Hi Steemers!

The Butterfly Effect is the concept that one, seemingly meaningless or insignificant action, can result in massive changes to something, such as a person's life. The butterfly effect can be an occurrence that can trigger other occurrences that aren't necessarily related to one another.

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If you look back on your own life, you can probably think of a moment that seemed like nothing of any importance at the time, either to you or the person who created the moment, but caused a big change for you. What I'm going to tell you here is one of those moments in my life.

Im my early to mid 20s, I was one of those young people you see drifting about, not doing anything, and seemingly uncaring about their lack of achievements. I had no direction, and no real ambition. All I wanted to do was drink alcohol, smoke, and hang out with my mates. Looking back, I now understand that I simply lacked something to be passionate about. I simply didn't see any reason to be excited about life.

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For money, I worked as a labourer. I took any job that had zero responsibilities and zero brain power. I worked anywhere, and didn't really care how much I was paid. As long as I could afford to go out on the weekend with my mates, nothing else really mattered.

As time went by, I became more and more frustrated at the meaningless of everything in my life. Other people seemed to have found some direction, and were enjoying themselves and experiencing new things. But for me, nothing was changing. I worked, I drank, I partied, and that was it. The people I mingled with were mostly the same. So we weren't particularly good at motivating each other to better ourselves.

While I love my parents, they really weren't particularly good motivators when I was a kid. They were of the mindset that you should accept your position in life, and never try to grow beyond that. It seems like a strange thing to tell your children, however this is how they were raised. I don't blame them for the struggles I experienced in my early years, I just wanted to highlight that this is partly where my lack of motivation stemmed from.

As my frustration with my life grew, I began questioning everything. Why should I work as a labourer all my life? Why should I expect to earn just above the poverty line forever? Why should I have only one "career"? And while I was questioning everything, I realised that I had no idea what I really wanted to do or how to get out of my current, self created, spiral of emptiness.

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By this time I was working in vineyard maintenance. I was one of the guys that would prune the vines during winter, pick the grapes during the picking season and everything else in-between. It was simple work, and I met a lot of people doing it. What I noticed however, was that many of the people doing this work were in their late teens to early 20s who were wanting to make some money during their university holidays.

On one slow, sweltering hot Summer day, I was working alongside one of these young lads. His name was Tom. Tom was a few years younger than me and was studying to be a teacher. We got talking about university and how he enjoyed it. Tom loved university. He was having the time of his life. The more he talked about university, the sadder I became that I had never experienced it. Without really thinking, I asked "is everyone at university the same age as you?". His response floored me, he said that the oldest student in his year was 65. I never knew that you could go to university at any age. It seems absurd now, but at the time I simply thought that if you didn't go to university straight after graduating high school, you would never go.

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This simple and seemingly purposeless conversation with Tom was my butterfly effect. This one conversation completely changed the course of my life in the most positive of ways.

That day, I made the decision that I wanted to experience university. I was going to get a decent education. And I was going to have a career with meaning and purpose. I started researching how I could get into university. You see, I never completed year 12. I hated my high school education and spent as little time as possible in class. So my first challenge was to workout how I could get accepted into university.

It wasn't as hard as I expected. All I had to do was sit a mature age entry test, apply for the courses that I was interested in, and the universities would admit me based on my test results. Apparently I did well in the test, I was given entry to my first choice of Degree - Environmental Science. So, the following year, I began my 4 years of study to gain a degree in Environmental Science.

And that was just the beginning of my journey that all started from this one, simple, and seemingly insignificant conversation. What followed this conversation was more excitement, challenges, fun, adventure and passion than I could ever have expected. Much more than I can put into this post.

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I wish I could meet Tom again. We only worked together for a few short weeks, and since then I never saw him again. We didn't even exchange contact details. I would love to tell Tom how that conversation changed everything for me. I would love to tell him that if I hadn't had that conversation with him I wouldn't have:

Met my amazing wife
I met my wife in our first year of university. Sandra was also studying Environmental Science, and we met in our first class. As soon as I saw her smile, I knew that we would be together. As soon as I started to get to know her. I knew that I would marry her. My lovely wife is almost on Steemit now. She hasn't posted anything yet but is @bluebellpossum.

Experienced life at university
University life was an absolute blast. I made new friends, discovered my love of all things science, realised that I am actually quite OK at academia, and gained the confidence I needed to build a successful career.

Built an incredible career that has taken me to all corners of Australia
Since meeting Tom, I have lived and worked in almost every state in this fantastic country of ours. My career has taken me to places where very few people set foot. I have worked in some of the most isolated and harshest parts of the country and have travelled far and wide to see the most beautiful parts of our amazing land.

Purchased my own business and home
My career was enabled me to save enough money to buy a home and a business. I'm now doing something even more exciting than working as a scientist, I am a business owner and have employed a talented and motivated group of people who are helping me to create a successful fitness centre.

Sometimes, the tiniest of moments can have the biggest impacts on us. And Tom created one of those moments for me. It's fascinating to me that just one small conversation could so drastically change someone's life. And it's quite possible that the person triggering these moments has no idea of what they have done.

This is an entry into the Power of Positivity (POP) Contest or #popcontest. This is a fantastic contest that was created by @karenmckersie.