to Europe…
Lesson learned: Don't compare your situation to other people, we are all unique, whatever works for one of us, will not work for others...do not try to find yourself by looking to others, find yourself by looking within...
I came to brazil....
Landing in Brasilia, Capital of Brazil
2 weeks turned into 2 month, then 3 then six...once again so many life changing adventures, i lived in a treehouse on a mango tree for about 5 month,
A kids tree house that I have converted to my cabin, I could here the mangoes dropping like rain
discovered the amazing life changing ayahuasca brew, for those of you who know what it is :) ... lets say its truly changed my life,and helped me to sort out all of those remaining burdens of self identity, of relation to places, of where i belong, helped me understand that all those circumstances in my life that made me not naturally belong to any country or culture, actually made me free, helped me to belong to something bigger than me...
I was accepted as a part of a community that had this place in the mountains and they all gathered together every week or two, and had amazing healing experiences with those amazing plants, the people there were coming from different social circles in Brazil, both rich and poor, both white and black, people with different religions, ethnicity, and even their children...
Cooking ayahuasca ceremony, this could take hours or days, there is no specific recipe, ayahuasca it self tells you when its ready
A funny fact that ayahuasca being one of the strongest hallucinogenic brews in the world is legal in Brazil and it is considered a healing and spiritual plant and even being used for treating lots of addictions, and depressions and although smoking a joint in front of your grandma would be a bit strange in Brazil in that time, but going with her to an ayahuasca session would be almost a normal thing to do.
2 plants that grow quite separately from each other, one cannot do much without the other, but united they are one of the most potent hallucinogens known, used for many generations in Peru and Brazil.
So after 6 or 7 month in Brazil, traveling all over the place, getting to know the locals, leaving with a Brazilian family for all that time, it was finally time to move one, our plans changed a bit (with a help of a local fortune teller - apparently it is quite a big thing for Brazilians) we decided to go to Canada.
Lesson learned: Plans are made to be changed, there is no need to hold them tight, being fluid in life brings much more opportunities than being strict and predetermined.
The Ogopogo Dream
Niagara falls, those are powerful
On the exact location we decided in one of those day by opening google maps on the computer and pointing to a random location on the map....The place that was chosen was Kelowona city in the Okanagan Valley in an amazing province of British Columbia. It seemed like a wonderful place surrounded by lots of green and water (at least on google maps :)).
After a little research we discovered that this place is located about 400 km away from Vancouver the capital of British Columbia.
We wanted to add some action to our travel plans (and due to lack of funds to go by proper transportation) we decided that we will do this trip from Vancouver to Kelowna via a bicycle....never before either of us had such a long trips on a bike, but we were eager to try.
Yeah, like i needed those spare tires...
We landed in Vancouver, and one of the first things we did was buying a couple of bicycles in a local thrift store for 75$ each, then bought a few supplies, spare tires, some bags to tie to the bicycle, a basket for our food supply, and truly thought that we are ready to go...and that's exactly what we did…
My bike right before we planned to go for over 400 km, 65 kg of equipment in the bag, 20 kg of food, 8 gallons of water, spare tires, spare shoes, spare everything....
Only later we figured out that going with a 45 kg bags + a basket full of food, spare tires and bunch of other stuff tied down to a bicycle with bunch of bungee ropes is probably not a great idea...
After a few days on the road, he still didnt learn that you better hold with both hands :)
So as we went on and on, after falling down several times, getting stuck on a railway, almost falling down a cliff couple of times, we decided to slowly abandon some of our stuff...a 300$ coat was left on one of the stopping points, 150$ spare shoes were left on the other...and so on and so on....until we left with only the bare minimum we could actually carry...
This trip was amazing, we passed through the most amazing and difficult places, climbed the Coquihalla Pass, rode during the night, during the day...met bears and cougars on the way, but most of all we felt free like never before…
A little stop in the middle of nowhere
We have seen this girl from about 60 meters away, that was quite scary...but i guess she just wasnt hungry :)
I was with a friend from Brazil, in the middle of nowhere in north america, with only my bicycle, food for couple of days, some cloth, and some other essentials ;), I had no idea where i will sleep tonight, when or what will i eat, when will be my next shower...and that was AWESOME....
It took us 9 days to arrive to our first destination, from then we have traveled over 4000 km on bicycles.
Lesson learned: Dare to be extreme, to try new things even if they seem a bit crazy at that time, fill your soul with experiences and adventures, don’t be afraid to take yourself apart, and slowly build yourself back.
I can do it for the rest of my life
Once again i’ll try to short out some parts here, as I am not really sure who will be interested in hearing this long story...
So we stayed in canada for over 2 years, during that time, we have worked as professional fruit pickers and other 50+ different jobs, we have built our own RV from an old truck with solar panels, sleeping beds, a kitchen and even a small "theater" :)
We worked on this van for 2 month, 500$ that provided us with a great housing for the winter, we had couple of solar panels on the roof, a heating, a kitchen, 2 beds, carpets all over, storage...everything we needed...
The inside .. douple insulation, carpets, folding beds, storage...all made mostly from scraps.
Winter in Canada...ouch...
Me and Thiago
Life was awesome...we woke up in 6 o'clock, picked cherries for 6-7 hours, made our daily paycheck and went to one of the amazing lakes or waterfalls around...
Picking apples, is great job as well as a workout
The okanagan valley was a small place that during the summer time gets full of young travelers from Quebec and other places in Canada and abroad, it is almost like a right of passage for those young people to leave their home and go pick fruits in the Okanagan, so small towns of 3000 people grow to 15000 in matter of weeks...
It was great....we made lots of friends, learned a lot about ourselves and our skills...
Crazy capitalism, had to cut down 120 mature peach trees just because the specific strain wasnt selling as well as the other for 3 straight years...
We got hired by a farm that was specializing in hydroponic growing, I was amazed how lots of different produce can be grown in small footprint, be it indoor or outdoor, without the need to have a proper soil, or even a land, how the whole process of food production can be fully automated....how those technologies can be implemented in cities, save us all those pesticides that we consume, save energy and workforce...but most importantly provide us with a better healthier food.
Peaches, grapes, apples, cherries, plums, pears ...you name it, we picked them all
That was an amazing experience, that later will influence my life...
Do I look happy?! I think I do...
During that time in my spare time I also started to learn some web programming, how to build websites, and even had our very first blog built, that i later discovered that had a great following back home and over 40K people read our posts every month, although we had no idea...
Somewhere in the rocky mountains
My daily life...
After the first couple of years, I was also reunited with my best friend, an ex-girlfriend that used to be my officer in the army, we always kept in touch, and stayed very close friends...she also been going through a lot in her life and decided to come visit me in Canada....
We haven't been separated since.... ;)
Me and Suz, my dear friend, love, mother to my soon to be daughter
So the first chapter of Canada has came to an end, we decided to go back to Israel, and utilize everything we learned in practice… (but first a little break in a little festival :)
Israeli "Nature Parties"- ohhh thats a whole another story
Lesson learned: Sometimes you have to go far away, just to find out that what you were looking for was right where you started, it just takes time to adjust the “eyes” to see it…
Love and family is important, in order to be truly happy , life must be shared…
South of Israel
Our first project was a small Eco-center we opened up in the south of the country, we have built there various different hydroponic systems, invited people, had workshops, learned and taught others...
Out Eco-Spiritual retreat center, we have taught sustainability and urban farming and other taught spirituality, yoga, mediation, music...great times..
We utilized all the awesome things we learned in our travels, hydroponics, solar power generation, grey water treatment and utilization, black water treatment and production of natural gas through anaerobic digestion, we even grew the biggest Zucchini that was grown in Israel :)
Building and learning something new everyday, black water treatment, grey water, hydroponics, solar power, anaerobic digestion, biogas...you name it..
The entrepreneurial mind
After going back and forward to Canada and some other places a few more times, We decided to open our first real business in Israel...we started to build custom hydroponic systems by demand, the market was basically non existent so we had to educate a lot...it wasn't a easy job, but we started selling, our following started to grow up, we decided to start manufacturing our systems abroad, so I have learned how to import and handle all the nuances and bureaucracy involving production and customs etc…
Our first hydroponic units
The business was a bit slow at first, so I have started to do some extra web developing project on the side, that in not a long time surpassed my work and earnings in the hydroponic business…
Lesson learned: Always do a business plan, in business you need to know where you heading at least several steps ahead, if an idea is good, try to get some investment, it is always better to spend someone else's money, but also believe in your idea and do your best to follow through.
Me :)
So a new business have been born, I had a web developing services company, we have added complimentary service like SEO, social networks, ecommerce, ebay, amazon, hired a few more people...retrospectively that was quite the mistake...in my opinion it is always better to focus on one or two things rather trying to conquer the world right away, and all that while sitting in our underpants in the living room...
Although we made lots of mistakes...we managed to go by, business was good, and we managed to get some nice earnings, got involved in big projects, worked with huge industries, but most importantly learned lots of new entrepreneurial skills...in that point although it was clear to me before, now it was a certainty...I want to be an entrepreneur, I wanted to work only for myself, creating, bringing something new to this world, changing it for the better even if just a little.
Our stand in one of the events hosted locally
Life goes on.. I grew up, I am no longer the confused boy that traveled around the world to find meanings for life, although my adventures spirit is still live and kicking me every now and then, I believe I am in a chapter of my life that requires me to put some roots, not necessary in a specific place or country, but rather in a idea, in a plan, I keep following my dreams, but now I am the one trying to lead...I no longer think that i just need to go to the unknown, and the unknown will reveal itself to me… I know now that we are all responsible for our own fates, we are the ones deciding which way our dreaming will lead us…
Challenges will arise, ironically i always thought that if something comes too easy, something must be wrong...the only real way to learn and grow is through failing, by passing through challenges…
Lesson learned: Don’t give up, not everybody become successful, it takes a certain type of people, people willing to risk it all, to take chances but also to plan and execute.
Hydroponic center in the the middle of a rooftop in a busy mall in Tel Aviv
The end of the story....perhaps another beginning ...
My business ventures are growing, nowadays we are one of the leading hydroponic solutions company in Israel, our websites educate hundreds of thousands of people on everything to do with sustainability and in hydroponics, we have already installed thousands of systems around Israel and abroad that grow food for many people.
Showcase of our systems in a greenhouse in the middle of the city that is teaching citizens about the technology
We are implementing all the new technologies and educational systems to help people and businesses grow their food with ease and 100% automatically.
We believe that we are part of a global movement that will change how we grow our food in the upcoming years.
Lettuce growing on rooftops in Tel Aviv
"To understand is to change"
On a more personal note, I finally know what it is to be part of a family, I feel loved, I have a home now, even though it is not really based on location, but rather “where my heart is” as cliche it my sound, we saved an amazing dog that is now part of that family
Crazy me with My crazy lovely dog
I am going to be a father soon, and that is one thing that still hasn't had a chance to shape me, but i have no doubt that this adventure will be one of the most amazing ones.
I want to give that girl everything she might need, not just possessions, but love, attention, wisdom…
I will do my best to save her from all the ugly sides of life i had to see.
Hello Again :)
I am a 33 years old Human, Man, Lover, Traveller, soon to be Father, Entrepreneur and recently I am a Crypto Enthusiast :) , and I currently live in Israel.
Lesson learned: There are always new lessons to be learned, just be open minded, don't think that who you and others consider you to be is the real you...it is just the tip of the iceberg...there is a whole universe of amazement within each and every one of us.
Why Steemit:
Well, I believe as most of the people here, I also discovered steemit trough my brand new passion for Crypto, I have never been very active on social networks, and my facebook account is in a coma for a few years already, something kept me out of it, maybe me being an introvert in the past few years of my life, or just because of the nature of those networks. But after discovering about steemit, I have noticed that the community here seems to be different, much more real..authentic...I was following the conversations on the network for few month without posting anything, and I have seen time after time how nice people are to each other, how they all trying to build something together, and helping each other…
I think I am ready to give it a try, to share my ideas, knowledge and thoughts…
I believe Crypto is here to change the world, there will be hiccups, and there will be major challenges, but I also believe that as a community we can really make this happen, and possibly change the face of our corrupted and utterly broken financial system in years to come.
I will be writing about my crypto adventures, about all the ways I am trying and will keep trying to increase my portfolio.
I will also be writing about hydroponics, and various eco-technological solutions for the problems we face as humanity, I will be writing about the lessons I learned in life and in business, but I will also be sharing my failures.
If you liked my little story please upvote, resteem, and comment... I will be happy to hear your thought, will be happy to hear your own crazy stories and adventures.
Tell me what stories have changed your life, which situations you faced that made you look differently at life and at your own self…
I am new to steemit so will be happy to get to know like minded people.
Big hello to everybody ! I am Pavel and i am here to stay :)
And this is Zus :)
Hello i am Zus, nice to meet you :)
Pasha Brandes
BTC: 1aAFg9RUqda8sYnhLfHgnc4cep7c3kFSo
ETH: 0x1d9060EE9a98F35232b496bA9De7FBAD3226a87c
LTC: LdPzGng5wfzFd9a3D3yST31nD15rzwswUj