As a high schools student, sometimes it is hard to see our purpose in life and to find inspiration and hope, but for senior Matt Weinberger, that is not the case. For the past couple of months, Matt has diligently worked to make a website, www.thestoriesofsuccess.com, so that anyone can see firsthand that any level of success is within reach.
Matt’s idea for the website stemmed from his desire to achieve great things at a young age. Recently, he has been a protegee of Jim Brogan, an inspirational speaker and author (among other things). While at Brogan’s office, Matt said they talked for about four hours, and it literally changed his life. During that talk, Matt realized he wanted to start a business, so he decided to start a clothing line with one of his friends. He ran home and immediately dove in, starting with research about stories of people who have successfully started a clothing line.
After weeding through Google’s produced results, he quickly saw there was no forum of success stories about clothing lines. Not only that, but there was no website to offer people any stories of success. Matt said he thought to himself, “Wow, I have to make this website.” So his journey began.
It took him roughly two weeks to find a graphic designer for his website. “I had no idea how to create a website, but I wanted it to be perfect, so I needed some outside help,” said Matt. After about a month and a half of executing every detail of his dream, the website was up and running.
“The point of my website is for people to be able to read stories about people who are successful in their industries, like successful restaurant owners or athletes,” he said.
The website is divided into sections. One is a section of stories offering guidance and hope, where one can find stories written by people who have “overcome ridiculous odds, like Derek Thomas,” said Matt. However, Matt wants to be clear that success is not defined by a paycheck. “Success is a term used loosely,” he said. “It’s not about how much money you make. It’s about what you had to do to achieve success.”
Another section is called “Share your Knowledge,” a section of inspirational quotes, pictures, and videos. This is the section for anyone to post. Even if one doesn’t have a crazy success story, he or she can inspire others. Matt wants anyone and everyone to post in this section to generate a flow of positive energy on the site. No matter how discouraged one may be, the goal of this section is to leave readers with a ray of hope shining in their direction.
Though this was Matt’s idea, and he works on this website from the time he gets home from school until he goes to sleep, he depends on other people in order for it to work. Seniors Hutton Moyer and Russell Reeder have done a lot to help Matt, from generating excitement about the website to posting videos and pictures.
Matt encourages people to write charity stories, because he believes his site can produce revenue and publicity for worthy charitys. Regardless of why you post, or why you come to this site, Matt said he just wants “…people to say they began their journey from my site.”