I was supposed to go to the beach…
I was supposed to go to Disney for the first time with my kids…
I was supposed to take my first vacation in 2 years…
I bet a lot of people are thinking about things just like this. This is where my head is at. It sucks… but it gets worse because I am also a small business owner and clients are cutting hours left and right. What was starting off to be my best year yet, has turned into a sea of uncertainty with no light in sight.
Thinking of the beach made me remember a strong message I heard a while ago (and is now an intro to a hip hop song I think??). This message helped me explain to people why I work so hard, and am the way I am. During this difficult time I reflect on this message knowing that tough times are ahead, but that I need to keep grinding and pushing.
“There was a young man who, you know, he wanted to make a lot of money, and so he went to this guru, right? He told the guru, “I want to be on the same level you on.”
And so the guru said, “If you want to be on the same level I’m on, “I’ll meet you tomorrow at the beach at 4am.” He like, “The beach? “I said I wanna make money. “I don’t want to swim.” Guru said, “If you want to make money, “I’ll meet you tomorrow, 4am.”
So the young man got there, 4am. He all ready to rock and roll, got on a suit. The old man grabs his hand, said, “How bad you want to be successful?” He said, “Real bad.” He said, “Walk on out in the water.” When he walks out to the water, it goes waist-deep. So he like, “This guy crazy. “I want to make money, “he got me out here swimming.”
But the old man said, “I thought you said you wanted to be successful.” He said, “I do.” He came, dropped his head in, held him down, hold him down. Just before my man was about to pass out, he raised him up. He said, “I got a question for you.” He said, “When you were underwater, “what did you want to do?” He said, “I wanted to breathe.”
He told the guy, he said, “When you want to succeed as bad as you want to breathe, then you’ll be successful.”
And I’m here to tell you, number one, that most of you say you want to be successful, but you don’t want it bad. You just kinda want it. You don’t want it badder than you want to party. You don’t want it as much as you want to be cool. It’s only those who risk going too far can possibly find out how far one can go. Are you hearin’ me?
You don’t count the cost on this one. You, you just do what you gotta do on this one, and then you look back when it’s all over and you see the reward. You look back and you see the account, but you don’t count it. You just look back and you see that you succeeded. So what I’m telling you is, you can’t count the cost, because if you count the cost and you see how much it costs, you might quit, you might give up.