Today was the day! Well, actually it was Friday, the day after July 4th. Seemed very fitting. As I listened to Andy Frisella’s “Pure Action” podcast and talk about how proud he was to be an American, my app Faster Insurance, launched into the app stores on July 5th 2019. It has been a tremendous battle to get here. From a thought, to an idea, to putting on paper, to development and now a finished product… all over 14 months. I am very proud of what I have done up to this point but it is only the beginning! Now, in the podcast Andy talks about Theodore Roosevelt, the 26th President of the United States of America. He talked about after his two terms as president he went and tried running again as a 3rd party. During that election year, he got 27% of the popular vote. This was the highest ever against the two main parties! There was a quote that got me thinking, actually there were two.
It’s better to lose than to not try.
It was the famous quote by TR that I am going to put below but to highlight my favorite sentence. It is the last sentence… It gives me chills just reading it.
“It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.”
I am going after my dream. My dream of building a company. It will not happen overnight. It is going to be extremely hard. It is going to take 10-15 years to even taste “success”. But I am willing to pay the price. Why? Because what is the alternative? Boozing on the weekends, working for 40 years for the man, not reaching my full potential, and not pushing myself? I do not want to get to the end of my life, sitting on my death bed and realize… “I’ve wasted my life”. Because we all realize every day we are dying. Every day we don’t pursue our goals we are one step closer to never actually accomplishing them. I have a vision for your life. Here it is…
You have so much fucking potential. Potential you are not using. If you only closed your eyes, visualized what you wanted to do every day for the rest of your life and went and DID that, took the action, your life would be drastically different. So, what is stopping you? Is it your Mom? Dad? Friends? Don’t let anything or anyone stop you. My definition of success is as follows:
“Realizing ones OWN true full potential”
Here is the question I leave you with. Will you be the cold timid souls who knew neither victory or defeat? Or, will you go down swinging with a fight for your dream?
Chase. Your. Dream.