Chapter 5: Spreading the Fire

Continued from Chapter 4: Possessing the Fire...





... It's was the announcement that I was making www.furnacelevel.com!!!

It was an ambitious, some would say, ridiculous vision. I had no reputation of "The Furnace" outside of the school and now I was going to dedicate a site to it... at least that is how it started... because I soon realized that you can't have a site that just talks about a personal thing that others won't be able to understand. You can't have a webpage that lacks the involvement and participation of others. How we all grow is by sharing with each other: stories, experiences, moments, time. And that summer, it was the time for "The Furnace" to learn this lesson, spread his fire of inspiration and energy, and grow a little himself!

Around the 25th of June (it could have been couple days before or after), I bought the domain name www.furnacelevel.com, marking the start of a new dream coming to life, and a dream that would develop into something that I could never believe possible at the time. If you have ever heard the phrase "a quick functional plan now is better than a well-thought out plan later"? Well, if not, I feel this was another one of those important moments that had a huge impact on my future up to the present moment. If I had not acted then by progressing "The Furnace" identity and his Furnace Levels, there would not be a future for this "fiery motivational guru" that we see today, nor the motivation and strength that he provides to others to help them reach their personal dreams.

However, shortly after buying the domain and sharing this very exciting news with all of my classmates and loved ones, something terrible happened that quickly put all of the energy for Furnace Level on the rear burner. Not more than 48 hours after taking the ownership of www.furnacelevel.com, two of my close classmates, along with two other students were involved in a fatal car accident that left most of town, and especially my school community, in deep mourning. It was the first time that I had lost people that I would usually interact with on a daily basis in some way, shape, or form. It was a sad summer for me and my classmates, especially after seeing each other again for senior year, missing the two individuals from our group, for they will forever have a special place in all of our hearts. It is unfortunate that they are no longer with us, and I'm sure they would be pleased to see the progress of Furnace Level today.

Despite the tragedy early that summer, "The Furnace" eventually got focused back on creating the webpage for Furnace Level, learning new things about the web and websites each day. It was a fun, time-consuming process being able to start a project such as creating a personal website. (I highly recommend it to others because you learn a lot and there is always more to learn. One thing leads to another, and then another, and the development of your skills and knowledge of the web becomes endless too. It's pretty interesting stuff, at least for me.) Then later, the development of the Furnace Level logo I remember as being a really critical time. I drew hundreds of sketches for how I wanted the design to be and even posted them online to get feedback from my friends. It was a really hard decision, but finally I settled on the logo that Furnace Level currently has now.


The 4th of August, 2009 Furnace Level level went live for the first time! During those beginning days, it consisted of a lot less than the site has now, since I used a simple website template creator. It wasn't until March 2012 that I decided to start to learn web code for myself and build my own website using dreamweaver. It was another big step for Furnace Level, and now, it has expanded into a site with many pages for people to read inspirational fire horoscopes, watch motivational videos, listen to pump up songs, buy Furnace Level apparel, receive updates and inspirational messages from "The Furnace", and much more!


The Furnace is here to make a positive change on this planet! He is here to get us all motivated and inspired to reach the maximum of our potential and leave our own impact on the world, no matter how large or small. If you want to be part of the movement and live the Furnace Level lifestyle, visit my website at www.FurnaceLevel.com and get fired up! You are the answer to your dreams! The Furnace just here to make sure you reach them.


Make sure to follow me on Twitter for daily inspirational messages!


The Furnace

Chapter 4: Possessing the Fire

Continued from Chapter 3: Finding the Fire...


As I said, "The Furnace" only started taking on his true fiery identity after stepping up for himself in that one past moment in U.S. History class. Little did I know this act would affect my life, again, taking it into a new stage of fiery excellence and one step closer to Furnace Level. This moment, like my previous big moment in which I first received the name, is another reason why I believe that your life can change any day, at any time, and you have to be ready to catch it when the opportunity comes. You have to be attentive and still driving yourself forward because one day your break will come. I'm 100% positive. Just don't give up, never.


Following that first day of history class, "The Furnace" would make his daily diagram of how "hot" (as in energy and motivation) he was feeling that day. It was a special 5 minutes dedicated at the beginning of class where the whole room watched as "The Furnace" was going to make his diagram of his "Furnace Level". These diagrams started off just being thermometers, but over time, "The Furnace" started to become more creative with his sketches and they eventually evolved into large drawings with several colors. There was even a special color given to the "heat-range" that "The Furnace" was burning in. The list went (from coldest to hottest): Green, Blue, Yellow, Orange, Red, then later added were Purple, White, Silver, and Gold. One day the "Furnace Level" would be a dartboard sketch with the hotness meter extending from the outer rings to the center! Another would be a rocket shot up into different levels of the atmosphere with the hotness meter extending from the Earth's surface to outer space! A third would be a sketch of an erupting volcano, a fourth of a marathon race, a fifth a fire volcano (one of my favorites), and some were even linked to current events such as when the swine flu was going around! Nevertheless, the "Furnace Level" was always something for me and my peers to look forward to and to comment on every day, and it went on for that whole entire school year!


It was with the Furnace Levels that year that the name "The Furnace" really stuck to me. One of the reasons was that I had a way to express my Furnace side outside of the realm of basketball, and therefore, many of my peers were becoming more aware and understanding of my fiery identity and being more open to addressing me as "The Furnace". Also, many of the people in the classes below me had siblings in my class, and therfore heard stories about my Furnace Levels. Therefore, some of  the younger ones only knew me as "The Furnace" because they only really knew me by the rumors going around at my school. Moreover, during the basketball games that season, it was fun to see that I started to get a bit of a fan base going. One of the things that a few of them would do, if I started to play really well, would be to imitate shoveling and stocking up a furnace with coal and then saying, "The Furnace is heating up!"


This time was also a great time in the development of my self-confidence. I believe that at that stage of my life, I was really happy with the reality that I was creating around me. I felt more in charge of it, more comfortable in social settings, and most of all, enjoying every moment that was around me. It was also at this time that I started realizing the power of my true potential and the impact I was having on others around me. But you know, as they say, with great power comes great responsibility, and that, I would soon come to find as I headed into the summer before my senior year. When one of my classmates expressed their sadness for the school year ending, thereby not being able to see the Furnace Level for the summer, I knew I had to do something, and I decided to make it a huge surprise for all my classmates. At our senior final presentations, I slipped into the slideshow an  announcement of a way that the Furnace Level would always be with my classmates and also with the rest of the world. A way that would be accessible twenty four hours a day and seven days a week. A way that was so simple, yet so out of the box, only with a vision could it be created. What would this annoucement be you ask? It was...

To be continued...



The Furnace