Blog #1: Path to Discovering My Why

Oct 30 - Written by Dorian Clark

Growing up, I watched my dad strap on his boots and head to work around 4 a.m. every morning as Factory Manager. He’s now in his seventies and still going strong. From him, I’ve learned the importance of hard work, consistency, and what it truly means to sacrificially love and provide for your family.

Like most kids in Jacksonville, I had big dreams of playing professional sports. Jacksonville has produced many professional athletes like Tim Tebow, Derrick Henry, Mac Jones, Darious Williams, Carson Beck, Grayson Allen, Brian Dawkins, Bob Hayes, and LeRoy Butler to name a few. My first love was basketball. At the smell of my dad's morning coffee, I’d grab my basketball and start getting shots up in the driveway and dribbling up and down the street. 

But reality hit me as a high school freshman. We scrimmaged against the eighth grader team… and lost. Not only did we lose, but the 8th grader I was guarding played my same position but was 6’3” and dunking with ease. That’s when I knew the NBA might not be in the cards for me. 

So, I did what most reasonable teenagers would do and switched gears to the NFL. I figured my basketball skill set would carry over well to football. I trained before school, during lunch breaks, and long after practice ended. It paid off when I earned a full-ride football scholarship to the University of Idaho (Go Vandals!). Without hesitation, I packed my bags and moved from Jacksonville, FL to Moscow, ID.

Finding Purpose Beyond Sports

Jacksonville taught me grit. I learned early that if you want something, you have to go out and get it and you have to have tough skin. My family moved often early on; sometimes to tough urban neighborhoods, other times to peaceful rural areas. Each move brought new challenges and new people.

In the urban setting is where I found my love for sports. We lived in this apartment complex called Eureka Gardens. I noticed kids were outside from sun up to sun down playing football. As the new kid wanting to make friends, I eventually started playing with them. Through playing this game, I met tons of people that ended up being good friends during that chapter in my life. We eventually moved again and basketball was the neighborhood favorite. Same story; new sport, new friends.

In college, I realized what I loved most about sports wasn’t just the game, it was the sense of connection. Sports brought people together from different backgrounds and became the avenue for community. The two labels that stuck with me were community and movement. That experience shaped my career goals. I decided to major in Organizational Science with an emphasis in non-profit management, plus minors in Marketing and Communications. My dream was to one day run a YMCA after my NFL career was over.

Spoiler alert: I didn’t make it to the NFL. Turns out, you need to be a lot bigger, faster, and stronger than 99% of the population. (If someone had told me that earlier, maybe I would’ve tried for the MLB!)

A Shift in Vision

As college graduation approached, I started to second-guess the timing of my plan. One day, I was talking with our Head Athletic Trainer, a mentor of mine who told me, “You won’t make a lot of money, maybe $45k if you’re lucky, but you’ll have a strong…”

I’ll be honest, after the “$45k” part, my brain hit mute.

I always had a fire in my belly to become a successful entrepreneur. Someone who built something meaningful and gave back to the community. That conversation helped me realize I wanted to first learn how to thrive in the business world before pursuing nonprofit work.

I made a plan to gain experience in three core areas: operations, sales, and accounting. Over the next seven years, I checked off operations and sales and read a few books like accounting for dummies…turns out the books weren’t dumb enough for me. Even with all of the experience I gained, I was feeling unfulfilled and still searching for that “big idea.” I knew I wanted to build something that had purpose. I just didn’t know what that was yet.

I took every personality test imaginable, and they all told me the same thing: I’m an introvert, a dreamer, and a feeler. Helpful, but not exactly a business plan.

My wife Leah noticed we hadn’t taken a break in a while and felt like we needed a vacation to get away from the day to day. Leah worked for my best friend at Wintz Company, an award winning developer that’s building a walkable neighborhood called Woodbury in Moscow, ID.

She planned a trip to my favorite city, Seattle. We were going to spend two days downtown then drive two hours to this newer (20 years old) town called Seabrook, which is similar in concept to Woodbury. So this was partly for her work, and partly for leisure.

I was super excited about the Seattle part of the trip but not really looking forward to Seabrook just because it was unknown and taking time away from my favorite city. Nonetheless, she is persistent, we made the trip.

Connecting the Dots

Seattle has always been a special place for me. I can’t fully explain it, but something about that city stirred me up. Maybe it was the people walking everywhere or the smell of roasted coffee drifting through the air. Maybe it was the farmers market, the gum wall, or the Space Needle. Seattle feels alive, full of personality like a character of its own.

Those few days in the city filled me up. The energy, the conversations, the simple joy of being with friends; it was everything I needed. But soon, it was time to leave my favorite city for a place I never heard of.

I’ll admit, I wasn’t thrilled. If I had my way, we would have stayed in Seattle. I even tried to make that sales pitch to my wife once or twice…but thankfully, I didn’t get my way. I’m grateful for that now, because if I had, I might have missed what God had waiting for me.

The drive to Seabrook didn’t feel promising. The trip felt like we were heading to the middle of nowhere. The moment we arrived, something shifted. Seabrook was charming in a way that caught me off guard. It wasn’t just beautiful; it was intentional. Every corner, every pathway, every porch seemed to invite you to slow down and be present. It felt like someone had thought about me before the city was built.

Over the next few days, we walked nearly every inch of Seabrook. We felt connected, alive, inspired in a way we hadn’t felt in a very long time. We laughed. We dreamed. We saw kids running freely, parents relaxing with coffee cups in the morning and wine glasses in the evening. There was a sense of joy in the air. Keep in mind, the design of this town was meant to bring people closer together. You would think on vacation in a beach town, people would have more of a desire to get away from people than be closer.

A few weeks later, we returned to Seabrook and met Casey Roloff, the town builder. Casey spoke about Seabrook with such conviction. He explained how Seabrook was designed around human connection, walkability, and nature. As he talked, everything I had felt about Seabrook began to make sense.

That was the moment I looked at Leah and knew. This was it. Community and movement. “We’re going to spend the rest of our lives building neighborhoods like Seabrook back home in Jacksonville, FL. Places that inspire community.”

That’s why we started Local Collective Jax.

Thank you for reading and being part of this journey with us.. Talk to you next week!

Dorian