Bet On Yourself, Fully

In 2015, I was living at my moms small apartment at a job I disliked. I wanted to quit but had $20k of debt. Like the majority of people in America, I was stuck, but I started dreaming of a way out.

I was sitting at my cubicle on another Thursday but this one was different. I wondered… can I give my best hours and my best mind to a job I actually loved? If so, how?

Change Exists

Fast Forward to today, I’ve made over $1m in my own company and live a great life. What was the main difference? It was a combination of BOTH of two keys:

• Bet on yourself

• Finish Well

Sounds easy, but it’s really difficult. Let’s breakdown why:

Betting on yourself

Generally, we never learned how to bet on ourselves growing up.

Betting on yourself requires courage.

Schools, parents, and most systems default to a old model of lifestyle design. School → Work → Retire.

We were told, trust the school system to qualify you, then a resume, then career history.

We are told to just learn what the school system teaches to be proficient. But nobody wants to just be proficient. We want to be extraordinary but you can’t be extraordinary if you never bet on yourself.

The world has dramatically changed and yet we still trust the old system. School isn’t equipped to teach students what they need, careers are multi-faceted and constantly changing because of the acceleration of technology, and retirement isn’t worth living for.

So, why is it hard to bet on yourself? Because everything convinces you it’s safer to not bet on yourself. A path proven is not a bet on yourself, it’s a bet on a path. It’s scary.

And why is it scary? Because if you bet on yourself, you risk judgement from the tribe. It forces you to live up to whatever truth that is.

Betting on yourself means you can’t get value from an external system. You have to get validation internally and when most people look inside, they struggle to find their value. But that is only have the challenge.

Finish Well

Second, you need to finish well and see it through to the end. This one is obvious but so needed.

Most of us give up in the middle. We chase shiny objects, just to start and not finish things. I applaud people who finish, even if they don’t sell 1000s of copies or make millions.

Finishing is way more respectable than starting. And we aren’t even talking about a specific outcome*…* we are just talking about finishing what you set out to do. People give up in the middle.

Turn Pro

“Fear of self-definition is what keeps an amateur an amateur and what keeps an addict an addict.” - Steven Pressfield

Steven Pressfield talks about there are two parts to life, when it comes to doing the work: before turning pro and after. I think betting on yourself to see your first project through is the most practical first step to turn pro.

After years of failed project, he says everything changed when he wrote his first book and finished it, that things changed. There is a magical moment there.

To bet on yourself should change how you plan your schedule, confront fear, and how you relate to others. It starts with one key decision to believe in yourself and consistent decision to bet on yourself daily and see it to the end.

Life will feel constantly hallow until we value ourselves enough to spend time, energy, money to see something through.

Stop Running

We see them everywhere: people running full-time from doing the work that truly matters. They're trapped in a cycle of inaction, paralyzed by the fear of rejection and failure. But here's the raw truth: no one is served by you withholding your unique gifts.

I was talking to a young guy the other day. He told me the reason he hasn’t tried making music yet is because if it gets published, and it sucks, it means he isn’t good at it. That is wild. The reality is the first thing is probably going to suck, but the first thing leads to the second thing and the third and forth. And probably on the fifth, it pops off.

Stop running. All of this running leads to imprisonment. Waiting to be discovered. Waiting for permission. The concern becomes superficial, false outcomes that are not important that seem important.

Until you bet on yourself and see it through, you will live in a subservient state.

Make a decision today to:

1. Have a bias towards action

2. Do the work, and be consistent

3. Master the technique

4. Stop seeking external validation

5. Set your standards and improve towards it daily

Know there is something great within, your job is to bring it out. There is a payoff, when you complete something that you bet on yourself you do, even if it doesn’t sell millions of copies or make millions of dollars.

Write the book. Start the company. Learn the skill. Publish the videos.

Once you do, everything changes.

You will have the confidence to bet on yourself again but this time it’s with confidence that you can actually make it all the way to the end.

Life no longer has a finish line. You will feel there is more that you can do. That’s exactly what you want. You need something that pushes you to grow.

Even if the work sucks, it doesn’t matter. You have just become a pro.

Positive aspiration isn’t enough. Talking about the idea isn’t enough. Building it, daily, is what brings out the best from you.

Most of all, don’t give up at 99%. See it all the way through to the very end.

Crazy part is - most people who are stuck, and haven’t turned pro, are all around us. They drive nice cars. They speak well. They look put together. How can you tell who has bet on themselve and seen it to the end, versus not? It’s pretty easy. Once you turn pro, you just know. Don’t waste your life. The cost is too high. Turn pro this year. There is no better time…