There’s nothing better than a little fire in your belly to keep you moving forward. Find something to hate.
“The rage you feel? Listen to me carefully. It’s a gift. Use it, but don’t let anyone see it.” – Nucky Thompson, Boardwalk Empire
Nucky may be a fictional character, but these are words of wisdom. I may not feel actual rage on a regular basis, but I’m also not a gangster and mob boss who traffics in violence like Nucky.
But whenever I’m feeling lazy or unfocused, I immediately redirect my attention on all the things that I I have spent my life working against:
The poverty that I have experienced many times in my life
The teachers and guidance counselors in high school who never spoke to me about college despite my excellent grades and laundry list of extracurricular activities
The former stepfather who did so much damage to my mother and my siblings and cost us our childhood home
The long, cold, frightening nights spent living in my car in Somerville, Massachusetts when I was homeless
The police officer who arrested me for a crime I did not commit
The hours spent in a tiny jail cell, awaiting my arraignment
All the McDonald’s customers who treated me and my employees poorly over the years because of our place of employment
The prosecutor who railed against me at my trial – calling me me a thief and a liar – while trying to strip me of my freedom
The college professor who told me that I probably wasn’t talented enough to publish novels and should think about a different career
The people with so many advantages in life – supportive parents, stable homes, parents who paid for their college tuition, family businesses that accepted them with open arms – who fail to do great things with their lives and good fortune
The anonymous villains who tried to destroy my teaching career
When I am not doing my best, working my hardest, trying like hell to succeed, these are the people I think about. These are the things that get me moving again.
While I don’t want my children to be impoverished or homeless or jailed or told that they aren’t talented enough to succeed, my hope is that they have a little fire in their bellies when they get older. A reason to prove someone wrong. Something that has hardened them and sharpened them a bit. Maybe a little anger residing somewhere within, kept hidden as Nucky advises, but always there, pointing them forward and onward to greater things.
Success really is the best revenge.
