Hi! I'm Drake.

As a kid, I loved playing soccer. I spent countless hours alone: dribbling, passing against the side of the garage, doing toe-taps and other exercises.

In spite of my effort, I remained just mediocre - good enough to make the best local travel squad, but not good enough to start and often insecure when I was on the field. Still, I kept at it until high school, when I had to choose a sport. I chose running.

But my last season, after nearly 10 years dedicated to soccer and very little to show for my effort, I broke through. I played so well that my teammates urged the coaches to add me to the starting lineup, where I played "Stopper," shutting down the other team's attack and starting our own from the defensive end.

In my final competitive game, I scored a perfect volley off a corner kick - upper right 90, no chance for the keeper. I didn't know then that a quarter century later, I would remember that moment as clearly as a cloudless blue sky: the catharsis of a decade spent toiling.

Eventually, I moved on from soccer and did other things. Today, I'm the self-taught owner of a boutique technology consulting agency and hobbyist developer, chef, gardener, and poet among other things. Not to mention full-time parent to two furbabies.

I'm approaching 40 and with a bit of luck, I've got more solar cycles in front of me than I do behind. What I learned as a kid, alone kicking a ball against the garage well past sunset each night, is that struggle - not just to achieve, but to understand, to do the right thing - is the entire point. But only if you're learning from the experience.