Apparently 50% of people rank this year as their worst ever.
What about the other 50%?
It really is a tale of two worlds right now, isn’t it?
While many people are struggling from the effects of the virus and lockdowns, some people are absolutely crushing it.
It reminds you that things are never all good or all bad.
“It seemed pretty, pretty dark”
Keep in mind…
On Christmas Eve 2008 Elon Musk’s businesses were nearly bankrupt.
Personally he still had some $30 million and of course a bevy of rich friends who could help him out.
But that was the small part of Elon’s problem.
The big problem was that his two babies, Tesla and SpaceX, these two world-changing missions that Elon had committed his life to, would imminently be taken off life support.
That’s the way Elon talks about his businesses—personally.
He describes them like babies and was forced to ask questions like, “Which one am I going to let starve to death?”
“Capable of a nervous breakdown?”
I’ve known many hardcore people over the years.
But in the business world there’s only one person I’ve come across who goes after it as hard as Elon seems to.
There appears nothing that will slow him down, or stop him.
Over decades he’s proven to himself that he can work around the clock non-stop and has the will to keep doing what it takes, even in the face of overwhelming odds.
Yet at this time in 2008 even Elon Musk questioned whether he could make it through, as you see him say here on 60 Minutes—
I remember waking up the Sunday before Christmas in 2008 and thinking to myself, and I never thought I was someone who could ever be capable of a nervous breakdown. But I felt this is the closest I’ve ever come. Because it seemed pretty, pretty dark.
Darkest before dawn?
Unequivocally the night is NOT darkest before the dawn, but the metaphor well captures your imagination, doesn’t it?
It can lead you to see that as dark as things may get, there’s always a new dawn.
Perhaps in our world now the darkest times are behind us, as plenty of actual evidence suggests.
Or even if they are not, so long as you keep your mind out of that darkness, and keep moving forward in the light direction as best you can, well things will be the best they can be for you.
And indeed we might even be headed into some of the best times for humanity too?
Roaring 22s?
Maybe it’s stupid unrealistic, but I bet the Roaring 1920s felt that way after World War 1 and the 1918 flu.
For sure there are darker people out there with their darker predictions, yet keep in mind that 13 years ago on Christmas Eve even Elon Musk had feared for the worst too.
And I doubt waking up the next day he imagined he’d be roaring to the richest person in the world as his babies rapidly grew.
As I said, keep in mind things are never all bad or all good.
And look for ways to love the good with your friends and family this holiday season.
P.S. If you want to go deeper into how Elon rocketed to the top so fast, you can check out the trillion dollar formula here.