What Are Your LEGOs?

Nathan Sawaya is a man who is living his dream. He is doing what he has always wanted to do... what he always hoped he would attain. He fought long and hard to get there. After graduating from law school from NYU, and spending 10 years in the New York law firm Winston & Strawn as a mergers and acquisitions attorney where he was making a healthy six-figure salary, he has given it all up.

For LEGOs.

That's right. LEGOs. "Forever, that's all I've wanted," he says.

It started at Christmas 1978 when he received his first set of LEGOs as a gift at the age of 5 years old. After that, his life was never the same.

Every waking moment he could, he spent it building with the blocks. He turned his family's living room into what he called, "LEGO City"... an always changing city made completely from LEGO blocks. Firehouses, train stations, skyscrapers and restaurants filled the room as his city was always growing, always changing, always living.

When he moved to New York City to attend NYU, he figured he had to hide his habit, for fear of being thought a freak. So he continued to build and play, but only his roommates knew about his habit. "Let's just say it doesn't get you a lot of dates. People [would] think you're a little strange... a little off."

He even attempted to hide it from his girlfriend, but couldn't continue to keep the large unmarked boxes (he buys in bulk) that were constantly being delivered to his apartment, a secret. "It wasn't," says girlfriend Dierdre Harding, "what I thought."

Finally, he heard about a contest to determine who was the best LEGO builder in the world. The prize? To be one of only 7 "Master Builders" on staff at the LEGOland theme park... for an awe-inspiring $13 an hour. He didn't even have to think twice about it. After years of watching LEGO's job listings on their website, his big break had finally come.

He entered the contest, won, and landed his dream job making five times less than he was as an attorney. But he was living his dream.

Today, he is a LEGO artist. He is commissioned by companies all around the world to come and build his LEGO art for them. His sculptures and art sell for tens of thousands of dollars, and he couldn't be happier.

Isn't it interesting? We can, according the rest of society, "have it all." But, if we're not doing our one thing, the thing that makes us come alive... we might as well be dead.

Those are strong words, I know... but if we aren't living from our heart, chasing our LEGOs, then we are just the walking dead going through the motions of a wasted existence.

So the question begs to be answered... What are your LEGOs?