It was now getting pretty late in the evening and we were ready for dinner.  Since the hotel wasn’t far from the restaurant we stopped back to clean up a bit before proceeding to the New Capital Seafood Restaurant in San Gabriel.  Everybody had an incredible day; they were talking about the day’s events from the manufacturing plant tour to go-kart racing to a ten course Chinese dinner.  By the time we finished it was well past eleven in the evening.  We were all tired, but very excited.

On the following day we met up at the Rose Bowl, just a couple minutes from my house, to go play paintball.  I can see the fear in Tita & Maika’s eyes as they asked “does it hurt when the paintball hits you?” 

All I could do was tell the truth, that sometimes the paintballs can break the skin and cause bleeding. But being the champs that they are, they bit their tongues and said they’ll do it anyway. 

There were three major fires in the mountains throughout the Los Angeles Area.  The News forecasted that numerous freeways were closed.  This has never happened before so I didn’t know what to expect.  We called the facility and got alternate directions to try and drive around the fires.  As I looked at the GPS, I realized that we would be driving quite a bit.  In fact, it was probably six times the distance than the original route would have been.  The detour was much longer but we were all game to go together and enjoy a day of paintballing. 

We were all in my van and I noticed that Eyston Perez, one of our top money earners, was rather quiet, almost stealth acting as if he didn’t belong. 

As we were driving, I realized that the 5 Freeway was completely shut down and this detour would take us through a mountain road which was completely congested with traffic.  We had many different discussions all related to how to live a better life.  We had plenty of time because we were stuck in traffic, going about 10 miles per hour.  Throughout the hours of driving, all I could reflect on was that we should have the philosophy of what Jesus once said, “Do unto others as you want done to you.”  Treat others the way you want to be treated. 

I do understand that everybody is young with so many hormones, and they can not control many of their actions.  I wanted them to understand that if they treat people badly for any purpose, can they really gain from it?  Who likes a selfish individual that only looks out for themselves?  The purpose of the event was to come together, to get to know each other and learn to work together as a team, as a family, and to learn how to communicate effectively.  After many examples that I gave, I got to see Eyston’s face change as he was nodding his head and smiling.  He asked the question, “How do I deal with my temptations?”

My answer was, “It is not easy, especially at your age.  I couldn’t do it before, but I also didn’t have an opportunity like you guys have.  You have a choice of doing something mature as you evolve.  Your actions may be destructive to your reputation and business, they may set you back in your progress and your goals, but you have to decide that for yourself.  The Founder’s Council is here to help the people who want to be helped, who are mature enough to see their temptations and control their potential weaknesses.  I declared that I don’t expect them to be perfect as we all make mistakes.  I do expect them all to be honest, to communicate transparently and to work together as we climb the ladder to success. I sensed an ease in Eyston after that moment. 

Eddie Dervisevic, who looks 28 but is only 18 years old, on the other hand has no reservations at all to be part of the Founder’s Council.  He told me that although he had a scholarship to play football, he was doing all the wrong things and that it was leading into trouble.  When he met Johnny Ly it changed his life.  Since he has adopted our philosophy, it has made the path that he now wants to lead very simple.  He then told me he had a chance to talk to Telicia earlier about how she and I met.  Eddie being so innocent said, “Dennis, the way you and your wife met is exactly how Johnny and I  met.” 

Everybody in the van started laughing and teasing Eddie about his alternative motive for meeting Johnny.  He had a great attitude though; there was no fear in his eyes, he knew it was all in good fun.  Even during the silent moments of this journey to paintball, he was singing a song out loud, “Don’t you wish your girlfriend was hot like me?”

Again, everybody took the opportunity to tease him about Johnny.  We were all rolling, laughing at the top of our lungs.  This is what Dr. Couey would call a “belly laugh”.  Our cells were definitely wide open that day.

By this time it was around 1:00pm.  We had been travelling on the road for 4 hours and we were nowhere close to the paintball facility.  At that point we decided to turn back and cancel the paintball trip.  Tita kept on laughing though.  She said, “I asked the universe not to make me play this game!” Everybody joined her laughing, and just making the best of the situation.