- Good morning, Believe Nation.
Today's message is push through.
Over to you, Mike Rashid.
(rooster crowing)
(energetic rhythmic music)
♫ I wake up every morning
♫ Espresso keep me going
♫ I wake up every morning
- There's different types of people in this world
And one thing that we're all going to deal with
is like difficulties in our tasks,
trying to become successful.
As good as things get, you're going to have the same amount
of bad that's going to try to impede your progress,
whether it be people, whether it be the IRS,
whether it be whatever, something will rear its ugly head
and try to block you.
Now a lot of people can't handle their shit.
When you have a vision and something or someone
throws a curve ball, it hurts, it stings, right?
It's like your baby and now I can't put my baby out there
like I want to do it, so it really throws people off,
they get real negative, they make (mumbles) want to stop,
they might just want to go back to their nine to five.
That's fine, it's not for everybody to pursue,
but for those who can pursue, like you said,
the difference between those who really succeed
and those who don't, are the ones who,
when they're faced with whatever these difficulties are,
they're like (mumbles) it,
I'm going to keep on pushing through,
I'm going to keep pushing through.
Because it sound corny and cliche,
but there's always sunshine after the rain.
Rain don't last that long, you got to know that,
be aware of that.
That's something you can take with you during
everything in life, but in business you can't not stop
because things are not going right at the time
because it's going to happen.
I dealt with it, I'm sure I'll deal with it again sometime.
- Starting a business is going to be one of the hardest
things you'll ever do in your life, period.
It just is, if you think starting a business is going to
be easy, you are so disillusioned and
you're setting yourself up for failure.
You may have an easy idea, you may think it's so simple,
but the execution of it, building up momentum,
getting customers, getting this thing out there,
adding value, it's hard, it's going to be one of the hardest
things, if not, the hardest thing, that you ever do
in your life.
And it's totally worth it, and it's totally rewarding,
but I want to set up your expectations because
as fun as entrepreneurship is,
and how great it is to be your own boss and
set your own hours, and do something meaningful,
and have an impact, and make way more money,
as awesome as that is, it's also a grind,
and a battle, and constantly daily fighting self worth
when your thing, your idea, doesn't take off
and doesn't work immediately.
It's hard.
When I was in the venture capital business,
we'd often challenge the people coming to raise capital
to give us three scenarios,
your realistic case scenario, your worst case scenario,
and your best case scenario.
If we give you a million dollars for you company,
give us the three scenarios, best, realistic,
worst case scenario.
How does that money come back to us?
What does that money look like in the growth
of your business?
We would always only look at the worst case scenario,
and then imagine it's going to be worse than that.
So if we're not making money off the worst case scenario,
then forget about it.
And if we're barely making money off the worst case
scenario, then probably forget about it too
because it's likely going to be way worse than
the worst case scenario.
And entrepreneurs are optimistic, and it's great,
and you need to be optimistic.
And I think that's the only thing that kind of keeps
you sane when it's so crappy around you,
when you're just fighting battles all day long,
it's that optimism that gets you through,
it's that passion for what you're doing that gets you
through, it's the belief that something good is
going to come from this when you're fighting in the trenches
that gets you through all the garbage, all the crap
of working because otherwise you would quit
and go do something else.
The thing that gets you through is just a mad love
for what you're doing, because often, at the start,
it doesn't make logical practical sense.
You continue doing it just because you love it.
I look at this, this career that I've built for myself,
and what I'm doing.
One of my very first speaking engagements,
my first one in Canada, was at the YMCA.
(soft inspiring music)
And I went to this room, and they had this free event
that we were both promoting.
They had entrepreneurship program,
and I had some people following me,
and we promoted it, this free event, show up,
in this big room, and three people showed up.
Three people showed up a free event!
Where there was all ready an audience.
And so you could look at that experience and say
well if you could only get three people to show up
for a free thing, how are you ever going to make this
into a business?
It doesn't make any sense.
And when I first walked into the room and I saw three
people, my heart sunk.
I felt terrible, I felt worthless, I felt this was a
big waste of time.
Like, why did I spend all this time for preparing
all these slides and this presentation for so long
for three people.
And I quickly kind of just suppressed that to say you know
what, three people showed up, I all ready did the work,
let's at least give some value to these three people.
And it was amazing.
Like it just, it nourished my soul.
I felt so good going through the content and
watching these three people come alive and realize
that they now had some hope and they had a belief in
themselves that they would go home and now, hopefully,
bring this to their business and see a big change
in their company and their life.
That felt so good that I could give that to them.
And walking into that room initially,
I'm thinking this could never be a business.
And I'm thinking just from a practical point of view,
and I'm walking out of that room at the end thinking,
I have to find a way to keep going.
Even if this never becomes a business,
even if I never make money off of this,
it was such a good high just knowing that I helped
these people, that even if I could never find a way
to make money off of this, I need to keep doing it
because it fills me, it nourishes me.
And it's because of that that I kept going through
all the garbage, through all the crap,
through all the fights and battles, and struggle,
to get to where I'm at now.
The practice, the experience, the grind,
is because it fills me up, and I eventually found a way
to make money, I found a way to make it become my career.
And this is going to be the same thing for you.
At the start, you have a business plan.
The business plan quickly falls apart as you start
actually getting into business, you'll realize this.
No matter how great a plan you have,
what actually happens is no where close to the business plan
and you need to adjust.
And every practical, logical, sane, safe reason
in the world would tell you to stop.
This isn't working, you're putting time, you're putting
money, you're putting energy into this thing
and it's not working.
But the absolute love for the craft and what you're doing,
and how it makes you feel, keeps pushing you in
that direction to keep going.
And if you do that enough, you keep pushing through enough,
you keep loving what you're doing enough,
you keep getting better, you'll find a way to add value
to the point where you're actually helping customers,
and you can turn it into a business.
Most people don't have the love to push through
all the crap to turn their dream into something amazing.
So I'm challenging you to do it today with yours.
So the question today is I'm curious,
what's the hardest thing you've had to push through
in your business?
Leave it in the comments below,
we're going to join in the discussion.
I also want to give a quick shout out to Sean Terry.
Sean, thank you so much for picking up a copy of my book,
Your One Word, it really, really, really means a lot to me.
And I hope you're enjoying it.
Thank you guys so much for watching, I believe in you,
I hope you continue to believe in yourself,
and whatever your one word is,
and I'll see you again tomorrow morning for another
shot of espresso.
(fun rhythmic music) ♫ I wake up every morning
♫ Espresso keep me going
Hey Believe Nation, thank you so much for watching.
If you want to learn more about this subject,
get a little bit deeper on it, I'm going to show you
some extra bonus clips that I hope you'll enjoy.
- All the time, all the time, and then you push through it.
Like you push through it because what's the alternative?
You're going to leave that idea stuck in your head forever.
That sucks.
The alternative is you go through life,
and you have this great idea, and nothing came of it
because you got tired.
And yeah, sometimes you don't go to the party that
all your friends are at because the idea is calling
to you in that moment.
Wait for it's a great example of that.
I was on my way to my friends birthday party
when that lyric showed up, when death doesn't discriminate
showed up in my head.
The idea came on the A down, I started writing it down
in the train (mumbles) of the A train.
Plate dancers are dancing, I have my headphones on.
I get out, the whole chorus comes, all at once.
I write it down, and I suddenly see the shape of
the whole song, I was like the chorus Izbur,
that's who he is.
I go into my friends party, I go, "Hey, what's up man?
"Happy birthday, I got to go."
(audience laughing)
I get on the L train and I write the rest of the song
on the way back home, from the L to the A,
back up to 207th street.
You have to do that sometimes, you have to say no to
your friends to say yes to your work.
Because what are you going to do?
Like lose that idea because you decided to have
a drink with your friends, it's not worth it!
Your friend will be there.
- [Man] You also went to Broadway with Julia Roberts,
with Paul Rudd, Three Days of Rain.
That must have been pretty special.
- Yeah, it was a do or die moment for me actually.
(mumbles) had gotten canceled,
and I remembered thinking if this doesn't work,
maybe I'm not right for this business, I thought.
There are moments in life when you think, you know what,
it kind of does matter if this fails, or you fail in it.
And it was hard, it was the hardest thing I've ever
been through, by far.
And I remembered thinking if I can get through this,
it will maybe as hard, but it's impossible for it
to be harder, and it's true.
And I've had a lot of hard times since then,
more jobs, you know, when you're like wow,
the pressure's so intense, but it always...
I have such a foundation from Three Days of Rain.
- [Man] I was going to say, eight shows a week, right?
- Not even that, it actually was the rehearsal process,
once we got on stage, it flew, and thank god.
And I thought, oh, this feels right.
But it was a...
And you know, I was hard on myself, but it was just,
man, it was tough.
- See, I'm a seed, I really am.
See, but a seed has to be planted,
a seed got to have dirt put on top of it.
If you take a seed and throw it on the concrete,
and walk off, the sun will just burn it up.
But guess what, logically in my mind,
it doesn't make sense that to grow something,
you should dig a hole, put it down in there,
and cover it with dirt.
Logically that don't make no sense to me.
But oh though, see dirt is necessary for growth
and development, dirt builds character,
dirt gives you the push through factor,
dirt makes you come with it when you don't feel like
coming with it no more.
And you get dirt in a lot of different ways.
All of you all done have dirt thrown on you,
and dirt ain't always what you want.
It's somebody talking about you down on your job,
it's somebody accusing you of something you didn't do,
it's somebody telling you you ain't going to make it,
it's somebody sharing information about you that ain't true,
everybody get dirt put on them.
But see, when you're getting put under that stress,
please know God is always working.
Kirk Franklin's song, God is Always Working So I Smile
because I know he back there.
See that dirt builds character in you.
When they talking about you, it teaches you to withstand it.
Then it gives you something to push through.
So when you put the seed and you put the dirt on it,
if you understand stress, stress really ain't just dirt.
See, they don't call it dirt when they plant it,
they call it soil because see, soil has nutrients in it.
What the nutrients, when people talking about you,
dogging you, lying on you, (mumbles), stealing from you,
talking about you, they're actually putting nutrients
in you, they're building character.
You've got character now because now,
and now the seed, if they put a camera under the ground,
you would have seen the seed sprout open
and start coming through the dirt because the dirt
is necessary so you can prove yourself.
You know, everything you see above ground that blossoms
and plants, and grows, and that's beautiful,
it was underground one time.
All them potatoes, collard greens, they was underground
one time.
Them apple trees, they was underground one time.
So they had to prove they self.
So you want to be successful, well then you got to prove
yourself, you got to push through the dirt,
you got to come up through here, you got to come out,
then you sprout, and didn't Bishop say,
then you become a tree, next thing you know, you got food.