Your World Within Podcast by Eddie Pinero - The Power of Belief: Turning Uncertainty into Possibility

Episode Date: January 13, 2025

Belief is the spark that ignites every possibility. In this episode, we dive into the profound truth that belief, while no guarantee of success, is the foundation for growth, exploration, and transformation. It’s what fuels the journey, allowing us to overcome obstacles and dream of worlds not yet realized. Without it, the path forward disappears before it begins. Let's explore the delicate relationship between belief and uncertainty. Learn why trusting in yourself—even when the road is unclear—is the most powerful choice you can make. This episode is a reminder that while belief won’t always promise the outcome you desire, the absence of it guarantees stagnation. Take that first step, and watch the world unfold.  Monday Motivation Newsletter: https://www.eddiepinero.com/newsletter Free Ebook: www.eddiepinero.com/ebook  YouTube: www.eddiepinero.com/youtube 

Beautiful Anonymous changes each week. It defies genres and expectations. For example, our most recent episode, I talked to a woman who survived a murder attempt by her own son. But just the week before that, we just talked to the whole time about Star Trek. We've had other recent episodes about sexting in languages that are not your first language or what it's like to get weight loss surgery. It's unpredictable. It's real. It's honest. It's raw. Get Beautiful Anonymous wherever you listen to podcasts. It's better to believe. Because where there's belief,

there is a seed of possibility, tiny flame that can set your world ablaze. And you might hear that and think, oh, but I've believed. Eddie, you have no idea I've believed. And I've wished and I've hoped and I've hoped and I've dreamed and I've prayed for more and I've meditated to be content with less.

Oh, I've believed. And let me tell you, there's no certainty attached to me. Well, I think that's true. In fact, I think it's one of life's most important truth. The only certainty in life is uncertainty. But without belief, it's guaranteed. that what you want will not be brought to life, that there will be no potential,

there will be no journey, that what matters most will not materialize. Sure, belief is not a guarantee you'll get there, but a lack of belief is a guarantee that you won't. Without the creation and faith in a target, well, obviously there's no target for you to hit, at least not a target of your own. Belief is the fuel required to navigate life's uncertainties.

It's often treacherous ups and downs. It's your lantern in the dark and fire on a cold winter's night. Believe takes the probability of reaching your mountaintop from essentially zero all the way up to, well, let's see how bad he wants this. I once heard the idea that if you don't believe in, If you don't believe in and pursue your dreams, you'll spend your days bringing to life someone else's. And most likely those two things are not the same.

If you don't believe in a world where when that sun comes up and your eyes open, you are content and driven and inspired, then it will always remain as real as it is now. It will appear only as an illusion. To believe is to begin. To believe is to plant the seed. to believe is to green light your journey. If you do not believe you don't go, and if you don't go, then you will never arrive. So here's an anecdote or a quick story to bring this home.

Imagine with me a runner, very on brand. And this runner is not extraordinary. In fact, if you'd ask anyone who knew the guy, they'd have said he's average at best. Wasn't the fastest, wasn't the But deep down, he just had a dream to run a marathon and not just run it, but conquer it. He could visualize himself crossing that line, arms raised, crowd cheering. But every time he got that email about signing up, the doubt crept in. It felt too big. Who do you think you are? They would whisper.

You've never run more than two miles in your life. A marathon, that's some people, but it ain't you. And for years he'd listened to this. For years, he stood still while that finish line stayed a distant dream. So one day. A very average run-of-the-mill day, he decided to make a decision, not a grand proclamation, or some, you know, dramatic event. It was simple.

He told himself, I don't have to finish today. I mean, I don't even know if I can. But I do have to start. That vision of me holding my arms up. after 26.2 miles. Time to take an axe to that tree because I believe that I can. And just like that, the idea went from imaginary to tangible.

He put on his shoes, he ran one mile. And when he finished, he didn't feel like a marathon runner. But he believed himself to be someone who soon could be. And that belief, as small as it was, became everything. Day after day, he showed up two miles, three miles, ten miles, fifteen, right? Each step forward built on the last. And before long, he found himself the starting line of that marathon that once seemed too far away to be real.

And here's the thing. You know this. I know this. But it's got to be said, he did not cross that finish line. because he was special. He didn't cross it because he was the strongest or fastest. He crossed it because one day he decided simply to believe. And that belief was the ticket.

It was the beginning. It was the green light. It was the quiet, powerful permission to start, even though he was scared and uncertain, completely unsure of what the room would bring. One of my guiding mantras has been confidence is earned. It's the reminder that you don't necessarily have to know what the future looks like or what the next day or week or month looks like. But you have to have the confidence in yourself to be able to navigate as it comes. It's the silent power that turns I can't into, well, maybe. I can and maybe I can becomes the crack in the door that lets you kick it open.

It's a process where every victory, every transformation, every mountaintop begins. So all I ask of you is this. Will you give yourself that permission? Who cares about tomorrow? Because who knows about tomorrow? But right now in this moment, will you believe enough to start? Will you give your future self that gift? Because the finish line is out there.

It's waiting. And the only thing standing between you and that moment is your belief that you deserve to begin. I woke up this morning to the songbird. singing her sweet melodies like only she knows how. Perched above the street, looking down at the people, the cars, but somehow indifferent to all that beloved. Like her heart was fully immersed in her song. So I got out of bed, opened the curtains,

and let the early morning sun make its way into my room. I reveled in the moment. It was both simple and perfect two things that often go hand in hand. And as I made my way to the kitchen for that cup of coffee, I had a thought. That little songbird out there, she'll never understand how beautiful she is. She'll never know that she made my morning just a little brighter, or that she helped lift my spirits after a less than ideal yesterday. know she's just doing her, and in return making a mark on a world that needs what she has to give.

So what? Well, maybe there's something we can learn from the songbird as we go about making our way in the world. As far as I'm concerned, there have been two great challenges in my life, finding my song, and then finding the courage to sing it. Or perhaps put another way, discovering who you are and then holding on tight in a world that is constantly trying to make you something else,

as Emerson said, is the greatest accomplishment. It will always be a challenge to bring our thoughts to life because, well, people tend to only see what's placed right in front of them. It's just not really, to place tomorrow at someone's feet, but here's the magic. I don't think that songbird cares about being realistic. See, over time we've done quite the dance, reality and I. Like a tug of war on where to lean and where to pull.

What's worth my time? What's not? When to stay and when to go. It's a gray area that I've had to work through, to work through and I know others have as well trying something new, taking a risk, sharing their art with the world, going down a path with a high probability of failure. You know, when maybe we think we've found our song and we're singing and we're singing, but no one seems to hear her. That's when the status quo has never looked so tempting, so ideal.

unsettling for the easy path has never seemed so appealing. No, never as appealing is when our songs seem to get lost in the ether. We know how hard it is to give a piece of ourselves to the world, and it seems odd not to get something back. But you know, I think this is when you must sing with all your heart and soul. Just like that songbird, indifferent to life below the branches of its tree. Well, so should you be to the factors existing outside the realm of what's best

for you. It's not easy to uncover what makes you feel alive, and when you find that, live it. Own it, sing it at the top of your lungs, because it may seem like it's falling on deaf ears. But you just might be

someone else's somberd, oblivious, like my feathered friend outside, to the beauty you are creating by just being you. By sharing what means the most to you with the world that, whether you realize it or not, needs to hear your soul. So Songbird, sing. Yeah, for you, but also for the world.

That thing that gives you butterflies, that lights you up, that world you see. see when you close your eyes. Chase that. With all of your soul, chase it. It's easy to brush off life's potential. It's just outside the realm of possibility.

To see the ideal is some form of windows shopping that you can almost touch. A fantasy to be explored when you've seen. sit back in your office chair or pass time in the doctor's office waiting room. But I think these aspirations mean more than that. Not distractions, but a North Star. Not a diversion, but the path. And by the way, I'm not naive about this pursuit.

And all that it entails, the truth behind it, I'd never advocate. that what's possible or meant to be is somehow easy. In fact, I'd argue the only way something is meant to be is if you're willing to commit to the difficulty in bringing it to life. Otherwise, it wasn't meant to be anything but a missed opportunity, because it surely will be a difficult road.

And here's what we come to learn. Everything of value is to be difficult. You know, in an attempt to oversimplify, I often break life down into the easy thing versus the difficult but meaningful thing, and in some ways, sure, that's true. But I can also honestly say it would have been more difficult for me to have stayed where I was, not moved at all, to not have pursued what I believed in. It would have been more difficult thinking about that life I could have lived, the doors that could have opened, and that's just it. Life is about choosing your difficult.

The difficult you seek out intentionally, or the difficult you come and let take control, render you helpless. And I think when we find ourselves in routines or we've built for ourselves, the world we know we know we don't want to live in anymore, we've outgrown. It's not that the current is real and the future is not. It's that we, somewhere along the way, decided to face the wrong opponent. Some adversaries make us strong. They force us to be more to grow.

Other adversaries or opponents, they sit back and they let us defeat our sons. and that's what we don't want. See, when the world knocks you down, you get to rise again. Wiser, tougher, stronger. But when you keep yourself down, well, there's nothing to be gained from that.

Those two opponents, they are not the same. I reference my speaking career, because for me, it's where that transformation is most evident. is most evident. It's where it all began. My opponent was very much me. Avoiding opportunities, hiding from failure. I didn't give life a chance to knock me down.

And so it didn't. How could it? I'd already placed myself in chains. And because of that, guess what? I stayed the same. I couldn't evolve. My ideal future was an idea that would briefly entertain me from time to time and move right on. It wasn't until I found the courage to switch my opponents.

From myself to the world, I let life humble me. I gave talks where I was nervous and had cold feet, keynotes where my delivery was mediocre at best, where I barely got by. But with these battles came metaphorical riches, came that trust that had to be manufactured, that confidence that had to be earned. When I got out of my own way, I was able to let the trials and tribulations of life create a new foundation for me to stand on, to redefine reality. And the good news is that anyone can do that.

Anyone can ask that question? Is something external in my way right now? That I need to figure out, that I need to solve? Or am I in my own way? Am I not even giving myself a shot? Have I settled for right now as truth? When right now is just the less ideal difficult. When I was little playing action,

figures with my buddy up the street, we used to think it was cool to see around corners, to see through walls, to know what was coming before it arrived. For action figures, absolutely. In superhero movies, why not? But in the journey through life, you don't need to see around corners. In fact, it's counterproductive because it is the interaction with the unknown that matters. It's adjusting amidst life's uncertainty that comes to make you who you are, transforms you and your reality. As far as I'm concerned, the only way to lose

is to remain behind that corner. Peering out every now and then, hoping to get some kind of advantage or shortcut, willing to let life pass you by while you wait for the stars to align, thinking that that vision of an ideal life will stroll along the sidewalk, see you and reach out a hand, that weight will be a long one, unproductive and difficult, more difficult than trusting yourself to face whatever lurks around that corner. So remember that who you are is built. And every time you do something a little bit scary or unsettling, every time you wander a step or two out, of your comfort zone. The reward is not just the short-term triumph you feel

as you leapfrog that obstacle and carry on. No, you are investing in a new you, a new reality. You're investing in something changing before your very eyes, putting a little marble in a jar that is your potential and you can't see it. Not now. No one's going to announce it to you. You might not even realize that you

You might not even realize or understand until you look back years down the road. But those little acts of courage, they matter more than you know. They're not trivial, and they are certainly not insignificant. When that movie plays in your head and you think to yourself, I wish, or if only, and the delta between that image and the reality on the ground disappoints you, gives you a little knot in your stomach or dissatisfaction that floats around in your thoughts. Remember that that feeling is transferable. That difficult can be exchanged for one that actually changes things. You can get off the merry-go-round and towards a new North Star. Difficult,

yes, but we've seen the goal is not to avoid difficult. It's to pick the difficult that will transform your life. It's to find meaning in a world that if you do not pay attention, will paint your landscape with routine and obligation. And today can certainly be a continuation of that script. A box that's checked, a calendar square with an X. Or it can be the beginning of something that gives you butterfly. that lights you up

that brings you one step closer to the world you see when you close your eyes allow yourself to be vulnerable you forfeit your greatness if you don't risk failure you have no shot at being the one who makes a statement

you don't risk them laughing at you you have no shot at them clapping for you. If you don't risk trading today for a future outcome that's uncertain, you'll never know the fortune that that future help. Yeah, being vulnerable, it's difficult. It's hard, it hurts, but it has to. It's the ocean that separates what you have from what you want. The mountain that stands between who you are and who you want to be.

Being vulnerable, it means you stop looking at what can go wrong and you start thinking about what can go right. Because every question is a double-edged sword. Do you release that song? Because it could flop, but it will also kickstart your dream. Do you make that first trip to the gym? Because you'll probably look like you have no clue what you're doing, but it could also lead you to feeling better about yourself than you. ever have before. Do you apply for that promotion because you could be let down? But it could also lead to a career transformation. Do you see the dynamic here? Every major

decision comes with risk and that's why people avoid making them. Standing out, taking the road less traveled, they shake our deeply rooted desire to fit in right at the foundation. They conflict like fire and water. See, so much of our stress comes from a need to belong, to preserve a reputation, to be cool. You want a fun experiment? Watch how fast being cool turns into mediocrity.

It's doing the things that are not cool over and over again that constitute greatness. The ones who are different, bold, out there, they change things. The ones who are okay being called irrational, okay being laughed at, okay with failing and not getting it the first time around. If you do not let yourself be vulnerable, you never experience failure on a significant level. You don't fail, you don't learn, you don't learn, you don't grow.

And if that's the case, forget about the top of the mountain. Safety, comfort of flawless reputation, gets you a nice seat at the bottom looking up at greatness. at those who saw the opportunity and were willing to take a chance. So while you climb, keep your eyes on that big picture, remember that we outgrow our worries. Through each stage of our lives, we look back and we realize that our previous priorities were misaligned. We worried about things that didn't matter.

Allowed our decisions to be guided by variables that were irrelevant. And that's the beauty of risk. It escalates this realization. Pushes further and further past the little things that mean less and less with each step taken. Your mistakes will not matter. Criticism from strangers will not matter. What will matter is whether you took control and did something meaningful with your life. Whether you followed your heart and your instant.

And I know it's hard. I know it's uncomfortable. I can't sit here and guarantee the path will be paved out in goal. Everything will go how you want, but I can promise this, you will learn, you will adapt and move forward. I can promise that the critics and the naysayers get smaller and smaller until they fade out of the picture altogether, and most importantly, I can promise that if you don't do anything, you will not go anywhere, and that is the only way to fail. So trust yourself. yourself trust the process believe that you are extraordinary and go make your magic

put here to live in the shadows of life to exist beyond the sun's grasp to stay on the outside looking in no you weren't put here to live in the shadows of life it's important to remember the difference between now and forever, the distinction between today and tomorrow, because from time to time they look deceptively similar, especially when we inevitably find ourselves in the darkest of times, when despite our best efforts, our world is reduced to shadows, void of hope. When tomorrow and today have merged into one endless entity, it always seems to be in these times,

that we forget that right now is just a moment, not an assigned permanent, but a bridge to something great. As Victor Frankel says, if there is meaning in life at all, then there must be meaning in suffering. We all suffer, we all hurt, We all go through periods of time where we can't see or hear or feel anything beyond the darkness we find ourselves in, but it's there.

Darkness cannot be defined without light. It's in the definition. Darkness is a partial or total absence of light. They need each other darkness and light. The one thing that can bring darkness to its knees is out there, everywhere. all around it. And if there was ever a reason to be hopeful, enthusiastic, if there's ever a reason to believe,

it's that a new life is always a light switch away. It's that darkness is as temporary as the day. And the antidote requires only that you believe it to be true. Only that you find the resolve to reach one foot out, to remind yourself of the sun's warmth and the inner infinite beauty of a world beyond this temporary darkness because you, you weren't put here to live in the shadows of life, but to reemerge like a rocket through the Earth's stratosphere, to swing from star to star like life is a playground and you make the rules.

And I think when we look back, we'll be nothing but grateful for those times of darkness. They, in a sense, prepared us for the road ahead by giving us what we need most. Perspective. Life lessons. A roadmap to follow. Because you don't appreciate the light. The sun. The clearer blue skies, the wind on your face, the sound of the waves, the chirping of the birds.

No, you don't see the beauty in any of that until even if for a moment it is taken away. You don't learn about life's abundance until you come face to face with scarcity. You don't learn to give until you've had your world taken away. You don't learn to love until you've experienced heartbreak. You don't learn courage until you've been overcome by fear. You don't learn to grow until you've been truly stuck. You don't learn to believe until you've been overcome by fear. to believe until you've looked in the mirror and doubt peers back.

You don't know who you are until you learn what you're not. See, everyone finds themselves having wandered into the dark, sometimes of their own volition, sometimes of fate. But like leaves changing color in the fall, the earth on its journey around the sun, a wave emerging, and falling back into that which it came, It is not an end, but a beginning. Life's way of preparing us for what's to come,

introducing us to the infinite possibility of tomorrow because you weren't put here to live in the shadows of life, but to emerge from them. To light up the world. No, you weren't put here to live in the shadows of life. Dream away.

His dreams remind us of hope. Hope that becomes courage. Courage that manifests itself in little steps forward. Steps that over time create a new world, a new world that looks a lot different than the one you once knew. So dream away. Dream away because we have all been blessed with the ability to take nothings and make them some things.

We've all been given the power to take blank spaces and make them landscapes, to see with our eyes, worlds that aren't yet there. And what a shame it would be to repress that gift. To label it fiction, to keep it next to our books and our movies, how much a tragedy, to allow it to be merely a temporary, escape. Instead of the permanent beginning, it was meant to be. So dream away. Let it lead you, because dreams, they'll either become the stories we tell or the regrets we hide away. A personal

evolution or untapped potential. The reason we jump out of bed in the morning or the reason we keep our eyes closed, clinging to the last few seconds of joy before we confine ourselves, to the self-made prisons we built, the invisible walls that separate what we see from the possibility a short trip away. But look around you, one might say. This is reality, and this looks a lot different than the dreams that bounce around in my head. If dreaming was some massive, magic formula. I'd be there already. Well, magic isn't quite my claim. No, dreams are not magic. I think their composition is so simple, so practical, so obtainable that magic isn't needed here. In fact, thinking dreams require some larger-than-life magic might just be the problem. Dreams require

a willingness to start and a single step forward. The rest, well, the rest we figure out along the way. Every little decision to carry on through the haze of that great unknown, that's where we discover life's possibility. And if that's magic, then my friend, we are all magicians. Okay, he might inquire further. But is any of it guaranteed? Hmm. Well, that's a highly complex question as we make our way through this highly complex world, but I will do this. I'll guarantee one thing and one thing only if you do not dream of better tomorrow's. Today will be eternal. Things will stay exactly as they are now. See, your dream is the North Star that guides the path. The target calling the arrows, it's the lighthouse that brings the ship home from sea.

Without a foundation to build upon, you'll have nothing to stand on. So instead of talking about guarantees, let's talk about lost opportunity cost. Let's talk about what happens if you don't go. If you don't explore, if you don't build, what? What will you miss? See, most people, they only understand what has already been created. Let's not be most people. Why stay in the lines when there's nothing else to discover?

Why black and white when color changes the dynamic entirely? The greatest enemy of possibility of potential is one's need for certain. It's the person who talks about something more, but knows something more, will remain an afterthought. Because as beautiful as it sounds, it's not guaranteed. And because they cannot guarantee something better, they will guarantee the status quo. But I'm asking you to see the flaws in that line of thinking. I'm asking you to understand that our very biology cries out for safety. that we have to fight our urge to settle,

our desire to take the monster we know over the one we don't, because it's the monsters we don't know that put meaning into life. It's the journey that elevates the destination, and while it might feel like what you want in the short term, that long term it sings a different tune. To get where you need to go, you have to move into the headwind that is the comfort of now.

Find within yourself the courage to simply crack the door, to just let a little bit of light in and see how it forces its way into every corner of your soul. Once you feel that satisfaction of progress, you'll be consumed, pulled in, is though the only thing larger than fear of failure is the rush of becoming who you were meant to be. I once heard something that changed the way I looked at the world,

something simple, the idea that we don't climb the mountain for the view. We climb mountains because of who we become on the journey up. The view is merely representative of that journey. The dream isn't in and of itself the goal. It's an invitation to immerse yourself in all that is beautiful, meaningful, worthwhile, jaw-dropping, eye-opening, and powerful. It is what cracks that door and lets the light in. So dream away.

Because that dream, it's no threat to your safety. It's what will ultimately save you. So dream away. Dream away so that you capture that sunrise you were given. Dream away so that you are pulled to that which makes life worth living. Dream away so that you never lose that child inside. So that you don't leave the adventure on the table and keep your ideal existence on the shelf. dream away so that you see the abundance that surrounds us,

the hope within us and the future that calls us for yourself, the people in your life and the ones who eventually will be dream away. If you want to feel more connected to humanity and a little less alone, listen to Beautiful Anonymous. Each week, I take a phone call from one random anonymous human being. There's over 400 episodes in our back catalog. and get to feel connected to all these different people all over the world. Recent episodes include one where a lady survived a murder attempt by her own son,

but then the week before that, we just talked about Star Trek. It can be anything. It's unpredictable. It's raw. It's real. Get Beautiful Anonymous wherever you listen to podcasts. How do you visualize the road you're on with its twists and turns? Smooth terrain, rough terrain, straightaways, hills.

what does it all mean? Do you find it odd that it gets more challenging as you get closer to your destination? Right? The further along you get, the more tension life puts between you and the finish line. Almost like the universe is adamant

about weeding out those who think they can skate by. What is the difference between saying you want it and really wanting it? Perhaps it's a willingness to find fight through a storm just for the opportunity to find calm and serenity in its center. This morning, as the sun was coming up, I went for a run. A nice five-mile run down the coast, and the way I planned it out was simple, right? 2.5 or halfway up in soft sand, and then I'd stop, and I'd turn around, and I'd run 2.5 back,

but on the harder surface, right? Easier to handle, almost like a reward for a reward for a pushing myself on the way up. And things were going perfectly. I made the 2.5 mile run up. And when it came to stop and turn around, I realized what should have been obvious from the beginning was high tide. Which means I didn't get that hard surface

to run back on. Instead, not only was it softer than the way up, but I was running on a slope. And that just threw my mind for a loop, right? I'm embarrassed to admit I was actually angry about it. You know, I pushed myself hard going up and wanted that breather. Almost felt like life pushed the finish line back 2.5 miles.

And trust me, as I'm writing this, it seems ridiculous to talk about. But in the moment, just irrationally annoyed. That was the carrot that had been chasing the whole time. So I begrudgingly, you know, moved forward, kind of trying to figure out what to do. And ultimately just continued forward. And, you know, the emotion subsided.

and as usually happens, you pull yourself out of the weeds a little bit, the big picture tells a different story. Different story means different perspective. And that's what I came across, right? This idea or this question, well, why do we expect life to be flat ground? Why was that my assumption to begin with? The easy to navigate path. Why is that the standard?

And the more I thought about it, right? the more I wondered if that's the very reason why we underperform. It's the little spark that ultimately lights this wildfire of regret. Because when convenience is the standard, everything else becomes unfair, everything else is a burden. When the road should be flat, what are we to make of the hills in our path? Thinking life should be easy,

it provides oxygen to a victim. mentality. And sometimes it takes these little experiences for me to refocus on these subtle realities. The flat ground is not the standard. It is earned. It's a gift. It should be cherished and appreciated because guess what? Life wasn't easy. It isn't easy and it never will be. But I believe the differentiator is knowing that. So I kept running on the slope, feet sinking into the sand. I got my teeth kicked in just a little bit longer and life didn't end. In fact, I think the mental aspect was tougher than the physical. We're only talking five miles here, but when the standard changes, so does the performance.

It's about just moving forward and like poetry, with about three quarters of a mile left, right? The beach widened. It leveled out, the ground became harder. Each step became easier, and yeah, I was running. But in my head it felt like I was lying on a bed of feathers. Because when you prepare to base life's demons, when you're ready for battle, when you anticipate, you'll have to give everything.

Any adversary that falls short of that feels like wind behind your back. We can endure anything. The question is whether or not we put ourselves in position to. Mistakes, they don't. They don't define us. Heartbreak, it doesn't kill us. And criticism, it doesn't shape us.

But I'll tell you what. The fear that they do stops a lot of people from becoming who they're capable of becoming. Panicking at the slightest sign of discomfort, moving away from anything but the convenient, when in reality, Inconveniences are the path. As Ryan Holiday famously put it, the obstacle is the way.

See, satisfaction, it doesn't even exist without a will to overcome. What meaning does the finish line have without miles of self-doubt and questions and fear and dragons being slayed while you prove to yourself over and over again that you know what? I am more, and I can be more. And the crazy thing is that there's not even a stopping point here. This rocket will propel as high into the ether as you choose to take it. And look, it's not about running on slight inclines or sinking a few inches into the sand. It's not about being rejected, losing or castigated by seven billion self-interest No. It's about not being scared to take the bridge that connects current to future.

Complacency to recreation, the known to the seemingly impossible. You're made of so much more than you give yourself credit for. You are so much stronger than you think you are. So for yourself and for the world, capture. capture that, own it, and redefine what it means not to simply exist, but to your core with every ounce of your being, your soul, every fiber in your body to truly live. The question that I would love to start with, this totally when we were having lunch today, blew my mind. So you're talking about your channel and how much time you've got to start with. put into it, how much energy you put into it, it's your life. If it wasn't making a dollar,

you said, you would still put the same amount of energy effort and time in every single day. And I think that's such an important thing because there's so many people here that are embarking on new projects and just to be able to explain the importance of loving and being immersed in what you do would be really cool. Your purpose comes from your pain, right? Like how do you find your purpose. Everybody says, find your purpose. Great. How do you do it? And for those of you don't maybe know a little bit about me, I have a YouTube channel. We've got a million subscribers, 300 million views, and I do profiles of tons of successful different entrepreneurs where you can learn from their success and break it down. So I've studied more successful entrepreneurs than

most people. It's how to break down the rules and give it to you guys. And the thing that comes up over and over and over and over again is sad this question of how do you find your passion. So how do it? What's the process? Your purpose comes from your pain. Whatever you struggle the most with is the thing that you want to help other people with. And typically as entrepreneurs we can be optimistic and positive and forward thinking and we don't want to think about the pain and what we went through. And the point isn't to live in that pain, but the point is to get out of it and then make the world a better place. You had all these struggles and you find a mentor, you go off and do all these crazy things and then you're

celebrated at the end. But the piece that I would add at the very very end of that is great you're celebrated and now you give back and now you teach other people how to do it so I struggled so much as an entrepreneur my first business I was 19 I was making $300 a month I was you know I was broke I had no money it was I was trying to figure out how to make this thing a go and I quit on my business partner was the worst day of my life I said I can't I can't keep doing it this way like I felt worthless as a human to hear me say I quit on something I cared about And so I said, I got to figure out another way to stand.

And so I asked myself, who else has built a software company? I looked at Bill Gates, studied his story and applied those lessons and started making money in my business. And so because I struggled so much as an entrepreneur, now I want to help out other entrepreneurs for life. Like that never gets old. So whatever you struggled the most with is who you will want to help for the rest of your life.

And then how did you get out of the hole? something that isn't just unique to you it's teachable you can help other people through the same path that you took so I struggled as an entrepreneur the thing that saved me was modeling Bill Gates of success how did he build Microsoft to zero to one I don't care how he makes an extra million now right zero to one that's what I wanted to do studied that applied it to myself started getting success and for the past 20 years all I've been doing is teaching other people how to model success my purpose comes from my pain and then the how of how

I got out of it is something that now I can teach other people and it's the greatest gift. And so I was telling Eddie over lunch that I would I would keep doing it for me. I need my channel for myself. It's fulfilling. And if it never made a dollar, then I would have to find another way to support myself, but I would keep doing this. And that becomes the asset test. If you're ever, if you're ever showing up on Monday, you're like, oh, you've got to leave.

and too often and if that's a job you can relate to it probably like oh my gosh you gotta go on Monday and I'm not seeing you have to quit right away because you have to still pay the bills and rent and internet and all that stuff it's important but if that's ever your business where you show up on Monday

you're not pumped to go do the thing that you're supposed to do then you have to switch and too many entrepreneurs for those who've been in the game for a while you end up buying yourself a job where then it was exciting before but now it's five years in you're still in the same thing for a creative type, it's a death sentence. So that's, I think you have to pay attention

to your energy. If Monday morning you're showing up and you have low energy, you have to find something else. I still love making videos. But the day that I've done, I started on YouTube April 2009, so over 10 years ago, we've done five, six thousand videos across multiple channels. I still like making videos. But the day that I stop liking videos, I'm going to do something else. I started videos as an experiment. I think we need to taste more, test more. Right. Like how do you know the thing that you're supposed to do? Well, you won't know by just even sitting here. You've got to go off an experiment. Like at the start, expect to suck. Nobody's going to show up and you're not going to be very good at it. Like, why do you expect

to be great the first time you try something? I think this is a big problem. I think we need to have a conversation around it. You expect to make a video and crush it the first time out. Right? Like, you should expect to suck at the beginning. If you don't suck, then then you should have started five years ago. Like, if you make a video, if his first IG live isn't totally embarrassing for the first 15 minutes, I'm actually pissed. Because, like, you should have started that three years ago, right? Like, you're supposed to suck at the beginning. So, he's going to go off and do his first IG live. And I said, you know what? This is the step. Like, if you went and did this every week, you'll be on stage here next year. But that's how it happens.

That's how it happens for people who are ambitious to create something and are taking in all the knowledge, but without momentum, you stay where you are. And you don't know what the first step is. Maybe that is not the path, right? Maybe it's better. I suggested he have somebody drive next to him. So like he drives in the truck and there's some kid next to him. and six-hour drive and he coaches them and films it. There could be a thousand iterations of that, but the key is just to go and test. Like, how do you know until you do it?

And you don't pay attention to the results, you pay attention to, did I enjoy the process? Did I love it? I sucked at it, but did I love it? Because if you love it and you keep doing it, you'll get better at it. So I just, I love doing small tests. So I just started on YouTube.

I just made a video. I never, when I started in April 2009, YouTube was a different beast. There was no Eddie Panero. There was no motivational content. There was no education. It was old man slips downstairs, right? Like cat vomits on the couch. These were the short, that was YouTube. This was early days of YouTube. So I never had ambitions to go and have 2 million subscribers and 300 million views. It was just, I like, I'm visual. I'd much rather see something. So I want to see it. but I wanted to create something visual for visual learners like me.

So for all the podcasts and the hype, and I love all the, I can't, I listen to zero podcast. Because I'm, auditory is the worst. If I couldn't see you or see Eddie, I'd be like really focused here trying to listen to what you're saying, because I don't learn auditory very well. And then people are asking me questions, so I made a video response. And I thought, a video, I'll send it to that one person, and maybe they'll like it, and maybe it inspires another 100 people who might be watching. That was it.

That was a start. Like, just try. If you got any, listen to all these amazing speakers here today, you've written a whole bunch of ideas down in your notebook. The worst thing you can do is go home and just have an idea's notebook. Like, pick something and just start on it and expect to suck and go. Right? Like the idea with the baseball, fine, great, go home and do some kind of Easter egg.

Right? And expect it to suck. Awesome. Post. Next. Do the next one. and it may be the greatest gift of all time or that idea may suck for you awesome how are you going to know you won't know by thinking through it you know by doing it