The Bachelor Bible - How to dress, live with style and class, and even pick up chicks like a real man.

I know all of you are coming to this blog today to read about my weight loss or 5 tips on how to do this or 5 tips on how to do that. Sometimes we take things for granted and forget about the past. Teachers groom us to be who we want to be and encourage us to do great things in life. Recently, I was asked to talk at two schools, one of them being my junior high school. Nervous, yes excited, yes but I could not be more happy to do it. Sometimes in life we have to stop and pay it forward.

Here is the speech/presentation I gave:

Good Afternoon Everyone,

First and foremost I would like to thank the faculty and staff of ___ for inviting me here today. It’s an honor and a privilege. My name is Craig Caruso and I’m a geek. Long before I became the owner of my own company I was a student sitting in the same seats that you are sitting in now. When I was a student I was picked on and made fun of being a nerd and having different interests than everyone else. My main focus was on computers and learning how they worked. That was an early sign of my career.

Name somebody successful?

All these people started somewhere. They started in school and with an idea or passion.

Let me tell you a small story about how I got started with CarusoApps:

During the spring months I play softball with a local team. One day I forgot the playbook at my desk and I did not want to walk back to the office. I thought to myself, with iPhone in hand, that their must be an easier way. I spent the next month reading, researching, and developing an iPhone App. A month later iLineup was born. I learned how to code by reading books and believing in myself, even with others doubting me. As soon as iLineup was launched I had businesses knocking on my door to create apps for them, most recently Rab’s Bowling Alley on Staten Island. The response was overwhelming. Something changed, something changed in me. I found myself taking on more responsibility than ever before. At 25, I realized that the world was at my fingertips and if you believe in yourself you can do anything you want.

I am a living, breathing example of living your passion. If you want to be a teacher when you grow up, then be a teacher and don’t let anyone stop you. You might have some roadblocks in the way but they are just challenges to make you a stronger and better person.

Make the connection, between the homework you do tonight and the test you take tomorrow and where you will be in five, ten, fifteen, fifty years from now. The real world is here at your doorstep and you can do anything you wish, you just have to believe. Don’t stop believing.

A famous entrepreneur once said  “You can’t connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future. You have to trust in something — your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever.”

That person is Steve Jobs, CEO of Apple.

If I leave you with anything today it’s believe in yourself, believe in your passion, follow your dreams, and happiness with family and friends comes first before anything else.

Thank You.

Just remember sometimes you have to pay it forward to move on to bigger things in life

Craig