Dan Waldschmidt's Blog, page 14

Your Cross To Bear.

Success won’t come easily. And not because you’re not smart enough or strong enough. Not because you don’t want it bad enough.

Success hurts because you hurt.

You’re flawed. For every massive strength, you have an equally magnificent weakness. A flaw so all-consuming that at times it can seem completely debilitating.

It takes over your performance, swallowing up anything good or positive in its way.

It might be an addiction. An overdeveloped vice. The people closest to you. Emotions you struggle to control.

But that struggle you go through is what makes you better.

That feeling of frustration and fear that consumes you is what forces you to be creative.

It is the fire that lights your soul and reminds you of why getting to your destination is so important.

It’s your cross to bear. It is what keeps you humble. And focused.

You think you would be better off without it, but it’s quietly the source of your superpower.

You can’t define greatness without experiencing weakness.

You won’t ever be able to feel powerful until you know what it means to be out of control.

Knowing this won’t make you feel any better about your situation.

You will still struggle. And you will hate every uncomfortable minute of it.

But looking back at your success you will see that the root of your breakthrough came from the cross you have to bear.

Not the happy moments. Not the times you cross the finish line.

You got that chip on your shoulder from the cross you’ve been carrying.

Push on. Press forward. Believe that this momentary time of struggle is the beginning of something so much better.

Living An Unbeatable Life.

Born in the heart of Switzerland surrounded by the Swiss Alps, Dick Williams knew what it meant to live the “good life”.

He never had to worry about how he’d pay for his education: his parents paid for a private tutor at a Swiss boarding school, teaching him to speak fluent French & German.

He never had to worry about “getting his name out there”. He was born to Charles Duane Williams, the founding member of the International Tennis Federation — and direct descendent of Benjamin Franklin. His dad was massively successful—and he wanted his son to be the same way.

At 12, his parents stuck a tennis racket in his hand and started teaching him to play the sport his dad loved so much.

And he started to love it too.

With the help of some of the best teachers money could by, he became one of the best in the game —at 20— winning the 1911 Swiss Championship.

It was no surprise, given their wealth and prestige, that this father/son duo decided to cruise —in first class— the maiden voyage of the most opulent ocean liner to date, owned and operated by the White Star Line.

They lived on the luxurious C Deck with the majority of the other First Class passengers, enjoying opulent amenities: a smoking room, reading and writing rooms, and an exclusive cafe.

It was a voyage they were going to remember for a lifetime.

But not for the reasons they expected.

“Iceberg!” The lookout cried out the warning in the late night hours of April 14th.

If they smashed into the iceberg, it would be disastrous. The ocean liner, known around the world as “unsinkable,” could sink. The ship’s captain, recognizing the danger, swerved the massive ship to the left, narrowing avoiding the iceberg. Or so he thought.

The ship’s clock read 11:40 pm.

SCREEEEEEECH

The iceberg was larger than they thought underneath the surface, ripping a gash in the starboard plates of the RMS Titanic.

Water flooded into the special compartments built to contain flooding in the event of a disaster. But the engineers never anticipated a gash running nearly half the length of the ship.

Those compartments were quickly overwhelmed and water spilled over into the engine room, leaving the ship dead in the water.

And if they didn’t escape, the passengers would be dead too.

The crew, knowing the worst was imminent, desperately lowered life boats into the water. Who cared if they were only half-full? They needed to save as many as possible.

Meanwhile, Dick & his father raced out of their cabins to see what had caused the noise.

“HELP!” Dick heard the frantic screams of a nearby passenger, who was stuck behind their door.

So he jiggled the doorknob.

Nothing.

It wouldn’t budge.

Taking a few steps back, he threw all of his weight into his shoulder—and through the door.

A steward, seeing the damage he caused, threatened to report him to the ship’s owners. But that would be the least of all three of their problems.

He and his dad ran up to Deck A, where they huddled in fear with other passengers in the gymnasium, clueless. They were trapped in the middle of the ocean. In the middle of nowhere. Nobody could save them.

So they decided to save others. Racing out of Deck A, they helped load women & children into lifeboats.

Passenger after passenger, lifeboat after lifeboat —  they saved others when they could’ve saved themselves.

The ice-cold water was no respecter of persons.

It snatched the life out of anyone who couldn’t escape it, regardless of their political status, socioeconomic status, or prior success.

With the last boat lowered, trapping themselves, they headed up to the captain’s bridge to get as far away as possible from the water.

CRACK.

At 2:20 am, the steel could no longer withstand the stress caused by the water flooding the ship. The Titanic broke apart.

CRACK.

Floating nearly upright in the frigid North Atlantic waters, one of the four smoke stacks broke and tumbled directly towards Charles and his son, two of the wealthiest passengers on the Titanic.

Dick jumped out of the way—and right into the nearly frozen, pitch black waters. His dad wasn’t so lucky.

He looked around, desperate to find his dad in the waters next to him. Instead, he saw a lifeboat.

He pulled himself in, not caring that it hadn’t been fully assembled. He just wanted to survive. He sat huddled with other passengers — rich, poor, and everywhere in between, in the frozen darkness.

The only lights came from the ship, the stars, and the distress flares still being fired from the Titanic, as the crew desperately tried to hail a nearby ship.

The minutes continued to tick by.

At some point, he lost feeling in his legs—the same legs that carried him to the Swiss Championship and the same legs he thought would continue to propel him to the top of the tennis world.

Instead, he sat shivering in the dark, wanting nothing more than to survive this nightmare.

Finally, around 4 a.m. on April 15, the RMS Carpathia arrived to rescue the remnants of the unsinkable ship.

As the doctor examined the tennis great’s legs, he came to an unavoidable conclusion: Dick’s legs would have to be amputated.

There was a big chance Dick could develop gangrene from the frostbite.

If he wanted to survive, the doctor said, he had no choice but to lose his legs.

But Dick disagreed. He refused to let his tennis career —and his legs— be cut short.

So every day he would pull himself from the hospital bed and start to hobble, willing his legs to move.

Shuffle. Drag. Shuffle. Pull. Shuffle.

He was obsessed. This was his mission now.

His wealthy background didn’t matter anymore. He needed to survive.

Every waking moment found Dick shuffling, willing his legs to move.

Even at night, he woke up every two hours to hobble along.

He worried that if he slept too much, his legs —and his dreams —would die.

And step by step, his gait started to return.

When he arrived stateside, he decided to stay and accomplish his plan to graduate college and play professional tennis.

A year after the disaster, Dick stood again —this time at the top of the tennis world, winning the intercollegiate singles championship for Harvard.

A year after that, in 1914, he won the intercollegiate doubles championship.

In 1915, he took home both the intercollegiate singles and doubles championships.

He made a name for himself in the USA, just like he had in Europe —despite his legs continuing to cause him pain.

The longer a tennis match went, the more painful his legs felt from the frostbite.

He compensated for his physical disability with mental and emotional ferocity.

Historian Bud Collins said of Williams, “On his best days, when he had the feel and touch and his breathtaking strokes were flashing on the lines, [he] was unbeatable.”

In March 1916, the tennis community ranked him #2 in the world. He was unbeatable.

The German Army couldn’t stop him during World War I when he fought alongside other Americans in the deadliest American battle of the war. The government, recognizing his bravery and tenacity, awarded him both the Croix de Guerre and the Legion of Honor.

He was unbeatable.

After the war, tournament after tournament engraved his name on their championship trophy.

After the war, tournament after tournament engraved his name on their championship trophy.

Wimbledon emblazoned his name alongside Chuck Garland’s when they won the doubles championship in 1920.

He helped his team win the Davis Cup in both 1925 and 1926.

A year before his back-to-back Davis Cup victories, he partnered with Hazel Wightman to win the mixed doubles gold at the 1924 Paris Olympic Games—a few short miles from where he fought off entrenched German forces during World War I.

He laid down his tennis racket when he was 44, and retired into a lucrative career as a Philadelphia banker.

On June 2, 1968, fifty years and a day after he fought in the infamous Battle of Belleau Wood, he passed away.

And as they prepared him for the funeral, they realized there was a bulk in the jacket he died in.In the midst of the chaos of April 14, 1912, Dick’s father handed him the flask he had always carried.

In the midst of the chaos of April 14, 1912, Dick’s father handed him the flask he had always carried.

And Dick continued to carry it. Never forgetting that night. Never forgetting his dad. Never forgetting that every step mattered.

Being unbeatable wasn’t about not experiencing loss.  He faced loss. He faced pain and anguish.

Every day of his life was a fight. Despite the pain of his tragedy, he persevered. He adapted and adjusted. He was obsessed with winning.

Every moment he spent playing the sport he loved was a war against the pain that ravaged his body.

It hurt to win. It hurt to compete. It hurt to battle. But he had made up his mind a long time ago that he was going to be unbeatable.

The exact same mission is available for you. You can live an unbeatable life.

It doesn’t mean that you won’t experience pain and discomfort. In fact, choosing to be unbeatable guarantees that you will struggle and hurt.

You have to make the hard choice to ignore the excuses you create for yourself and choose to rise up one more time to compete.

That’s the secret to being unbeatable.

You don’t have to be the smartest person around.

The size of your bank account or your biceps doesn’t factor in one bit. Not degrees. Not certifications. Not the people you know or the knowledge you can regurgitate.

Living an unbeatable life is about pushing past the pain and fear and doubt that holds you back. You embrace being uncomfortable because you know the agony is making you a better weapon for winning.

The choice is yours. The opportunity is yours. A chance at greatness is yours.

Will you choose to be unbeatable?

What Finishing Really Means.

You’ll never be successful if you don’t finish what you start. 

Completing a task is an art all by itself. 

Many people make the mistake of confusing “finishing a task” with the idiot stubbornness to keep doing something the same way and hoping that it magically works itself out. 

Those people aren’t successful. Usually. 

Completing, finishing, doing what it takes — those are ways of describing the flexibility you will need to realize a breakthrough in your life. 

Finishing a task doesn’t mean you keep doing the same thing and hope that it works out. 

Finishing requires that you’re introspective enough to notice what works best and then stay disciplined to continue the process of measuring and improving until your results line up with your vision. 

Completing any assignment demands obstinence. And massive amounts of flexibility. 

How you achieve anything will change over time. 

You’re going to learn new things. Over time you’re going to have more resources to apply to those new things you have learned. Your circumstances are going to change.

To be successful you’re going to have to change.

Change how you think. Change how you operate. Change the metrics you use to define success.

When you think about getting something done, think less about how you’re going to do it and more about why it matters to you.

That makes finishing what you start a foregone conclusion.

Creativity Is Messy.

Creativity is messy. Innovation isn’t linear.

You might automatically assume that as you learn and grow and mature that all of your insight and experience will propel you in a straight line towards where you want to be.

But that’s not the case. Success almost always demands a reboot. A time when you fail and then figure it out.

This is a dangerous place to find yourself.

It is a scary and uncomfortable position.

So it matters that you interpret the situation right. You’re not a loser. You might not even have made any big, terrible mistakes.

The automatic cost of doing things differently is chaos.

Taking things to the next level requires a different set of tools. It requires breakthrough of its own.

You won’t go from ordinary to awesome without a few stumbles along the way.

That whole process is frustrating and messy.

But it is to be expected.

You’re trying something new. You believe that you can do something better. The end result of your breakthrough will be massive success.

So between now and then learn from your mistakes, get all the advice you can, and believe in your mission.

The price you’re paying now will be worth it.

9 Steps To Creating Your Greatest Comeback Story.

You’re not going to make the journey to success without getting knocked down. You’re going to make mistakes. 

You’re going to do things that end up costing you money, time, and friendships with people you love. You’re going to feel depressed, forlorn, and completely demotivated. 

It doesn’t matter how smart you are in your journey to be successful or how much money you have while you’re journeying. If you want something big and bold and precious to you, you’re going to make mistakes in the pursuit of it.

You’re going to try things and realize too late that it was just a waste of your time.

The only remedy for failure is to get back on your feet. To try again.

But that’s not an easy process.

Trying again after you’ve already failed is tough. But it’s your only option.

If you’re not going to give up, then the only other thing you can do is press forward.

Getting good at getting back up is a skill you’re going to need to master. Here’s how you do that:

Realize that your failure isn’t the end of the world. You’re just like every other amazing person who accomplished something of note.
Spend some time with a notepad and pen digging into why you think you failed. Don’t play nice with yourself. Dig into the cause of why things didn’t work out.
Take time to blow off some steam. Maybe it’s CrossFit, running, cycling, Taekwondo or a steam bath — physical exercise sharpens your mind and forces you to step back and think a bit more honestly about what just happened.
Put together a short list of people who could help you avoid failure in the future. They could be an expert in your craft or just inspiring people who keep you grounded and excited.
Plan out your next attempt towards success using your new knowledge of what won’t work. Dive into the details and challenge yourself to give everything you have to this next go-around.
Allocate time each day to learning, reading, and growing. You need to refill all of the emotional fuel that you are burning in your pursuit of greatness. That’s where a good book comes in
Hire a great coach or find an accountability partner. It’s easier to spot problems in someone else’s life than it is to uncover weaknesses in your own.
Do one small thing each day that you can call a success. It might be calling a friend or researching a new idea or just heading back into the office for a few extra hours of effort.
Make time each day for introspection, meditation, or quietness. Often your hustle masks the real problems. When you stop and think, your dream becomes an obsession and you automatically figure out where is to get closer to where you want to be.



There’s no easy pathway to success.

There is no easy, automatic plan that will help you feel better when you’ve experienced epic failure. 

It’s never going to feel good to lose. You’re never going to be completely comfortable being uncomfortable. 

But you don’t have to stay beaten. You don’t need to let the brokenness of your current situation become your life-long story. 

Love yourself enough to keep trying. Believe in yourself enough to do what it takes. 

Get back on your feet. Rebound. You might be closer to the finish line than you think.

It Doesn’t Take Money To Make Money.

It doesn’t take money to create money. It takes creativity.

It doesn’t take money to create money. It takes hard work.

It doesn’t take money to create money. It takes tenacity.

It doesn’t take money to create money. It takes a bit of obstinance.

It doesn’t take money to create money. It takes insight.

It doesn’t take money to create money. It takes charisma.

It doesn’t take money to create money. It takes gratitude.

It doesn’t take money to create money. It takes professionalism.

It doesn’t take money to create money. It takes resourcefulness.

It doesn’t take money to create money. It takes accountability.

It doesn’t take money to create money. It takes an obsession with learning.

It doesn’t take money to create money. It takes class.

It doesn’t take money to create money. It takes individualism.

It doesn’t take money to create money. It takes indefatigability.

It doesn’t take money to create money. It takes discipline.

It doesn’t take money to create money. It takes giving crazy amounts of value.

It doesn’t take money to create money. It takes insane amounts of effort.

It doesn’t take money to create money. It takes failure.

It doesn’t just take money to create money.

The idea that the only thing you need to make money is money is a huge lie.

That belief is stopping you from getting started on things that will help catapult you towards where you want to be.

Make no mistake, money can be a catalyst for rapid growth. But it can also cover up a bunch of mistakes.

When you have to think about how you spend each dollar, you’re more imaginative. You aren’t subscribing automatically to the status quo. The status quo is too expensive. You’re subscribing to your own brand of awesome.

You’re doing things the other people call crazy and ridiculous. But you’re doing it because you don’t have enough money to make it work otherwise.

And that’s the magic of being successful without money.

What you have to go through and who you have to become ultimately creates the success you so desperately want for yourself.

Stop thinking that you can’t be successful until you are already successful. With that thinking, you’ll never get close.

Right now, your life is a test lab of opportunity. The trials in your life are a kaleidoscope of potential. What you are going through is “that special thing” that can make everything from this moment forward legendary.

You don’t need money. You just need the tenacity to keep moving forward.

Giving Up Is Your Choice.

“No.”

That was the answer a young Norwegian named Lauritz Sand received from his father when he said he wanted to go to art school.

His father wanted him to become an architect.

Lauritz resisted & launched his first art exhibition when he was 19.

It failed. Miserably. But he never regretted trying.

So relenting to his father’s wishes, he graduated from the Stockholm Technical School in 1899–and then immediately joined the Royal Dutch East Indies Army.

Graduating from officer school in 1902, he spent the bulk of his time with a team of other surveyors, mapping local archipelagos.

It wasn’t conquest. But he was learning.

Four years later — after graduating from officer school, he left to strike out on his own, building and managing plantations across the world. Using his skills as an officer and more than a little stubbornness, he created a beautiful piece of paradise he named the Pagilaran Estates.

While WWI raged all around him and for almost the next decade, he made lots of money.

In 1918, he founded & presided over the South Zuid Sumatra Syndicate. He went from rich to really rich. Lauritz had made a name for himself as a tenacious leader. A guy you could count on to turn your investment into tremendous returns.

It wasn’t just one day or one project. It was year after year. Idea after idea. Mission after mission. Business venture after business venture. Decade after decade.

But that old stubborn streak inside him kept flaring up. He was tired of just making money.

He longed to return to his home in Norway.

And so in 1938 at 59 years old, he and his wife Annie returned and settled in Bekkestua. It was quiet, and they were happy.

But over the years, the itch to travel and conquer and “build something” began to return. He was in the early 60’s when Lauritz started to plan his next big move.

But all at once, Germany invaded Poland–and Lauritz canceled his plans to move abroad. Norway refused to enter the European maelstrom and declared neutrality. Lauritz was safe.

As long as he stayed out things. That turned out to be a tough choice for a stubborn guy like Lauritz. Even if he was officially retired.

Throughout Norway, pockets of resistance quietly began to push back against the Nazi occupation.

Behind the scenes, Lauritz threw himself into the fight.

He quickly became a leader among the resistance, becoming known for being “dynamic and outward, with temperament and inspiration”. Those are fancy word to let you know that he was a bad-ass, old man.

He focused his efforts on covertly documenting German military outposts, dusting off his cartographical skills from his time in the Royal Dutch East Indies Army.

He built an underground network of operatives to pass his documents to the Allied Forces in Sweden and England, dubbing it “XU”. He was massively successful in helping the Allies with important information like troop numbers and strategy.

But all of that was about to be undone by one of those operatives. Her name was Laura Johannesen. Lauritz would have never guessed that she was a Nazi spy.

Through a series of meetings within the Oslo restaurant Theatercaféen, she learned how Sand ran the XU.

And used it against him.

A few months later, the Germans arrested Lauritz Sand. He was an old man. But the Germans were determined to break him. After all, he was a resistance leader with valuable intel.

That turned out to be harder than they ever imagined.

Crack. They broke an arm when he wouldn’t give them any information.

Crack. They broke his other arm when he remained silent.

Crack. Crack. They broke both of his legs when he resisted turning on his friends.

When the couldn’t break his spirit, they sent him to be tortured by the Gestapo at Victoria Terrasse, the Nazi’s Norwegian headquarters. It was a painful, dark, and scary place.

You were sent there to die.

It was not uncommon for a prisoner at Victoria Terrasse to fling himself out of a window to commit suicide before he could be interrogated. It was horrible.

When Siegfried Fehmer, known for his brutal interrogation tactics, couldn’t break Lauritz, they sent him to an already overcrowded Nazi labor camp. He was more dead than alive.

But he refused to give them a single name. A single plan. A single bit of intelligence.

So they beat him again. And broke his body. Almost to the point of death. And then they treated him, so they could try to break him again. It was a calculated plan  — working to beat him and torture him so he wouldn’t die before divulging the secrets of the resistance.

They broke almost every bone in his body, leaving him for dead on numerous occasions.

It was said that he was the most tortured man in Norway.

In a strange twist of fate, his steely will became symbolic with Norwegian resistance. This old man with a stubborn streak was standing up to the entire German army.

An old man. A weakened man. A beaten man.  His determination gave the other prisoners hope that they too could hold out.

Eventually, the Nazis realized he would not relent. There was nothing else that they could do that they had not already attempted. So they decided to execute him by firing squad.

They would put an end to this symbol of resistance. That failed too.

Nine days before he was to be shot, the Nazis surrendered. The war was over. His torture was finished.

He had survived.

It is said he only told his captors one word: “Nei” (Norwegian for “NO”).

He would not divulge his knowledge of the resistance. He would not betray his fellow countrymen. He would not allow the Nazis to rule his country. The answer was “NO”.

“NO” now. “NO” later. “NO” every time he was put to the test. “NO.” “NO.” “NO.” “NO.” “NO.”

He would back down. He would not quit. He would not give in. The answer was “NO.”

Shortly thereafter, he was knighted by King Haakon VII for his bravery and endurance.

Today, you will see a statute of Lauritz Sand in Griniveien, Norway as a testament to his incredible story of will. It’s inscribed with a single word: “Nei.”

He understood the power of “NO.”

The decision of was all his to make. No one else could make him back down, slow down, quit, cry, or give up. That was completely his choice. Even in the middle of a torture chamber.

The exact same is true for you.

No one can make you quit but you. It’s on you. Your decision. Your choice.

It does not matter what you are going through. It does not matter if life is unfair to you. It does not matter how old you, the color of your skin, your gender, job title, the level of your education, or how much money you have — or don’t have.

Giving up is a “you thing”. Completely.

Let that soak in for a minute. You are right now exactly where you should be. You are completely in control of your life. You get to choose anything you want. You can create whatever you decide to create.

Own it. Believe it.

Act like it.

You’re Not There By Mistake.

Success is intentional. You either make it happen. Or you don’t. 

Your results are the outcome of your effort. What you do leads directly to what you get.

Don’t make excuses if you don’t like your results. Be intentional. Change your effort.

Do something different the next time around.

Adapt. Adjust. Evolve.

Whining about the situation or pointing the finger at somebody else won’t help you accomplish success. Farm better. 

If you plant potatoes, at harvest time you harvest potatoes. If you plant carrots, at harvest time you could carrots. 

The same is true about negative thoughts. The same thing is true about financial discipline.

The same is true about humility and hustle. 

If you’re not harvesting the results you want, you aren’t planting the right thing. 

It is as simple as that. There is no other answer beyond that. 

What you put into anything is what you get out of it. 

You can’t put in less and expect to get more. 

If your goal is to do the least you can, your harvest will look pretty small. Less yields less. 

If your intention is to do the hard things even though that makes you look obsessive, you’ll end up reaping a bountiful harvest. More yields more. 

You don’t need to be a rocket scientist to figure out what’s going wrong.

Look at your results. 

Look at your inputs. Your efforts. Your activity. If you don’t like what you’re getting from your harvest, you need to plant different seeds along the way. 

Be intentional. Stop wasting your time whining. 

Make awesome a possibility.

8 People You Should Be Learning From.

What lessons have you learned recently? What type of new ideas and inspirational thinking are you proactively putting into your head?

What you learn determines how quickly you grow.

If the only time you learn is when you make a mistake, your path to success will be slow and painful. You’ll run out of time before you get to where you want to be.

On the other hand, you can rapidly accelerate your march towards success by going out of your way to learn. By obsessing about new thoughts and ideas before you need them. Filling your mind with fresh thoughts and inspired thinking.

If you’re looking for inspiration, here are a few places to get started:

Power up your soul and get inspired by watching TD Jakes deliver a powerful punch of spirituality in his weekly sermon.
Find fresh sale ideas and tough love accountability from Anthony Iannarino at his The Sales Blog.
Learn how to turn your thoughts into a superpower with Vishen Lakhiani at Mindvalley Acadamy.
Develop true leadership skills for business and life from David Brock on this Partners in EXCELLENCE blog.
Take your product to the next level with incredible inspiration from Yanko Design.
Read the impassioned stories of other people on their journey in life at Narratively.
Propel your personal productivity forward with amazing insights from the one-and-only James Clear.
Get a fresh taste of awesome and energy by getting involved in anything Grant Cardone is leading.

Being awesome is never an accident. It’s a choice. A calculation.

Success is intentional. You make it happen. Or you don’t.

Don’t make the mistake of only learning after you screw something up.

Go out of your way to learn something new and awesome each day. Even when it seems like you don’t need to.

You do. Your life depends on it. Your greatness hangs in the balance.

You Don’t Care Enough.

When is the last time you were moved deeply in your soul?

What is it that you feel so strongly about that it brings you to tears?

It’s nice to pretend that you’re a “tough guy (or girl)” and that nothing bothers you.

If you don’t care enough to cry about something, you’re not tough enough to do whatever it takes to achieve success.

Don’t get me wrong. You don’t earn any bonus points in life running around, sobbing in everyone else’s ear about how much you care.

Those tears are usually petty and immature. That emotion is superficial and fake.

At your core, there are things you really care about.

There are next steps in your life that you want desperately for yourself. That job that you’ve been putting so much time into finding. That friendship you’ve been trying to build.

You’ve been working so hard to make more money and get out of debt. That dream you have for a business of your own. Financial independence, the ability to travel the world whenever you want, escape from ridiculous amounts of stress.

You have been working so hard. Sometimes you find yourself with a lump in your throat.

You just want it. Bad. You’re tired of failing. You’re tired of being broke. You’re tired of getting knocked down.

You just want success. You can feel it. You can almost touch it. It’s inches away.

Or maybe you’ve never cared enough about anything in your life.

Maybe you are one of those people who go their entire existence without feeling deeply. You just meander and drift. You want to have fun.

You don’t dream too big or try too hard. You’re good at going through the motions when no one else seems to notice.

If you get asked what you want, you’re quick with an “I’m all good.” But inside you’re not all good.

You’re just trying to protect yourself from feeling something. From caring deeply about your future.

You don’t want to cry. You think that it makes you weak.

You think that caring makes you more vulnerable. More perceptible to failure.

In truth, it hurts to care.

It’s risky to feel something so deep in your core that it consumes every part of you.

It’s embarrassing to cry because you just failed another time. But it’s better to feel something and try something and work at something and move towards something — than it is to play it safe.

What is it that you feel?

Don’t be ashamed because you are moved. Don’t be embarrassed because you care.

You’re not weird because you are emotional. You’re about ready to get to where you want to be.

Part hustle. All passion. You’re unstoppable when you combine a clear vision with a heart that is on fire for progress.