About Nigel

Hello! If you've stumbled across this page, it means I have the opportunity to introduce myself to you. As much as I like to hide in a crowd, I appreciate the idea that I can be known by you, at some small level.

You can learn all about me in 150 pages or so by reading A Thirty Year Journey Back to First Grade. In that book, I tell the story of where I started, where I went, and how I got back on the right track. It's a sad but beautiful story, as most of ours are. For those without the time or ambition to read the expanded edition, this is the short form of who I am.

I am not an author. I am not a business executive. I am not a creator or developer. Those are just things that I do, and I am woefully unqualified for any of them.

I am a voyager. I am on a journey through life, trying to find myself, find God, and bring light and love into the lives of others. My voyage has had periods of smooth sailing, but most of my voyage has been a wild adventure. It hasn't been wild like jumping out of airplanes or fighting off ninjas, but it has been wild nonetheless.

I started off young with the full knowledge and awareness of everything that mattered. I was brilliant; a leader, a super-star. And I was dead wrong. Most of the knowledge I had was incorrect. The bulk of my awareness was colored by an extremely narrow perspective. I brought this knowledge and awareness, as the primary tools in my toolbox, into marriage, parenting, church leadership, and business leadership. I won trophies in all those areas, and I displayed them proudly. But the glue that held it all together was less like epoxy and more like rubber cement. It didn't actually work. I entered my thirties wildly successful and a complete failure. I had successfully obscured reality by sheer force and finesse, but the reality was still there, patiently waiting to be seen.

And the lessons started. Every day, the universe presented me with a wonderful opportunity to learn and grow, but I spent 10 years working to justify and defend the value of the only tools I had in my toolbox.

Then, after 10 years of obvious failure, I started learning. I started learning when I was halfway through life.

These days, the universe presents me with new opportunities, and I'm pleased to say that I think I connect with about 1/3 of them. I'm proud of my .333 life batting average - it's a great improvement over the days when I would bat .050 and call myself a home-run hitter. With each passing week, it's getting a little better.

Today, when someone I love says they are sad, I don't go to work proving why it's stupid to be sad - considering the circumstances. Today, I connect with the people I love, in sadness and in joy. While that sounds pretty elementary, if you consider where I came from, it's actually pretty amazing.

I have one mission in life - to expand love. You can read more about that in Out of the Boardroom and Into the Pasture. It's only with the help of wonderful guides that I've been able to clarify and focus on that mission.

When I reach the end of life on earth in my present form, I want to know that I've done a wonderful job of raising my children and healing the world. My next big thing is to bring healing by curing disease - starting with cures for diabetes and cancer. I am woefully unqualified for success in any of these areas, and I fully believe I will succeed - again only with a deep connection to others who are smarter, wiser, and more capable than myself.

In the meantime, I am living in the joy of connections and creation.

I love to connect with nature under the water. My two-year goal is to swim side-by-side or face-to-face with 50 different species of sharks and rays. I'm less than a quarter of the way in, and almost half way there.

I love to connect with the sky. I enjoy flying - just to fly. Not to go anywhere, but just to be up there - in the clouds and looking at the world from a new perspective. I think a new perspective is the only good way to look at the world. In the next two years, I plan to get my glider rating. There's something magical about flying around, trusting the universe alone to keep me aloft.

I love to connect with my children. By some miracle, they're doing wonderfully. One day I'll write a book about each one of them. Their lives are amazing, and it's been my distinct honor to stand by them in their individual and our collective journeys.

I love to connect with God. This is new for me. Having spent the first part of my life as a Christian Fundamentalist, and the next part as a Christian Evangelical, I missed God for most of my life - only catching a glimpse of the edge of God. I love discovering God. I used to love labeling things, but today, most of the labels I formerly used have now been abandoned. I think I call myself a Christian, and probably call myself a Panantheist. In any case, there are a lot of guides who have gone before me who point to God. I have names for them. I call them Frank, Mohandas, Tenzin, Siddhartha, and Joshua. Joshua is my favorite. I thought I knew a lot about Joshua, after all, my religion was named after him and I studied it in depth. However, it wasn't until about five years ago that one of my guides helped me to see my religion's representation of Joshua was nothing like the real Joshua. I think if God could look like something, it would look a lot like Joshua.

Sometimes I like lists. Here's a list of a few of my favorite things:

A good vacation, visiting and learning about a new country and culture, or just being by the ocean.
A good beer (some favorites are KBS, Sucuba, Parabola, Old Blowhole, and Old Rasputin).
A good Scotch (some favorites are Bowmore, Ardbeg, Laphroaig, and Talisker).
A good cigar (some favorites are Diesel and Oliva V).
A good night's sleep.
A good dive (favorite spot is Bonaire, but no sharks there, sadly).
A good ride (favorite bike is my K1200).
A good massage or pedicure.
A good bowl of poke or slab of sashimi.
A good conversation.

Thanks for allowing me to be known by you. I would like to know you. Drop me a line at beknown@nigeldavidoff.com.