But first, this is me towards the end of the 3,000 meter steeplechase, after leaping over the water barrier.
We sometimes ran over 100 miles a week, two runs a day starting at 5 am, plus weight training.
Getting up when it’s dark outside, when you’re exhausted, to run 5 miles in 25 minutes will teach you endurance– to push through what you don’t think is possible.
The top guys on the team were from Africa– how could I possibly compete, I thought.
I was taking 21 hours while also working out and tutoring math, so my grades were suffering freshman year.
I told Coach that I had to quit the track team to focus on school. If I didn’t keep a 3.7 GPA, I’d lose my full ride, academic scholarship.
But he told me that focus was what I was missing– that I had plenty of time I was wasting.
Did I watch TV, play video games, hang around to chit chat at dinner, hit the snooze button in the morning, surf pointless sites on the Internet, go out to drink, or anything like that?
We all have plenty of time we can use when we are in focus mode– without cutting sleep.
So I stayed on the team.
And went on to have the best athletic performance of my life, plus get nearly a 4.0 my sophomore year.
This is not about “hustle”, cutting sleep, or having fake optimism.
What you see on social media is only 1% of the picture, when the cameras are out.
The other 99% of the time is mundane– responding to emails, tuning ad campaigns, organizing my schedule, reading books, waiting at baggage claim, showering, and hopefully– sleeping.
There are 1,440 minutes in a day– and if someone posts 14 one minute videos, that’s only 1% of their day.
Learn from people who are honest about what happens in that 99%.
Don’t trust the people who claim to have struggled mightily at first (to show they’re “human like you”), now live the life of carefree luxury, and now want to sell you a program.
The most successful people I know are super humble– they continue to have struggles….
Their challenges instead of shrinking, grow BIGGER– but their power to deal with these grows even faster.
Not because you can live luxuriously, but so that you have the resources to make an impact on the world.
If you want to make a dent on the planet, you will need money to do it– to pay for people and programs, since good people cost money.
Find a mission you love that where you’re paid to do it– like Enrique Marin, who gives 100% of his heart to vets while having businesses that serve them.
He’s integrated his mission to BE his business, not an afterthought or non-profit donation.
For example, he owns a company that produces suits for $249 for transitioning soldiers– total price shipped.
He has counterterrorist training, drone pilot training, and digital marketing training for soldiers, funded by GI Bill educational benefits.
If you want to help a million people, you will need to be a millionaire– and you will become a multi-millionaire in the process.
Thus, I want you be a millionaire– by building processes that help you scale to help more people.
