Never ever give up.

Never ever give up.

This is the secret to getting further than most: just never give up.

It’s the secret to getting further than those who are smarter than you, who have more money than you, and who are better connected than you.

Just never give up.

That’s the secret.

Because there will be times when you are tired, when you question whether it’s “all worth it”, when you question whether you got what it takes. And when you wonder if it’s “meant to be”.

We all have those experiences from time to time, but that in no way means that you should just give in. It in no way means that you are not doing “what you are supposed to do”. It simply means that this is a moment when the seed of doubt can be planted. Because that’s the real enemy. You can't doubt yourself to get where you want to be. So it’s up to you to say: never—-no. No way.

Never give up.

You will come across people who are smarter than you. Who had it easy when they grew up. Who went to the right schools. Who scored the right credentials. Who had the right group of people around them. But they never really made much of themselves. Why? They gave up.

And you will also notice it the other way. The folks who start with way less than you. Who had it hard. Who had it tough. Who started with disadvantages back, front, center, in and out. And they are way further in life than you were at a similar age. They may have the drive. Sure. But they also did one thing: they just never gave up.

And that’s just how it is when it comes to the big stuff: just never give up.

Just never ever give up.

Just don’t do it.

Because no matter how big your ambition, or how tough your journey, the fact of the matter is that the only obstacle between where you are now, and where you want to be, is simple grit, perseverance, endurance and just wanting “the thing” more than anything else in the world. It’s about doing the thing, and doing it again, and again, and again.

It’s about pushing through.

Because never ever giving up is what separates you from everyone else.

Never ever giving up is what will make you exceptional.

Because the simple fact of the matter is that everything is hard.

Especially when you start.

And every journey worth taking has huge obstacles that you thought you would never get around.

Because every journey worth taking has vast parts of it which are foggy, hazy, and it feels like you are moving into uncharted territory—-because you are.

And it’s scary. Sure. And it’s lonesome. And sometimes you may not know exactly what you should do. And it may feel like you will never get to where you want to be.

So you push through.

You keep going.

No matter what.

Because what’s the alternative?

There is no alternative.

Because that is what separates you from everyone else: you simply never give up.

And then you roll like this for a while. And then you don’t even have to tell yourself these things anymore. It’s then that you have become a machine that’s just “in motion”. And all you have to do then is to give it enough time. Because if you add “time” to “never ever give up”, then you got the secret figured out to really get anywhere in life. Now ain’t that something?

Wolf is at the door.

One of the big “mysteries” is why some people crumble under pressure, and others thrive. It seems that some people just freeze and lose all ability to act in any reasonable capacity. Then there are others who suck it up, they want the pressure, they want to be pushed in the corner. They need constant pressure in order to survive. This is you. This is the new you.

You need the wolf at the door. 

You need to hear it growl.

You need the fear of hearing it howl at night.

You need for it to show its teeth.

You need its claws scraping on the front door.

You need the wolf to ram the door.

You need it hungry.

You need it ready for bloodshed.

You need its shadow on the wall under a blood red moon.

You need it to get ready. You need what makes others crumble. You need to be stressed out of your mind, heart pounding, knees buckling. You need more fear than most can take. You need to be inches away from your breaking point.

You need it to build a wall. To build a fortress. To build a moat. To put together an offense. To fill a war chest. To get so strong and so powerful that nothing can get through.

You need the wolf at the door.

You need the pain, the fear, the urgency.

You need to prove everyone wrong.

And that’s why this is the new you. If you can manage to live with a wolf at the door, while you have a hundred bucks, the rent is 300, the wife is pregnant, and the landlord is pounding at the door. If you can perform under this level of stress, then you can do it all.

And then when you have done it. When you did roll like this for a few years: you look back and you realize that you have been playing on hard mode all this time, and then you imagine the way at which you can dominate if you switch back to easy mode. And this is when everything finally falls into place. Now ain’t that something? 

 

The Lonely Chapter.

Sometimes you just have to go into uncharted territory. And to go boldly. And to keep on going when things get really tough. The easiest thing to do is always to turn tail and to go back to wherever you came from. It’s the easiest, and the option is always there, and that’s exactly why you should never do this.

The hardest things are usually also the most fulfilling, and if you manage to do something that’s really hard, and it’s something you enjoy and feel good about, then it just becomes obvious: then that is exactly what you should be doing.

But you will discover early on that these are rarely the sort of things you do with a group of people. Everything worthwhile will require some degree of going at it by yourself. This means that there is no one who is cheering you on. This means that you may have some indication that you are on the right track. But there is no certainty. There will be a little voice popping up in the back of your head that’s telling you that “it will ever work out”.

This means that you shouldn’t give in.

To give in is for the weak, and that ain’t you.

There will be these statements popping up about how most people give up “three feet before striking gold”, or you will see graphs that show a flat line and a little arrow pointing at “this is you” and then some indefinite time between that and striking it big.

And that’s where it’s really tough, and it’s really lonely. Because by that time you are at an intersection: you no longer really fit in with your old crowd, but you also don’t have the credentials to fit in with a new group of people. At this stage you are still a wannabe, no matter how hard you grind and keep going at it.

It will feel like every day is an uphill battle, and around every corner there is another obstacle that you couldn’t have anticipated. Even though you planned all the way to the end, you just end up doing the best that you can. And that little voice starts nagging again: is this enough? Do I have what it takes? Will this ever workout?

So you just keep on going, because it also feels like there is no turning back. And you keep going, and you keep going, and it will feel like it will never happen, and then you forget about thinking, you just keep on going.

And then a few years later, you take a minute, you look around at where you are at, and it’s then that you realize that you are right where you are supposed to be. Things did work out, and way bigger and way better than you ever imagined. Now ain’t that something?

Is it big enough?

One of the hardest things in life is to back-paddle, and to “reinvent” yourself. To let go of old ways and to go down a new path. The interesting thing is that you have to be cautious, much like with anything else in life.

There is a delicate balance between back-paddling and reinventing yourself, versus going too far back, and creating a disadvantage for yourself. And this is really something that you should realize for yourself before you are “in it”.

That’s why I initially thought that it all came down to this question:

“Is it big enough?”

It seems to be it, but it also feels like it’s cutting it a bit short. Because you can always sort of tell when something is a few steps back and a leap forward. That’s why I think the key is in the time-frame, that’s why I think the sub-text of this question is

“Will this give me leverage?”

Then if you put those two together, then you will have a good indication to determine whether you should move forward in a certain direction. This is part of the checks and balances where you really make up your mind on a course of action. The simple fact of the matter is just that time is always limited, but “things to do” are not. So that’s why you should always determine whether something is really worth your time and energy.

Questions like these will state what you probably already know “when you’re in it” or when you are about to “take a leap”. That’s at least what it was like for me: a while ago I thought that I was at a crossroads, and I was considering making a move but there was something that kept me back. It just “didn’t feel right”, and what it came down to were these two questions. It gave me the clarity of mind to abort and to go look for a better opportunity.

And it always boils down to this: it’s all about the long game.

And in a way it’s funny as well, once you realize that so much of “it” is about the long-game. But it takes time to be able to think not just in years, but in decades. What is hard still is that this means that you will have to wait from time to time, until there’s a huge opportunity. And those moments are rare, so be ready, have your sails up, because when the wind picks up you want to be ready to make a move. And when the time is right, everything sort of falls into place and it will seem like the most natural thing in the world. Now ain’t that something?

Trust the process.

No one knows exactly what next year will bring. It’s the realm of fear, hopes and dreams. It’s what our ambition aims towards. It’s a shot in the dark. It’s about unmitigated belief more than anything else. It’s about taking massive action, and then reaping massive rewards. It’s all of those things.

But when you’re at the start of it: none of that matters.

You may have hopes, but it’s like thin air.

It’s hard to breathe if you exert yourself too much.

It’s like pushing the body, and then some.

And that’s why it’s hard.

And that’s exactly why we admire people who push through anyway.

When you start anything, the stuff that you should put all stock into is “massive belief”. It has to be so massive that it almost borders on delusion, while you try to accomplish the impossible, and those around you may think that you have lost your mind.

It’s at this time that you take massive action.

It’s at this time that it doesn’t really matter where you start, but the fact that you start is what it’s about.

It’s about the belief that “these are the motions”.

It’s about the belief that you are “in a process”

And it’s at this time that your “massive belief” intersects with “the process”.

It’s this feeling, when you pull another all nighter, when dawn is upon you, when a million souls go about their business, having their version of “having it together” and “having it all figured out”. It’s at that time that your “massive belief” doesn’t falter, but it’s at this time that you can only do one thing, and one thing alone: you can only trust the process.

Because there has to be a method to your madness.

There is no other way—----

Because—--

You go through the motions.

You made a plan.

You have a destination in mind.

You have some idea of what has to be done.

And part of you just “wills the thing into existence”.

All while another part of you studies the plan, studies the data, learns from the mistakes of others, gets inspired by others who went down a similar path as yours, and who made it big.

And it’s at this hour that you just have to do it: you just have to “trust the process”.

Because without “trust in the process” none of it will happen.

Without the reps you ain’t moving forward, you ain’t making progress, and you surely will not get to where you want to be.

And then before you know it, you're a few months in, then a year, then a few years, and the object of your obsession is slowly turning into a reality. You may not have achieved it all the way, but it’s getting there, there is data in support of this, you have achieved small wins, and all of that contributes to your massive believe that is acquiring critical mass, your name is getting out there, as well as a massive moat, and then a few years later you’re right where you were supposed to be. Now ain’t that something.

Leave them guessing

The easiest way to give away all your power is just to lay it all out in the open. No filter. No nothing. Anything that comes to mind you just sling out into the world. Until one day you realize that no one listens. No one cares. You don’t want to be this person.

But the fact of the matter is: most people are that person.

Because it takes cunning, skill, and understanding to play a different game. One where you build reputation not by what you do say, but by what you leave out. When you play the game like this, you create an enigma because no one will be able to exactly pin you down.

You leave little breadcrumbs. Little clues. You give hints, but no instructions. You give a direction, but no roadmap. And by doing this you will instill this question in the back of everyone’s mind: who is this?

And you will find out that this is the way to get attention, because then you are turning your public figure into something that’s larger than yourself. You become hard to pin down, and exactly because of that people will want to know: who is this?

But you have to be out there. People will have to be able to find you. They will have to be able to find some sort of resource, which will allow them to spend two hours getting to know you.

You will have to be deliberate about what you put out there. There will have to be some original thought. You will have to be a critical thinker. You will have to be aware of using as few words as possible to get your point across. You will have to have the ability to finish most of an idea, but not all. You will have to connect your ideas to some other ideas, but you will have to do so loosely.

After those two hours of going through the stuff that you put out there—-- they will feel like they got to know you, but just like the enigma that you created around yourself: they will feel like they know some, but not all. And that’s the way that you answer the question: who is this?

And then, after a few years of “building” like this, you look back and you realize that you learned more about yourself than you ever did before. You have transformed, you have become more interesting, and you have a better life because of it. Now ain’t that something?

Why not you.

One of the ways that I keep constant reminder in sight is literally asking questions: am I making progress? Am I in charge? Am I on task? It may seem almost silly to literally ask those sorts of questions, but it works for me. Because it’s a constant reminder. It’s a constant reminder of what is important—--not just to me personally, but more so to get the job done.

And you can think of variations, literally in the vein of the job: is the job done? Am I making progress? Am I doing the right thing? And you can think of variations in this vein, and I guarantee you that this will be extremely helpful once you are on a task.

What about the “way before”? What about that time when you have an idea to act on? When you have a dream of which you believe that you can turn it into a reality? What sort of question can you ask yourself then to get started, to build momentum, to build self-belief, to build confidence, and to build the conviction that you can do this.

So for the way before it’s more about imagining an inner dialogue, not just with yourself, but with a third person who is simply going to ask the question: why not you? And this is where you turn the whole inner dialogue into a pep-talk, and it’s highly effective if you do it well. It should be build partly on rationale, partly on blind belief, but the outcome has to be certain as it can be.

Because the question is: why not you? You got the brains, you can study the plan, you can grow immensely in the next couple of years, you can build a wall around your family. So why not you? Because you can set priorities, you can identify a fat pitch, you can ride a wave for as long and as hard as you possibly can, you can get eye-balls, you can get people excited, you can create something that people will want and need. So why not you?

Why not do the thing that you care deeply about. Why not just try to do it. No matter what, and no matter how small. Consider this: if you do something that you care deeply about, then you will be able to create your best work. You will be able to create something that truly matters. Not just to you, but also to other people. They will be able to pick up on it when you do your best work, and they will cheer you on for it.

You will just have to find the inner strength to keep on going before the fly-wheel has picked up speed. Before it has so much momentum that it can’t be stopped. And this is hard. This is the lonely hour, where you will doubt yourself, people will think that you are a fool, and they will think that you will run yourself into the ground.

And this is the hardest part. Because is where you will need blind belief that goes against what your brain might be telling you. This is where you grind and keep going up that hill, and where that small question will be a constant reminder: why not you? And it will turn into: it has to be you.

And then when you have gone through it. When you are on the other end. Then you will have forgotten all about it. You will have transformed, you will have built a better foundation for your family, and it will then be down the line again, that you get an itch, where you get “willing” to back-track and to reinvent yourself.

And that’s when it becomes relevant again, that’s when you start asking yourself: why not you? But by then it’s different: you no longer start from scratch, but you start from something that you built before. You start from the foundation that you build during your first grind.

And that’s the exact place where you want to be, because then you have turned your whole life into a fly-wheel that just keeps on going and going. You will grow, you will evolve, and your life will be way richer because of it. But you have to start somewhere. You have to be willing to take the initial small risk, the small leap of faith, and then sometime after—-------boooooom, you’re where you want to be. Now ain’t that something?