You might not think of yourself as a "role model", but your potential to influence others is stronger than you think. If you spend your energy on genuinely caring for others and empowering them, not only will their life get better, so will yours.

When your crew is happy and empowered, everyone is in a better place. On the flip side, if you disable others and tear them down there isn't much room for growth.

I used to think if people weren't doing their job correctly or weren't playing perfect that they sucked and I was upset that they didn't want it as bad as me. I stayed to myself and sat around thinking "If everyone worked as hard as I did we would be so much better!" But then life was just a re-run of being upset all the time.

This changed when I decided to help those people. I began drumming with others, showing them videos of dope drumlines that inspired me, gave suggestions for how to practice based on what helped me, and looked at individual situations each day with the idea that I would do my best to help others.

Then my ensembles got better, I was more happy and engaged each day, and everything in life was simply better. My relationships with people were stronger, and eventually this way of life turned into the company you see now posting this story.

Gridbook was built on this concept of community empowerment and what an awesome journey it has been.