I am a writer and I have always been a writer. I started writing as a child. The fourth grade is the first time that I recall taking pleasure in writing. Our classes turned to creative writing and we could write about anything we wanted. Sometimes I chose my childhood fantasies of being a battleship captain or a sailing ship captain. Later in school, my writing became more academic. Reports, the effects of of the Russian winter on Napoleon’s conquest of Russia, what happened with the Spanish Armada of 1588, you know the work. Classic history.

After that, it was service in they Navy, marriage, divorce, and back to figuring out what I wanted to be when I grew up.

My First Montblanc

I started writing again in the late 1990s. A present I received was a Montblanc Noblesse Oblige. It was the smoothest writer instrument I had ever had the pleasure of writing with. I was in sales at the time, and according to Brian Tracy, you always have a very nice pen on hand for the client to sign the agreement (contract) with. This meant that you would get paid your handsome commission and you had earned your pen again.

It’s downfall was that the cap always came apart from the pen. This meant that you would either lose the pen or the cap. I lost the pen and the cap in a bar one night. I swore that one day, I would replace that pen.

Later, I fancied myself a writer and took on some volunteer work with Fast Company magazine’s Company of Friends. During this time, I was hoping to get a job as a staff writer for Fast Company or to get published in Fast Company as I was published on 9/12/2001. It never happened and Fast Company disbanded Company of Friends in 2006.

A few years later, I started writing again in journals. The main work here was sorting out my life again and figuring out what I wanted to be when I grew up. I was working in restaurants as a waiter so I was writing down orders. But that didn’t count. I started making progress with getting things together in the 2000s and 2009 marked the year that I really started making progress.

My New Montblanc

I had walked past the pen store and occasionally ventured in to hold a Montblanc. These are not ordinary pens mind you. These are the best writing instruments in the world in my opinion. This would be the pen that would signify my return to the business world after all the setbacks I endured for the previous years.

In September 2012, I had a few extra hundred dollars in my pocket. The day finally came that I would go into the pen store and finally mark my return to the business world. There it was. Not just any Montblanc but the pen that would become my Montblanc Meisterstück. I walked in and quickly discovered that the pen cost more than I thought. Fortunately, I had other resources and the pen was finally mine.

My return was complete. I could now move forward with my next business.

Today…

I still have this magnificent writing instrument. I am no longer in sales and the days are long gone that contracts are signed in person. This is still the best writing instrument I have ever owned. I write with it every day and writing with it is a pleasure.

Now, if I can figure out what I want to be when I grow up.