Nothing is worse than having friends laugh at you, point at you, and telling you repeatedly “you suck! We know you would fail!” I’ve gotten last place in my cross country races back in 2005, but I knew it would build up a considerable amount of endurance for my 300m intermediate hurdle races in the spring. Look, in the first three hundred meter hurdle race at Liberty High School in Southern Las Vegas, I hit the last hurdle, tripping and falling on the track and seeing a couple of runners pass me by. In an instant, I crawled pass the finish line, qualifying for the Sunrise Regional Championships. This all happened in front of a girl named Riza who I liked. The worst part about this is when I went to say hello to her, she was so embarrassed to be by me and blew me off because I was known as the “tripper.”
If we fast-forward this to all the Spartan Races and Tough Mudder’s I’ve done, I took all that psychological pain and used it constructively toward these races, succeeding in all of them.
You have to realize that failure is where the growth is.
Fear of Wasting Time
“People are so scared they’ll be wasting time if they try to build a business, even when their time isn’t valuable. If you’re sacrificing time you could have spent with loved ones or doing something that brings value to your life—or hell, $50K—then I can see how that might cause you some regrets. But if you’re giving up only your downtime—time you would have otherwise spent with Game of Thrones or some video games—how can you say it was wasted? You’re literally giving up empty hours in favor of doing something that could fill your life with joy, and you’re worried about wasting time? That’s bullshit. If you’re not 100 percent happy with your life today, it is never a waste of time to try something that could get you there.”
Excerpt From: Gary Vaynerchuk. “Crushing It!.” iBooks.
Ok, this is true. Very true.
However, I felt like I was wasting valuable time for the last 2 years at my old job. I wasn’t getting new opportunities, new courses, and I was still working salary by salary. Yes, I saved up and had some wonderful travels, but none of the money I saved was being compounded, nor were they giving me anymore amazing gigs to teach corporate. This last year (2017), a year that was beyond stagnant, was when I started realizing that it was too time-wasting for me. My salary was taking a hit, ignorance was boiling over, and the opportunities were finished.
So, I left. Hell with the garbage job. I’m about to turn 30, and the last thing I need is getting a girlfriend with no goals and being trapped in the same abyss that lots of sex/wife white tourists are in….in that same area.
Fear of Seeming Vain
“When I wrote Crush It! in 2009, I got a good amount of grief from critics who accused me of glorifying narcissism. I don’t hear much from them anymore, because I’ve been proven right by the consumer, aka the market: developing a strong personal brand leads to business success. Don’t worry about seeming vain. Embrace it. Everybody else who is crushing it did. Remember, smart entrepreneurs don’t care what other people think. You’ll look like an ass for a while if you walk around with a camera constantly pointed at your face, but everyone looks like an ass when trying something new. Reality TV was once a joke, remember? Now you can’t turn around without seeing a reality star on a magazine cover, a makeup counter, some exercise equipment, or a frozen-food package. Everyone’s an ass until they’re a pioneer.”
Excerpt From: Gary Vaynerchuk. “Crushing It!.” iBooks.
An entrepreneur from Singapore once asked Gary about being filmed. He wrote in a YouTube comment that people would just stare.
Well, I look at it this way. After a good amount of conversations, I realized that even if I wore a perfect suit and possessed a clean shave, I would still be labeled as “black” or a “Nigerian scammer.” So, I told my friend that when I run out on the streets, I go F***ING CRAZY! I’m shouting lyrics from DMX and telling people to get the f*** out my way. Yes, vein and ugly….but I can’t destroy an image that I already have, right? Boom….I win.
“As you gather your ideas and put your strategies in motion, set yourself up emotionally to succeed. Find your courage and strengthen your self-esteem until you feel brave enough to make some noise and invite people’s attention. Then show them that you care deeply about keeping it.” – Gary Vee
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