QUICK ANECDOTE, THANKS, & MY GREATEST LESSON THIS YEAR In the past 24 hours, I received a lot of calls/emails checking in, in light of my birthday. Most importantly, I want to say thank you SO much for the kind wishes and thoughts that were sent my way. It has been an amazing year. The one year anniversary of the gym is actually coming up in less than a month on 9/16/14. It is scary how fast this has gone. To that end, many people asked me secondary questions about what it was like leaving job security with the faint hope of starting something that might work, and taking on a large financial risk without any guarantee. My response is as follows (which I sent to an Vanderbilt Alumn who cam to visit a few months back): The natural insecurities we all have of approval from others, especially past schoolmates and peers is always at the forefront of our minds when going off the trodden path. But I encourage you to reframe your perspective as I did--each time you wonder what someone else is thinking about you, just remember, they arent. Then go ahead and do what you wanted to do. They are worried about their own business. I share my zeal for the current path Im on because I feel like people born in this country, with our level of comfort and opportunity should not become corporate drones for the sake of security. We will always be able to eat and have somewhere to sleep, that is our blessing that many in the world do not have. In light of this, the world needs us to reinvent business, not follow suite. But us high-achievers, who have been so motivated by accomplishment and making everyone else proud forget that we CAN do it. We dont need permission. We dont need to hit a certain age or get another degree which permits us that freedom. Develop a product that is valuable to a certain demographic, find a way to reach them, and deliver what you promised. Easily stated, harder to execute, but thats the beauty of it. Anyone can save their nickels, take a loan, sleep on the floor and work until their dream becomes a reality. And if you need more motivation, a failure on your resume will be a much stronger speaking point for business school than whatever cost-saving initiative you led. You just have to decide that you desire success more than you fear failure, and when your desire surpasses your fear, youll quit your job and never look back because you WILL succeed (because your drive is going to be so damn big because of the fear it has to overcome). My single greatest piece of advice to anyone trying to enter any industry entrepreneurially is to FIND MENTORS. No one goes it alone, despite whatever they say. Find people who have been in the industry and have already achieved a significant measure of success. Those people will help you jump the learning curve 5-10 years since they know what works and what doesnt. Offer to work for free, mop floors, whatever. Just learn. View it as business school that is specific to your industry that doesnt put you in more debt. So - my deepest and most sincere thanks goes to Sam Bakhtiar Travis Jones & Carlos Negrete for being amazing business mentors and friends. I could NOT have done it without your leadership, guidance, and friendship. God has blessed me by putting you in my life. I will not soon forget what you have done for me and the lessons you have imparted this last year. Hopefully, this small post gave you some small look into my past year. And if you wanted a call to action to pursue your own dream, in the immortal words of Nike: Just do it. :) Have an kickass Tuesday.
Posted on: Tue, 19 Aug 2014 18:44:17 +0000