We all have our Universal Quest to become better. To be more, earn more, give more, love more and to leave the planet a better place on our exit, than it was on our entrance.
I am 51 years old now. The first half of my life is behind me, and the second half lies ahead. The idea for the Universal Quest came about in September of 2021 as the Loot NFT drop expanded my consciousness of what was possible in the NFT world.
Now as I write this it is November of 2021 I feel that instead of a mid-life crisis, Universal Quest is my mid-life breakthrough. I thank you from the bottom of my heart for taking a look at the Universal Quest and taking a few minutes to find out more about me and my mission with Universal Quest.
I am totally excited about this project! I am personally creating each piece within the Universal Quest Genesis project. Each piece is totally unique. I feel the Quest joyfully brings all my skills together into a comprehensive whole.
You might not have seen me around the NFT scene, so I wanted to let you know a little about myself. I received a bachelor of fine arts degree from Ball State University in 1992. I focused on sculpture and song writing in college and played guitar, sang and wrote songs in different bands over the years. But this was back in the early 1990s. We didn’t even use computers or have our own personal computer in those days.
The only time I used a computer was for writing assignments and I would have to go to a computer lab filled with a bunch of other people just to write papers and then print them out to give to our instructor. There wasn’t any cloud to send docs to.
After graduating I wasn’t successful in finding a way to make money in either art or music, so I worked miscellaneous jobs until I got frustrated with working the daily grind and got into real estate investing in 2000. I flipped a few houses and made some money, but the holding costs and learning to manage the crazy amounts of cash flow made me realize that flipping real estate wasn’t for me. I did learn a lot through real estate investing and this got me my start in learning how to run a business, since I had no formal business training.
This was about 2002 and in the meantime, while searching for ways to better market properties that I was selling, I came across internet marketing, which was a brand new term to me in 2002. I signed up for an internet marketing conference and was sold on the internet being the future of marketing.
So with an art background it seemed to make sense to start building websites. I taught myself Dreamweaver and morphed my business over to a Web Design business. From there I learned SEO and my business became focused on providing SEO for my clients. I still run this business today and it continues to be successful.
In 2002 I met the Love of my life Shelly. We have been together ever since. We have 2 boys and 2 girls as well as 3 dogs. My son Alex is age 7 and was born with Duchenne’ muscular dystrophe. This is a genetic disorder that is characterized by degeneration and weakness of the muscles over time.
Even at 7 years old it makes standing up and sitting down difficult and climbing stairs impossible. The movements that most of us take for granted get progressively difficult for Alex. As a parent of a child with duchenne’s this is always at the back of my mind (if not the front of my mind)
There is a lot of hope for the bio tech that is working on solutions to DMS and our family stays hopeful. So I knew I needed to create a way to be able to give more funds to the muscular dystrophe organizations that are working to beat this disorder.
I am excited to build a community where 25% of all gross sales coming through initial sales and all continuing royalties go to charities that are helping to make the world a better place. We are starting with about half the proceeds going to muscular dystrophe organizations, as my Universal Quest is to rid this genetic disorder from not only my son, but the 1 in 5000 other boys that are plagued by this disorder.
The other approximately half of donations will be going to causes that are working to rid the world of racism, sexism and to work toward equality for every living human. This is another part of the Universal Quest that I am dedicating this second act of my life toward.
I feel so blessed that I can use my creativity and my business skills to have fun building a community that wants to strive for health and peace for the whole world. The mission is a tall order, but the only way to build the tomorrow that we envision, is to start living that world today. The Universal Quest is my part in bringing this vision to reality.
And when my second act is at its end and I look back towards what I have accomplished with the Universal Quest, I hope and pray that it has made a difference in the world, and that it continues to do so even after my existence has ceased in this realm.
This is only the beginning of the Quest. I have no idea where this journey will take us. But I have exciting plans that will steer the direction, and to make it a fun and valuable quest for everyone involved. This is a life long Quest for me. I'm putting my name and face on the project. Making art is a joy for me and I will be building a name for myself with the NFT world. A successful Quest is the only option for me. You are at the starting line on this journey with me. Now it is up to you to decide if you want to join in the Quest with me. Do you feel like you would be a good fit for this mission? If so I urge you to become a pioneer on this mission.
There are only 400 pioneer positions available and there are countless perks for those that are brave enough to jump headlong into this journey. While there will be many other ways to join the mission in the future, this is the only time to get in as a Quest Pioneer of the community, to help shape the future of the Quest and how we work together to make the world an inclusive, healthy world for all of us.
Follow the Universal Quest on Twitter and join the Universal Quest Discord so you can become part of the community. I wish you the best of success on your life quest,
Freece (Peace and Freedom),
Michael Ray
Join the Universal Quest discord and follow our Twitter to get updates as new art is posted and as more information about the Universal Quest is released.
