Your World Within Podcast by Eddie Pinero - You’re Playing Small — and It’s Costing You Everything

Episode Date: May 30, 2025

In this episode, Eddie Pinero pulls back the curtain on one of the biggest lies you’re told: that playing it safe and shrinking your dreams is the path to success. It’s not. It’s the slow erosion of your potential.What You’ll Discover:Why the voices telling you to stay small aren’t your truthThe cost of ignoring the flicker of potential inside youHow to spot the silent killer of self-sabotageThe difference between comfort and growth, and why you can’t have bothWhy aiming for “safe” is the biggest risk of allEddie’s words cut through the noise, reminding you that playing small doesn’t protect you, it slowly steals everything you could become. If you’ve felt stuck, if you’ve felt like life’s slipping by while you wait for the “right” moment, this is your call to action.🎧 Listen, watch, and share this episode with someone who needs to remember: you are built for more.💬 Comment below: What’s the dream you’ve been keeping small? Let’s talk.🔥 Subscribe for more cinematic wake-up calls to get you moving , because life’s not waiting, and neither should you.More from Eddie Pinero:Monday Motivation Newsletter: https://www.eddiepinero.com/newsletterYour World Within Podcast: https://yourworldwithin.libsyn.com/Stream these tracks on Spotify - https://spoti.fi/2BLf6pBInstagram - @your_world_within and @IamEddiePineroTikTok - your_world_withinFacebook - https://www.facebook.com/YourworldwithinTwitter - https://www.twitter.com/IamEddiePineroBusiness Inquiries - http://www.yourworldwithin.com/contact#liveinspired #yourworldwithin #motivation

The saying goes, shoot for the moon. If you miss, you'll land amongst the stars. But wait, they will tell you to aim lower. Not because you can't, but because they didn't. Because the unknown is loud and their fear is even louder. They'll tell you to want them. less, to shrink your reach, to trade your fire for comfort. They'll ask, why risk falling when you can learn to love the floor?

They'll talk about gravity as though it's gospel, as though the pull downward is the only truth that matters. But what they'll never say, what they may never know is that some are born with the stars in eyes. Some are built to leap even when there is no net. Some would rather break trying to touch the sky than spend a lifetime kneeling to what is safe. No, you'll feel it. In the quiet moments when no one's watching, when the world is still and the spark returns, that flicker, that impossible thing you're told to put away. And in those moments, you'll wonder, is it foolish to reach? To stretch for something that no one else sees? To climb a ladder that completely disappears into clouds?

To follow a path with no name, no trail, and no map. But what they never say is that the map is made by the one who walks. The trail is born of footsteps, not instruction. And the moon, well, maybe that moon was never the prize. Rather, it's the decision, the declaration, the raising of the hand to the sky and saying, I don't know what waits around the corner, but I will go anyway.

And as for them, they won't understand that. They won't see the stars you passed through, or the galaxies you shaped with every setback. They won't feel the cold of the void you dared to enter, or the warmth of that first light after darkness. To them, you missed. You aimed high and you missed. But what they misunderstand is that you became something in the process. Falling through the stars, it still means you touched them. It still means you left the ground.

It still means you learned to fly. See, they'll write stories about people like you without ever realizing they once warned you not to try because it's easy to measure life by trophies. It's easy to count only wins. When truth be told, meaning, well, meaning is found in motion. in becoming, in reaching beyond what was, and towards the infinite upside. And no metal can capture that.

No applause can echo long enough to match the silence you broke just by beginning. You'll lose people. You'll shed skin. You'll bury old versions of yourself that begged you to stay. But with each step you'll remember, the moon was never promised, only the journey. So keep climbing. Even when they laugh, even when they don't get it, even when they turn away, even when the night offers no light back climb. Because what they call failure, you'll know is transformation.

What they label detour, you'll see. as design. And one day, and that day will arrive, they'll look up. They'll see a light shooting across the night sky that they cannot explain.

They'll call it lucky, they'll call it magic, they'll call it miraculous, but you'll know. You'll know there was nothing miraculous about it. It was the fire in your lungs. The shaking hands that still reached out, the tired feet that didn't quit,

the dream you protected when the world told you to let go. So when they tell you to aim lower, let them. Because they never saw the stars you were dancing through. What's going on, guys? Welcome to Your World Within. I'm Eddie Panero. And I hope, if nothing else, that last segment reminded you to aim higher. No one on the history of this beautiful planet ever regretted.

giving all of themselves to something they truly cared about. Now, before I let you go to 55 minutes of uninterrupted content, I'd love to invite you to join my weekly newsletter, completely free where I share thoughts and perspectives intended to shape your mindset. Mindset determines action. Action shapes your reality. And some of the biggest changes in my life were small, ideas that help reframe the way I think.

And I'd love to offer that same thing to you, join thousands of others, eddypanero.com slash newsletter. Enjoy the episode. It always gets worse first. I was recently at a mastermind where someone made this point, and as hard as I tried, I couldn't really poke holes in it. for the simple fact that everything new requires some vulnerability, some discomfort that was previously non-existent.

Or in other words, you have to endure turbulence prior to calm. So imagine a wavy line on a piece of paper or whiteboard where the top of each wave is slightly bigger than the one before it. right so right before that new wave occurs there is necessarily a low point or a trough a point that's absolutely without a doubt lower than the top of the previous wave and this to me summarizes the battle we fight right when you're comfortable when you're at the top of the little wave you're currently riding it almost feels self-defeating to willingly jump off and land yourself at the of some new, soon-to-be future wave.

Every new mountain means starting at the bottom, a new base. Every acquisition means letting go of something we once knew and understood. The question is, are you willing to fight through? Are you willing to hang out in the trough at the bottom, right? wander that valley of despair. And that's, by the way, what we're talking about when we talk about, for example, Walt Disney being fired, being called unimaginative, and struggling to get the world to understand his Mickey Mouse cartoon.

That's what we're talking about with Steve and Was with Apple. That's what we're talking about with Lincoln and the constant political rejection before finding stability and success, right? These stories have become almost folklore. And all of them share the same characteristic, that the main players willingly accepted the fact that it would get worse before it got better. All of them were willing to make a trade.

The bottom now for a chance at the top later. Not only is this pragmatic, but it also aids the mind throughout the process. It helps us understand and internalize what we're going through. You know, that initial instinct to think, why me, to shake our fists at the world and fall into the role of victim? That goes away when we know that, you know, we're enduring turbulence now for something better.

When we know that this is merely the cost of admission. You're not at the bottom of the wave because you have to be, or even because it's fun to hang out there. You're there because something greater is coming. And a human's desire to delay gratification is a superpower. We all know that. Things get worse before they get better. So remember next time you're out in the world, right, dealing with adversity. Technically, you don't have to be there.

You could be hiding away, letting life slip by. But instead, you've made the decision, the courageous decision to better yourself. What you're enduring will ultimately become your strong point. And so don't villainize or demonize that. Cherish it. Hold on to that. Because we need to get beyond the notion that discomfort is weakness. discomfort is a decision

a bold decision that you should be proud of again you could live your entire life running from the painful things hiding from the discomfort of growth but then you'd also be forfeiting that next wave you'd be so hell-bent on escaping the notion that it always gets worse first that instead you never let your life get better to begin with There is no bottom or trough on earth more detrimental to the human soul than stagnation.

We need to be moving, marching forward, even when we don't know, right, into the unknown, into the night, fighting to get to the ceiling, then gladly allowing that ceiling to become our next floor. It always gets worse, and thank God. That's where we are made. condition. That's the buffer that separates mediocrity from greatness. That forces us to ask the important questions. Do I really want this?

And if the answer is yes, let it get worse first. Let it be tough out of the game. Grant yourself that gift of vulnerability. because a few waves from now, you'll be on a different level, physically, spiritually, personally. A few waves from now, the quote-unquote worst parts will be what stand between who you are and who you were. And that decision, the decision to step out and face them, will have been perhaps the best

decision you've ever made. reality is a mirror. Reflecting back at you, not the world as it is, but the world as you are. The idea here is that if you don't pause and remind yourself how much control you have over your own reality, over what you're seeing, you start thinking you're at the mercy of someone else's story. A character in a play that is not your own.

You forget that in your own. You forget that in your own movie, you're the scriptwriter. Or as Marcus Aurelius wrote, you have power over your mind, not outside events. Realize this, and you will find strength. I recently heard this referred to as the mirror principle. But really, for obvious reasons, I'm more partial to calling it your world within.

An echo of Tolstoy's classic line, everyone thinks of changing the world, but no one thinks of changing himself. And that is where our power lies. Or using the same example, you can't change the reflection you see by shaking the mirror. You change the reflection by changing your relationship with yourself, by changing how you treat and view yourself, which not only alters your actions, It alters how the world views you. One of the first things we notice about someone is whether they are confident, whether they operate with conviction and self-belief.

We notice how they view themselves immediately. The greatest gifts I've been given from mentors and people I look up to in life, they haven't been material. No, they've always been subtle reminders that I set the guidelines. and the world conforms. It's always been, Hey, Eddie, if you only view yourself as someone who charges a little bit of money to clients,

that's how potential clients will view you. Eddie, if you surround yourself with people who think small, that's exactly what you'll become accustomed to doing. Eddie, if you don't believe you can do amazing things, people won't walk up to you and believe it for you. All of these have been reminders that the reflections that I'd created for myself

at those points in time were limiting. The reflection I was allowing was narrow in scope. It was safe. It was small. And if I wanted more, it wasn't up to the world. It certainly wasn't a matter of crossing my fingers

and hoping that that mirror would randomly tell a different story, it was seeing myself as someone who creates a new picture altogether. And that can be a difficult thing to grasp, right? Like, you can't change the mirror at all. You can only change what you bring to the mirror. So what are some examples? What are some pieces in the past that I've worked on?

One, first and foremost, imposter syndrome. One of the cool things about having speeches, blow up on YouTube before I ever gave a keynote speech on stage is that I started getting invites to speak all over the place. The flip side to that is that I felt like someone who didn't belong there. It happened too quickly. It was outside the comfort of my studio. It was like, oh no, the world's going to find me out.

And that's what I brought to the mirror. And of course, for a while, that's exactly what the mirror showed right back. I had to convince myself that I could speak anywhere, through practice, through affirmation, trudging through the mud of doubt and uncertainty, and earning a different reflection. I say that, not to pat myself on the back, but to demonstrate a battle fought mostly in private, where I had to rewire how I saw not the world but myself, how I saw my ability to navigate seemingly insurmountable things. It always amazes me how so much of any battle is merely confronting it with confidence.

It's knowing that, hey, difficult or not, I belong here. And I'm going to figure it out. That's what I do. I think we all need to find a way to bring that to our personal mirrors. And again, it'll feel weird. Good. It'll feel inauthentic at first. Perfect.

Change requires a breaking down and building up, and breaking down never feels good. I can give you another example, and I think this will certainly be relatable to most of you. Not being able to see the gratitude in my life over the small annoyances, like something stupid or not ideal or disruptive, would just prompt the spiral. My Facebook getting hacked is a great example of this. I've talked about this before. My world ended for a few hours. I was so angry until I got it together and composed myself. It's like, Eddie, you need to be the type of person who observes,

who calmly collects the data and then makes a productive decision. Now, clearly, I wasn't that. And in many ways, I'm still working towards it. But I know that's part of the reflection I want. That's something I'm working towards every day. And you know what's helped me? Gratitude. Seriously, that's simple.

Three things in the morning I feel grateful for. People I have in my life. Things I get to do, the work that I love. Whatever it is that day, you know, I write it down. because just thinking that way elevates my baseline to not just existing but realizing how lucky I am. And I start from a place not of lack but of abundance.

And that puts things into perspective so that when, you know, things do go wrong or the wheels do fall off the wagon, it's not the end of the world. It's one little trial or tribunal tribulation in the great play of your life, one that you're very happy to be in. And I could go on and on, whether we want to call this the mirror principle or the creating of your world within or just merely obtaining perspective.

The idea is simple. What the reflection shows you is directly correlated to the things you've accepted or allowed in your life. and if you don't like the view well then adjust what you're allowing give yourself permission to level up to be more

take more risks to chase down the upside reality is a mirror and a mirror is an output you are the input you are where it all begins where everything in your world that takes shape. So give yourself permission

to fight for a reflection that you're proud of. I've always been amazed at how much life can change with a small perspective shift. You hear something the right way, maybe even something you've heard a thousand times, this time you just hear it

differently, and suddenly the light bulb goes off. Suddenly, it all makes sense. I was talking to one of my friends recently about how he threw discus in high school. And he was incredible at the sport. But for, you know, a long stretch, he was inconsistent with his release. And coach after coach, after coach would try and help him with it. But it wasn't until one said to him,

hey, instead of sprinting to the release, think of it as a scissor motion. Right now, I don't know much about discus. But for whatever reason, that clicked for him. The gear started turning. He went to states. Had the best performance of his life. All because he looked at the same situation through a different lens. He found clarity in what was around him.

Now, you might be thinking, what does that have to do with me? Well, I'm of the thinking that in our own lives, right, the battles we are. are all individually fighting, the struggles we are going through, you know, amidst that storm, we are one little light bulb moment from the clarity we need to reengage, to create momentum. We're never as far from what we need as we think, but what we do is we convoluted things. We tell ourselves that, you know, the change required. is monumental. It's some larger than life transition. You look at my friend, the difference between a good season and an amazing season. It wasn't a year in the wait room away. No, it was a small

mental shift. And even in your world, if the shift is just the beginning, great. Everything of substance does in fact have to start. And it's arriving at that point, giving yourself the gift of clarity in a pursuit that becomes critical. I've always visualized that epiphany as me sitting in a dark room pitch black, which is intimidating, it's intense, feels even helpless at times, but understanding there is always a light switch

and arms reach away. There's always the thing that will be transformative. We just have to keep reaching, keep stretching, keep feeling around for it, because it exists. And with an outstretched arm, the very thing necessary to get us out of the dark and into the light is waiting. And that's just it. You know, we can't conflate the goal with the delta between where we stand now and the goal.

No one can run a marathon in one giant step. It doesn't matter how strong you are. You're not leaping the course and diving through the finish tape. No, you're running thousands and thousands of little manageable steps. But we come face to face with situations in life where we know the finish line, whatever it is in your particular case, is way out there in the distance. And it's overwhelming, it's intimidating, it places us back in that dark room where we're surrounded by the unknown and inundated with stories we tell ourselves about how difficult life is, this is where

you need to reach out and look for the light switch. It's where you need to remember you're not responsible for the finish line because how could you be? Humans are only capable of moving forward one step at a time. It's where you have to understand that the greatest impact on the discus right now is a change to your release point, a perspective shift, something minimal. That gets you the distance. Every time I've been stuck or lost, it has been an adjustment to the way I'm looking at the world around me that's ultimately made the difference. A little reminder to take the pressure off, at least in the sense that we can only control what

we can control. And usually that's the step right in front of us. So my suggestion is to stop looking up at the mountain and look down at the very next step. Because from where you stand, there is a path to get you there. But the process calls for you to, one, believe it's possible, and two, make the little adjustment in real time that will put you in position to do just that. You're never down and out. Not so long as there's air in your lungs and blood pumping through your veins.

You are, rather, one decision away, one epiphany away, one flick of the light switch away, from recapturing momentum and finding yourself again. There are two kinds of crossroads. First, the external. The crossroads at life beyond your control places before you. The abrupt changes, the sudden twists, the tragedies, even the occurrences we don't quite understand and so chalk them up as fate. And then there are the internal. The crossroads that you manufacture, the ones that are self-creature.

the ones that are self-create, self-induced. The, you know what, I've had enough of this crossroads. The I deserve better crossroads. There's more out there, and today I'm going to find it. Crossroads. And I don't think the two are mutually exclusive. In fact, I think sometimes when we wait too long to manufacture our own crossroads, life steps in gives us a little nudge.

The universe pushes us towards that change like a wind at our back. It doesn't quite make things black and white. It doesn't always put a catastrophe in front of us. Sometimes it's the mere whispering that, hey, you're accepting more pain, more friction than you should be. It reminds us to take accountability, to take control of life, something that we seemingly forget more often than we should. One of my favorite stories is Jim Rohn's famous epiphany or lightbulb moment. The point where, you know, he basically realizes enough's enough, right?

I'm creating a crossroads here and going down the road that I've known for a long time I should have walked down. And it all starts with a knock at his door. It's a Girl Scout, right, trying to sell him cookies. He walks up, opens the door, and just desperately. With all of his being wishes he could buy cookies from this Girl Scout, but he can't because he's broke. He doesn't have the money to buy a box. So to save face, he tells her, you know, I'm sorry,

but another Girl Scout was just here. You know, you just missed her, and I bought a box of cookies from her. And she smiles, says thanks, walks away. He closes the door, and, you know, upon closing it, says, never again. Never again will I have to turn a Girl Scout away because I cannot afford the cookies. Never again will I be in this place of lack. Never again, right? That's the beginning of a transformation.

He points to that moment as the day that changed his life. He built a crossroads and changed direction in real time. Now, is this an oversimplification? Sure. massive transformations are complex, no doubt. They require a reworking of many things. But they all start with a decision, a decision to manufacture that change in your life, to take the road you are not currently taking, to walk down a new path. These decisions can hurt. They force you to become something you've never been, to do things you've never done. That's no cakewalk. But it's a different kind of

It's the short-term discomfort pushing against friction. It's the building of muscle, which is way different than the psychological hurt of knowing that you're out of alignment. Knowing deep down there's more in you and that it's fading away with each passing day. That's hurt. And we all know in some capacity that life doesn't always create circumstances that move us. Life waits for us to move ourselves. It waits for the I've had enough moment. It waits for us to see the present, not as all there is, but rather a doorway to the next thing.

There are two kinds of crossroads, and I'm a believer that a meaningful existence means not waiting for the external to push you, but allowing the internal to drive you. It's the classic stands for the stage. Where do you want to be? You can sit and watch, clap when you're happy, boo when you're mad, but ultimately not be in control. Or you can choose to perform. To be on stage, to narrate, to choose your ending,

elevate your character, become the hero of your story. And I say this as someone who, at points, has simply waited too long. Looking around, right, praying for the gusts, of wind that would propel me to the place that I needed to be. Essentially, you know, not understanding that life was waiting for me to greenlight my own journey. Life is about the turns we take at the crossroads before us. And so never underestimate your ability to create that intersection most truly and never underestimate your courage to take the turn that you know in your soul needs to be taken.

Sometimes we convince ourselves that right now isn't quite right. It's not the wrong time necessarily, but soon. We'll have that thing that will make the perfect launch point soon. So we'll wait. You hear it a lot with hopeful creators, right? As soon as I get the camera, I'm going to start the podcast. As soon as they feel inspired, I'll start writing. Or how about this one we can all relate to in some way?

As soon as it's January 1, I'll start taking care of myself and my health. And I'm not talking about this because I read about it. I'm talking about it because I live it. It's an adversary I'm always up against. allure of waiting for that perfect moment. But here's the deal. When you start now, the imperfections become part of the value.

People see imperfections and become inspired by them. He started getting in shape in his garage with two dumbbells. Look at that. She started writing her novel in a notebook waiting to pick her kids up from school. going now, not only destroys that enemy that is procrastination, it also gives you something of value in return. It lets the very fact that you found a way become a narrative in your story. It allows your imperfections to become your greatness. I recently relocated my studio to Scottsdale, a move that, according to the moving company, would take seven to ten days.

24 days later, I realized that there are places in life where you can attempt to cut costs. Moving companies should never be one of those things. I found myself with the recording equipment in my camera bag that I travel with and some empty boxes. I'm waiting for my stuff to show up one week, two weeks, three weeks. Soon, soon it'll arrive. And I'll be able to record then. Because right now there's no lighting. Right now, I don't have my tripod.

I don't have anything to, you know, put behind me in the set. It's like, wait, wait, wait. Or, how about this? You take the empty shelves and you make them intentional. You lean boxes against the wall. You have a life transition set, right? And not only can you make that work, not only will it look sufficient,

but it's like you have a story now. We like to hear about the times others made something out of an apparent nothing. It's relatable. And that's actually where the fun stuff is in any conversation. I'm recording this in a hotel room, doing what I can with what I have.

And so when you find yourself feeling not quite ready and the temptation is to wait, Rather than hold out hope for a fake perfection that never comes, why not unpack the beauty contained in the present moment? Or put a much more practical way, the opportunity contained in the present moment. Why not begin with less and tap into something that no other time in your life will have but now?

Start your podcast using your phone. mediocre visuals and echoy audio. Let this be the beginning that you look back on and smile. Remember how fun those episodes were? That mediocre at best equipment and stories about where we were in life. Start working out now. Can't get to the gym. Do it in your garage, in your living room.

Then you can point to where it would have been easy not to, but you built your physical foundation on the third floor of an apartment building in New York. People ask you what it took to get into the shape you're in now. Wait and a floor. Just start. I find repeatedly that it's not about perfect. It's about who we become in making progress with far less than the perfect we'd hoped for. That's what makes you realize how much of what we tell ourselves is just rationalization. We're scared to not look good.

That's all. We're scared of new things, worried about beginning. And so we convince ourselves that the camera angle will make all the difference. The expensive lens will be the differentiator. Again, I've lived this. And then you get it, and it's like, in truth, the new camera just sits there. You're still the person in front of it. And what you say in front of your phone versus $2,000 Sony,

is still entirely dependent on you. Surprise. The Sony doesn't have much say. And so I call you to think less about the set and more about what's going on within it. The amount you can do with what you have now will astound you. How little we need is truly magical.

You know, in these last three weeks have emphasized that for me. two pairs of shoes, two pairs of jeans, some t-shirts, and a camera. I didn't miss much because my ability to think and share ideas didn't get packed away and put in the truck with everything else. That stayed with me. And we all have some version of that in our own lives. That's what matters. You are LeBron at something.

So cherish that. Bring that. to the world, regardless of the circumstances. You can put LeBron on a broken down court with no nets. He'd still be pretty good. The environment becomes something different, something enjoyable because of its novelty. Too often we miss the value, you know, because of the details. So, I'll end with this.

Don't seek perfection. Seek to start now with what you have. have so that you can give more of yourself to the world. You can give more of yourself when you're unsure. Give more of yourself when you're lost. Give more of yourself when you're starting. Give more of yourself when you don't have all the tools you wish you had. Give more of yourself at the beginning.

Give more at the middle and at the end. Anything that suggests you need some miracle in the mail before you can begin or tap into what matters is fear. It's nothing more and nothing less. So start. Start for the world and for the story you'll be able to share by simply initiating the climb. What goes into your decision making?

Particularly the big decisions, the important ones. I heard a quote that moved me from Jeff Bezos. It was a video on Twitter. And he said, my best decisions in business and in life have been made with heart, intuition, and guts, but not analysis. And he continues, when you can make a decision with analysis, you should do so. But it turns out that in life, your most important decisions are always made with instinct, intuition, and taste. And that connected some dots for me. Because I think the big decisions, the life-altering decisions, where we are pointing this ship, should be made via intuition.

Data can't tell you which direction is most important to you. And even if it could, if your heart's not in it, if it's not aligned with who you are and where you feel you need to be, it wouldn't really matter anyway. The most important decisions we make, even right out of the gate, there's this feeling of it's aligned or it isn't. We know right away. We feel it right away. Someone once said to me, if you can't decide if something's good or not, flip a coin. Because you'll know while that coin is in the air, which side you want it to land on. And we do.

We know. And so after deciding, after letting intuition guide us then and only then, then, in my humble opinion, of course, do we calculate the how? That's the analysis part. Once we've committed and our hearts are aligned, yeah, you use the data all around you, the evidence collected along the way to map an efficient path. I think people tend to put the heart in the brain against each other as though they're rivals. I know I certainly have, but I think they need to coexist together.

Think about it. If you select your North Star based on analysis, you'll probably lack the drive to get there. And conversely, once decided, if you map the course based solely on heart or feel, you'll be operating blind, limiting your ability to make accurate adjustments based on real-life circumstances. You need both. I'm making some pretty substantial changes here in my life. I'm moving again, this time to Arizona, starting up some new ventures, placing myself in a few situations that weren't even on the radar six months ago. I can't explain my rationale using mathematical models.

And I just know deep in my soul that it's where I need to be. It feels right. It's calling me. The same way 10 years ago, writing speeches in a small Boston apartment for no revenue at the time couldn't be explained. Can't show your work on a decision like that, right? It's just something that feels good. And, you know, once you jump in, then yeah, you start relying on the brain, the analysis to grow and improve and evolve.

But I do believe if we made the big decisions based only on the things we could prove or the things we are sure of, the biggest and most important leaps would never have been made. Risks wouldn't be taken. I mean, you don't take risks because you run the next. numbers and the odds work. You take risks because life is when you break it down, remove the nuance and details about the journey. It's about the ride. And so you jump. You commit to a path. And maybe you realize it's not the path for you. Let's say things don't work out. Well, now you are gifted that wisdom. Understanding. You previously never had. And you can

take that all with you onto the next venture. How do you put a price on that? How do you quantify lessons of that magnitude? What data tells you how important that courage was? We all know the answer. Now of course, again, data has a story to tell and numbers don't lie, but they also never tell the whole story. They can't paint the picture in its entirety. Which is why I'd scream from the mountain tops. If it means something to you, it's worth exploration. If it matters, try. If it lights up your curiosity, give it attention. Maybe it doesn't work the way you thought or hoped, but it will lead you to the next thing. And then the next, and the next, it will provide the type of value that simply can't be quantified or even understood in the moment.

The story of your life must be written by you. It must align with the person looking back at you in the mirror. That's the litmus test. That's the benchmark. So trust yourself and your intuition to write it. As many of you know, the great Charlie Munger recently passed away. And a friend of mine sent me a video of his most powerful quotes. sound bites. And as I was listening, one stood out to me that I really wanted to share.

Charlie Munger said that the acquisition of knowledge is a moral duty. Basically, it's our responsibility to capitalize on the opportunity presented to each and every one of us. We owe that to ourselves, and we owe that to the world. And it just so happened that this particular message was said during a commencement address, talking to an audience of students who weren't ending, but rather were beginning the greatest undertaking of their lives. They'd be released beyond the confines of the campus to go navigate the world.

I remember being in that position, right, asking myself the question, well, what do I do now? It felt like the weight of the world was on my shoulders, and actually, beyond that point, I've found myself at that crossroads many a times. But being that there are really no right answers in life, I find Charlie Munger's advice here even more meaningful. Because it's not about what you're supposed to do, at least not when we zoom out. It's about a willingness to step forward and continuously pursue knowledge.

your personal evolution. It's to try things you've never tried so that you can learn from them. It's going where you've never gone so that you can stretch beyond the boundaries you previously existed in. You owe it to yourself and the world to find what you love and shake that tree until all its fruit is gone.

And that's an adventure, not a right or wrong question. Life is not a checklist. It is one great journey. A journey in which we acquire knowledge we never had and become the people we knew we could be. It's a moral duty not to get it right, because again there is no right. It's a moral duty because you have it within you to change things, to make an impact. to better the people around you. It's a moral duty because you will be a difference maker

in whatever arena you choose to step into. And just imagine forfeiting that. Imagine the greatness that would be wasted. If you looked in the mirror and thought to yourself, I don't know what that future looks like, so I'll stay here. I don't understand, so I won't go. I'm not where I want to be. right now. So hey, this is where we'll close the book. See, endings are just beginnings in disguise.

Because they set you free to start writing a new chapter, to adjust and reimagine the impact that you can have on the world. Those students, the ones that Charlie Munger was talking to, they aren't done learning. They're merely at an inflection. point. And by the way, I think that's why it's so painful to feel stuck, to feel lost. Because our souls want growth, but don't know where to go. We feel confined because the target is uncertain, but I can tell you this. Sometimes knowing that the current chapter is over is enough, is all you need. Sometimes knowing that you no longer need to be where you are. is plenty because it prompts movement.

One who is willing to keep their feet going, who's willing to try, make educated guesses and adapt. That is someone who is constantly learning. Someone who's realized that the only way to assure success is not achieved is by standing still. Worrying so much about losing what you currently have that you disregard the infinite upside. It is a moral duty to grow because you are a game changer.

You have perspectives and ideas and abilities that will make this place better. And when you look around and think, me? No, you've got the wrong guy or gal here. That just means it's time for you to walk, to move, to create momentum, momentum to stumble into life until you find a little portion of it you want to put a stake in and call your own and please this isn't a life is rainbows butterflies and everything's magic message this is a find your thing and give it to the world message this is a you can always be evolving

message. And most importantly, this is a progress is happiness message. Because a life lived to the fullest is one where we are stretching and exploring. We're stepping out into the vast unknown and mapping it for ourselves and others. It's your duty to acquire knowledge and allow that acquisition to propel you into the ether. It's your responsibility. It's your responsibility to not sit on your gifts, but bring them to life and create that ripple effect that will change the world. Brne Brown has said, courage starts with showing up and letting ourselves be seen. It's one of my favorite ideas, because to me it's symbolic of a building process.

taking what would otherwise be blank space, nothingness, and stepping into it, believing yourself enough to say, there's a void here, and I can fill it. I'm strong enough to show myself to the world, my ideas to the world, my work to the world, I have, in Brune's words, the courage to be seen. Seven years ago, in 2016, I wrote about my first experience with this epiphany in a video called, fittingly, courage. I talk about my light bulb moment where I'm walking down the street and realize everything around me, all of it, was built by people with enough self-belief to think I can add value to the world. I can, in one form or another, take a blank space and create within those parameters something beautiful, something beautiful,

something meaningful. I, not him or her, I can be the reason things change for the better. That's a hard notion to grasp. Because it's overwhelming to put faith or stock into ideas. You're just writing yourself IOU notes. And it's particularly difficult when things take time or don't go the way you want them to.

Immediately, you start to feel crazy. And you know for a fact those around you can't see it or understand. How could they? This is a you thing, right? It exists in your head and your head only. But that building to your left, that song you're listening to, the book you're reading, that car you're driving, these things exist because those who brought them to life survived the storm. They believed and hung in long enough, pushed beyond the self-doubt.

They escape that maze that chews up and spits out so many. And a few weeks ago, I was in Vegas for a podcast and doing some marketing for a new venture. It's with a friend and business partner. We're on the balcony looking out over Vegas.

And we're both inspired in that moment because we're reminded how big the world is and how everything below us is a product of courage. Opportunity capture. enacted upon by those who believed in themselves to do it. And Tyler's pointing down to different things, right? Those offices were built by someone. Every light built by someone.

Every car going down the road, built by someone. Emphasizing just that beautiful reality, it's all possible, but you have to initiate it. And it's incredible how things come full circle. Seven years ago, the scary thing was putting my voice out there. You know, fast forward a little bit. Same game. Just different stakes.

It's like it will always be true. If you want to increase your impact, do not forget two things. One, it's possible for you. And two, it takes courage. Sure, self-belief alone, it won't get you through the finish line. But without it, there is no race to begin with. There is no starting point. Only dreams, only wishing, only hoping.

Courage says everything around me was brought to life by people with the strength to convert nothing into something. And those people, they are not gods. They are no different or better or greater than you or I. They see blank space and ask why not me? Why couldn't I leave a mark or make a change? And that's just it. You can be the one.

Not some other guy, not your neighbor, not the folks on social media, you. But you have to believe it and be willing to trudge through the storm. You have to be willing, as difficult as it might seem at first, to be seen. To step out of the darkness and into the light, you have that courage within you. So remind yourself that one, it's there and two, it's who you are. And I promise you, the world will change around you.