January 2nd, 2013
Wednesday Wisdom: It May Not Be Easy. But It Will Be Worth It.
I got a newsletter email from an online friend/acquaintance the other day. Srini Rao. The newsletter was a collection of some of the wisdom he had learned from his peeps this year. And the last one was so cool that I wanted to share it with you all. It was from an interview he did with Danielle LaPorte.
I love this. For anyone doing anything that feels like a struggle. For those of us who look at our lives and have big dreams and have no idea how (or if) it’s ever going to work out. For those of us who look into the unknown and get scared (and/or excited). For those who have no clue if their blood, sweat and tears are ever going to produce the results they want. For those of us who’ve been living on heart and faith. This is for you.
She says:
“it will be worth it.” When there’s hardly anybody reading, when the checks aren’t big enough, when it seems like you’re far behind, when you feel broken, when you wonder if there’s a light at the end of a tunnel, when you’re on the verge of a breakdown, when things don’t go according to plan, when the voices of the critics and naysayers drown out your brilliance, just remember it will be worth it.
Is the road less traveled difficult? Yes. But where it leads is somewhere amazing. It will be worth it.”
Make sure you check out Srini. He runs this AWESOME website called BlogcastFm where he interviews amazingly smart and inspiring people who have so much wisdom to share. Drop him a line. And say hello.
Xo,
Sally
One of the best gifts you’ve given me recently is the example of your courageous optimism. I absolutely believe in you and your goals for yourself, and more, am beginning to believe in me too. I know we all get discouraged, but I find comfort in the simple idea “this too will pass.” As you say, if we can tough it out when discouragement strikes, it will eventually go away. It’s all in the cycle of things, yes? Thank you for writing and standing with everyone who wants to throw in the towel, go back to bed and hide under the covers.
Hey Sally,
I just wanted to say thanks for the mention and your kind words. I guess that last bit really resonated with people. I guess there’s more inspiration in these interviews than I even realize sometimes. I’m going back through them to really pick the gems out. Hopefully our paths will cross in person again this year.
I’ve led most of my life, charging head first into everything…sometimes not knowing better and sometimes being too dumb to stop and think first, but it always turned out OK/fine/good/great/awesome!
I love the message in this song. It’s my new favorite!
Happier New Year!
xo
Lisa
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jqqFU_1D5nY
You are such an inspiration, my dear. Thank you for your continuous sharing of wisdom. AND I love your country music lovin’ self. :)
There’s no greater example of “the road less travelled” than myself.
I pioneered the concept of selling original pro wrestling media, instead of just tape trading dubbed copies. Now there’s a lot of people who do it. The same thing for Mixed Martial Arts tapes. I’m still one of the few people who has the original Ultimate Fighting Championship tapes available. I pioneered the concept of MessyWorks (ok, had some help there). There’s still no one who does anything like it, which is cool. Is it tough? All the time. Every day. I spend long hours doing things like entering items into inventory, listing them for sale, plugging them to various social media outlets, finding stock images, and watching the same tapes over and over again. I was in my storage the other day entering in some new boxes of stuff, and noticed there were some titles I had seen before, and I was thinking, “Guess I get to watch that again!”
The fun stuff is A) when someone buys it, and B) When you get something that you haven’t seen in a while and want to see it again (or get something you’ve never seen before, but for me, that’s rare.
Does it suck sometimes? Sure does. When no one is buying, it’s a pain. It’s a pain when people don’t read anything, and then complain how it’s “not as described” when it’s really “not as expected”, and there is a difference. It’s a huge pain to compete against the Targets and Wal-Marts of the world. It sucks that there are people who have the most horrible, most contagious disease ever imagined. The “Not Me” Syndrome, where it’s never, ever their fault. Didn’t buy insurance? It’s not because you didn’t ask. We should have held your hand and made sure you did. Bought something in the wrong format? It’s not because you didn’t read, it’s because we sent you the wrong thing. Ditto for something not as expected. It has nothing to do with you not reading, it’s because we sent the wrong thing.
But for all that, I wouldn’t change a thing. I still get to wake up every day and do what I want to do, and what I said I would do. I joked at my high school reunion that I sounded like a wrestling promo, but back then, I said I wanted to work in wrestling, and now I am. I get to travel to various independent promotions and see the next generation of stars. In my time in this business, I’ve met and shook hands and worked with guys like CM Punk, Colt Cabana, Hornswoggle, Daivari, and more. Met a lot of other guys who I grew up watching, like Kevin Nash, Marty Jannetty, and BG James.
In the TV show Quantum Leap, the Observer, Al, had said to Leaper Sam that all of his marriages failed because he was still in love with his first wife, who divorced him when she thought he was dead in Vietnam (he was a POW for five years), and that even though the Leap wasn’t to save Al’s marriage, he still wanted to see his wife one last time, even if she wasn’t able to see him (he appears to others as a hologram).
In my life, I was never able to hold on to a “day job” for more than about two or three years, and while that’s pretty good longevity, I only stayed long enough to not make it seem like I was job-jumping.
The real story though is that I never wanted to have a day job. Yes, sometimes it is necessary, but my ultimate goal has always been to do something different. Open a Starbucks? That’s great, but what challenge is there when everything is there for you? If you fail, you’re an idiot. You have the exact recipes for the coffees, and get all the same food stuff, and are given marketing materials, to boot. Not to mention that you have the strength of the proven brand name. I always wanted to CREATE something, and as i mentioned once to Sally during one of her conference calls (which I liked, by the way, when we doing another??), the greatest part of this gig is seeing wrestlers and fighters live up to the potential of their characters.
It’s hard work at times, but damn, is it fulfilling…I can succeed or fail on my own, and no matter what happens in my life, I’ll always know that I busted my arse and did the best I could.