My Mission Statement

Welcome to the launch of my new website, the Lone Wolf Blog! I’m ecstatic that you’re here right now, and I hope you continue following along for what’s going to become an epic journey.

From unknown upstart, to borderline respectable blog, to internet powerhouse, to internet embarrassment, to eventual bankruptcy and imprisonment – I truly hope you stick around for it all!

For this first post I’m throwing it back to my days as a business major at The University of Wisconsin-Green Bay. In numerous classes my professors emphasized the importance of developing a mission statement for any new business. In short, the mission statement explains why a business or organization exists.

Developing this statement is a vitally important first step when creating a business because it forces you to determine what your product is, who your customers will be, and what you want to value as an organization.

A mission statement can also be an invaluable tool to determine the long-term goal of a blog, so I’ve taken some time to carefully craft my statement and share it with all of you.

If you read any of my blog posts when I was writing as Gator on Gator and the Big Hert, you probably think my mission statement is something sarcastic and immature. It’s okay – I don’t blame you for thinking that way.

After all, I was pretty elite at trolling the internet back in those days. I savored every opportunity I had to create clickbait headlines. My favorite pastime was tricking readers into thinking I’d written something serious, when in reality it was all just sarcasm and jokes.

Like that one time I shared a link and a picture of Packer players to trick everyone into thinking I was a new Packers blogger, only for them to realize I was promoting the long snapper position as the most important, but yet most persecuted, in all of football.

I’m getting a bit off topic, but while we’re on the subject, I have to mention that the numbers proved I was actually quite successful at clickbaiting.

There was that time back in 2017 when I wrote my public apology. I made it seem like I made a massive mistake that the whole town was going to find out about, but I actually just jinxed Michael Beasley into a knee injury. Classic clickbait.

Believe it or not, the apology ended up being Gator and the Big Hert’s most viewed post, with 821 views within the first week of being published. Yes, there were legitimately 821 occurrences of human beings taking time out of their days to click on the link and read the blog. In other words, there were 821 suckers that fell right into my sucker trap.

(I still don’t know how in the hell I got 821 views on that. That’s ridiculous.)

But clickbaiting wasn’t all I did.

I instigated numerous shenanigans in my three or so on-and-off years (mostly off) writing blogs under the code name Gator, and one time I even let my mom guilt me into deleting perhaps my favorite post during the whole Gator era. The repercussions for that one are still being felt far and wide though, as Travis Wilson still hasn’t unblocked me on Twitter.

That’s really when things peaked, but even before then, everything was sarcastic. Everything was a joke.

So I understand why you don’t have any faith in me crafting a serious and professional mission statement. I know it will take some time to gain your trust and prove I can be a legitimate writer and human being, but I’ve matured immensely since my last blog post in February 2019.

I went from being a successful 23 year-old business professional on an upward trajectory at a highly regarded insurance company (and was even asked to speak at Hilbert’s high school graduation) to an unemployed 25 year-old still living with his parents.

Need I say more?

All jokes aside though, myself and the life I’m living, or at least intending to live, are both far different than I ever imagined they’d be.

Over the course of my life I’ve always taken the comfortable, familiar, and more realistic path, so quitting my job back in February to try solo traveling the world was a massive decision for me. I left behind a well-paid and very stable job that I was pretty good at to pursue something very much the opposite.

It was a decision that took close to a year for me to make, and it was absolutely terrifying. Ultimately, one of my biggest motivators for going through with such a scary choice was how much travel inspires and opens up the creative side of a person.

I had been wanting to spend more time writing, taking pictures, and making videos for a while, but I got home from work five nights every week feeling exhausted and having absolutely no motivation.

I didn’t quit my job to travel for six months and then go right back into the 9-to-5 lifestyle. I quit with the intention of pursuing these interests to see if they were something I’m truly passionate about, and if so, how I can go about making a living out of them.

So this time around I want to be more than just a sarcastic and funny writer.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m still very funny. I’m still very, very funny. And very sarcastic. Very, very sarcastic.

You can’t teach a dog how to fly or a fish how to walk. And you can’t teach a Jason Mathes how to not be a sarcastic smart-ass.

But I want to channel my humor just slightly. I want to make you laugh about 80% of the time, and then right when you’re nearly in tears because I’m so damn funny, I want to hit you with a deep thought or emotion you can relate to.

And boom. Just like that I gave you the goose pimples (maybe?).

There’s an art to writing with humor and vulnerability that I think is really powerful, and it’s something I want to get really good at. So I present to you, the ultra-serious Lone Wolf mission statement:

“Watch yourself. Here at Lone Wolf we try giving you the goose pimples every Sunday night”

(I forgot to mention that I’m going to try posting a new blog every Sunday night. Oh shoot…kinda missed part of the punchline on that one. Oh well, we’ll get it next time.)