The Murfdipity Story

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My story is a serendipitous adventure of fun and excitement.. So strap yourself in pardner. This is a rip roarin’ ride.

But before we get rolling – please note – if you’re looking for my clean, boring and respectable bio this is definitely NOT it. That is located here.

And I should warn you. I’m different than a lot of folks. Many things that appear to be serious to people, are not to me. While other things that do not appear serious to people, really are to me.

One thing I am serious about is intergalactic warfare transparency. So I’m going out on a limb and letting my freak flag fly in hopes of giving you a deeper sense of who I am . . . in the hopes that you’ll do the same.

Now, take a nice deep breath, relax and…

The Early Years (1984-1990s)

I’m lucky I even made it to Earth.

The womb was good to me but birth was another matter. It all went awry when the umbilical cord got wrapped around my neck. Before I knew naked from not, I was auditioning for the Blue Man Group. Me neeed air!

The cord fiasco was definitely my first oh shiet moment.

Which was fine, because I learned the purpose of life —-breathing. Because when you stop, I’ll tell ya what. It be over.

Thank God my dear mother eased on the throttle. With a lil’ slack on the line I ripped the cord loose and came screaming into this dimension. Actually (as I was later told) the doctor snipped it before I went back to heaven. But trust me, I woulda shredded that beast if he had waited any longer.

Alive and well, I drank fresh milk and feasted on the flesh of Gerber. Consequently, I grew. And grew some more. Not up, but out. And became known by a simple name. Burger.

I was a happy kid but faced some unique challenges growing up. Long story short, God bless the broken road because it developed in me an empathy for sick children. As I’ll get to later, this feeling of connectedness led me to hospice volunteering.

Now, as fate would have it, Burger was raised in Casper, Wyoming. It’s a windy place full of cows, gas and friendly ghosts. Wyoming’s itsy-bitsy population is testament that it’s not the quantity, but quality, that’s makes the difference.

Wyomingites, as we are called, are folks who don’t take no crapolla. We gave women the right to vote (girl power!) and we’ll blow the Earth to smithereens with our Yellowstone super volcano. Seriously, don’t mess with our liquid hot mag-ma [insert Dr. Evil laugh here].

So looky here feller, be good to yourself or you’ll be hearin’ from my inner cowboy child. I might look cute but there are 55 gallons of Wyoming whoop ass behind this smile. Yes…be afraid, be very very afraid.

The Formative Years (2000-2007)

At some point, I stopped being Burger and went green. Literally.

My birth name is Sean Patrick Murphy. And as any Irish lad will tell you, this much green blood is both a blessing and a curse. A blessing because I’m lucky and charming. A curse because lucky charms come out my arse. Holy shillelagh! I know, way too much info.

Actually, it’s a curse because there are a lot of wee leprechauns with the exact same name as me. I’m like an Irish John Smith. Good thing I had bunch of silly nicknames growing up like Murfdiggity-dawg, Murfilupigus, Murfology, Murfee Lee, Murf Diesel and the Profound One. Finally, one stuck.

And so Murfdipity, I became.

[Murfdipity, if you're curious, comes from serendipity, which is defined as making fortunate discoveries, as if by fate, while looking for something unrelated. As you'll find out, it's quite fitting.]

But what wasn’t fitting was all that bullhonky about Murphy’s Law. So I coined my own law, Murfdipity’s Law, which says anything that can go right, will go right! Take that Murphy’s Law.

The serendipity got started, not with luck, but with my Dad’s hard work. For 20 years he worked his arse off to help pay for my college education. As you know, a good education is the foundation of life. So thank you Dad! And if you’re a parent who helped with your child’s education, pat yourself on the back. You rock too!

And so I attended Irish Catholic Disneyland, otherwise known as the University of Notre Dame. After failing out of Organic Chemistry, I got lucky and found my passion in Theology, Philosophy and Psychology – or more simply, the hybrid of all three called Transpersonal Psychology.

The Notre Dame years were a little blurry, but what I do remember is  I was a three year member of the Irish Guard (see below) and drank studied my way to a philosophy of life. Somewhere between Aristotle, Jung and John Paul II, I found a social, spiritual and moral backbone, albeit a little curvy at times.

But just as I thought I found a hint of enlightenment, I was blindsided by the great college conundrum.

I needed to get a legit job —or so I was told. The problem was I graduated with degrees in Psychology and Theology (from one of the best theological and philosophical universities in the world) but I wasn’t exactly psychologist or priest material. 

Oh shiet, not again.

Graduate school? Nope. Law school? Naw. Ski Bum? Possibly. I looked at every opportunity I could find.

Then, some friends suggested I be normal and get a job on Wall Street. So I did some interviews and was poised to become a big city baller…. but…

All I could think in those interviews was what’s the purpose of this, who does it help and will this make me truly happy? It became apparent I wasn’t suppose to ask such deeeeep questions. The pot of gold – they said – was at the end of the rainbow. Suffice to say, my Irish seventh sense smelled a stinky potato.

And so my search continued. Good thing serendipity was waiting…

The Internet Startup Years (2007-2011)

I moved to Colorado on a whim and prayer and launched LUX.com with my brothers. It was a family entrepreneurial internet shindig.

Long story short, I didn’t become the next whiz kid bazillionaire. But I learned about business, technology and the internet – the good, the bad and the ugly.

For two years I marketed mega mansions in front of a computer in my garage suburbian basement. It was quite a dichotomy and I learned a lot of entrepreneurial lessons about fundraising, outsourcing, intellectual property, computer code, dealing with nincompoops, family brawls and lawsuits.

Long story short, in many ways my first venture failed to perfection. It can be tough being an entrepreneur so if you are one here’s a tip of the hat.

After taking some tough lessons t heart, we regrouped and co-founded  VideoPros, a video production company, and Vidstore, a software development company that builds streaming video stores.

Building video stores was our big idea!

Over the years, torrent websites like The Pirate Bay and MegaUpload have been all the rage. But we didn’t think people should get stuff for free when others had worked really hard to make it. We realized the first key was to help folks protect their online video content.

The second key was helping them monetize it online. Then, as is true now, lots of companies want to sell streaming video content, but they don’t have the technology and resources to make it a reality. So we raised $1.5 million dollars, hired a team of super geeks, developed Vidstore, and now we can build you a streaming video store for an accommodating price. National Geographic, the Knot, Delta, the Canadian Government and many others use our video platform. If you’d like to learn more about streaming video stores and how to sell video, contact me here.

I never imagined I would become a geek. It all hit home when I realized I couldn’t live without internet access. The crazy part was even though I was helping people and making money, I felt like a cyborg being stabbed with a hyper-tension tipped cattle prod. Oh sheit. Here we go again.

I needed to resurrect my philosophy of life. So I did what any ambitious 25 year old would do. I moved to California. But unlike most guys my age, I was on the search for real gold. And as fate would have it, serendipity was waiting for me.

The Hospice Years (2010-)

When I moved to California I realized I had been living my life in a digital world. And now, it was time to live in this world. But to do this I needed to put my education into action.

But where could I truly learn the secrets of life?

I could learn the secrets of life by studying what people fear most… death. I believed then, as I do now, there is nothing more profound than death. It’s life’s greatest life coach. But I needed an applicable group by which I could study. Who on earth would that be?

I decided I would serve and study veterans. Although I am not a veteran, the United States has been at war (or in some kind of conflict) nearly my entire life (Gulf War, Bosnia, Kosovo, War on the Terror, Iraq, Afghanistan, etc. etc. etc.). To me, this made veterans a very appropriate and applicable study group. I also figured if someone was willing to risk a bullet to protect freedom, liberty and my white arse then I could help them out.

Then, as serendipity had it, I came across a unique hospice volunteer organization called The Twilight Brigade. I learned that 70,000-110,000 American veterans from WWII, Korea and Vietnam are will die every month for the next 5 years – many of them alone. I was shocked.

I attended the Twilight Brigade’s 20 hour nationally certified course to become a bedside volunteer. After 4 months of “standard government operating procedures” including a tuberculosis test and fingerprints for a DOD level background check (that every would-be volunteer has to do) at the Greater Los Angeles VA, I finally had my credentials to go bedside. Who would have thought it was so challenging just to visit veterans in Los Angeles. I sure didn’t.  Bureaucracy can be an ugly, foul beast.

The funniest thing about the Twilight Brigade is Dannion Brinkley. After being struck by lightening he had the most complete Near Death Experiences ever recorded (according to Raymond Moody). Aside from being a best selling author and hilarious, he was the perfect person to further my theological and philosophical study. We became friends and he mentored me through many experiences, including what it means to be at the bedside of America’s greatest generation.

I’m now in the third year of my study. As a Twilight Brigader, I’ve served thousands of volunteers hours and I’ve been at the bedside of many veterans in their final days and hours. Rarely, did I ever get to know any of my new friends more than 4-6 weeks. Hospice isn’t for wimps.

My education was officially in action. Hospice is the ultimate crossroads of philosophy, theology and psychology. Bar nun.

And in case you’re wondering, what I’ve truly learned about the meaning of life – from being with people who are dying – is that most people are living an illusion. We live in a society with a chronic value systems disorder. What most people think matters, doesn’t. What most people think is trivial, isn’t.

A smile. A hug. A call. Some flowers. A friend stopping by to say hello. Those things matter. And what matters most is celebrating life.

So when you’re done reading this – no matter where you are in life – go ahead and party on. Let’s celebrate life together!

[Because of HIPAA Privacy Rules (and my disdain for wasting time on bureaucratic approvals) I can't post a picture of me in action at the bedside of American heroes. Pretty ridiculous if you ask me. That said, I'm honored to be a member of the Compassion Corps which shows how serious I am about being a bedside volunteer.]

Present Day Times

I believe Generation Y, Generation Z, and Generation Alpha are here to construct a new social and technological consciousness for humanity. If you haven’t noticed the current one isn’t working too well. This is a monumental task, but these generations aren’t here to play small. We’re here to play big!

After being a volunteer it became clear I must put my time, energy and efforts to social progress. I realized the best way to put everything I’ve learned and experienced into action is to simply help others and c0-create miracles.

As such, I recently founded Miracle Ventures, so that together we may feed the hungry, heal the sick and evolve consciousness. Which all leads to my questions for you.

What’s your miracle? And when do we begin?

And that’s not all folks…

If you’ve read this far I want to tell you something very important. Thank you. I know how busy life can be so I really appreciate you taking the time to get to know me and what I’m up to. And I’d love to get to know you too.  Feel free to say hi and introduce yourself in he comments below.

And with that, there is only one thing left to say.

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