Hold onto your hat!
We’re already on a wild ride, aren’t we?
How are you doing with all these things going on in the world?
None of us can know where it’s headed but you do know one thing.
The world keeps moving forward and so must you.
You do this best when you back yourself in.
Back yourself
People spend their lives backing others but how many of us are backing ourselves?
It’s like all those people who spend hours a day and decades of their precious life backing a sports and political team but never back themselves in anything.
At the end of our lives we all know the cliche that you regret the things that you never did and you never need wait till the end to begin regretting.
That’s like so many of my friends who have blindly backed president Biden now trying to figure out who exactly they’re backing.
Biden has played an A+ game outwitting them all by backing himself in.
Back boats
I love the theme of burning the boats.
If you’re going for what you truly want which demands that you keep doing your hardest things over and over again then you want zero way to back out.
That brain of yours will keep trying to avoid doing hard things and find an easy way out and you must eliminate this thinking.
This is why I’m so grateful that I left Wall Street before I made serious coin because when it was hard as heck I don’t know if I would have had the will to keep doing my hardest things over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and… again.
As my brother says you’ve gotta keep backing yourself in.
Backed in
One thing I loved researching Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk and building this trillion dollar method is that you come across so many examples of this.
Like Jeff Bezos quitting his highly coveted Wall Street career to drive across the country and start this thing that he didn’t even have a name for yet!!
He went to some 62 investors, 42 said no, 20 said yes and invested $1mm for 20% of Amazon, which of course has been an incredible return on their investment.
Just keep in mind that all of them including his wife asked him this same first question—
“What’s the Internet!?”
Jeff was driving across the country from New York to Washington writing the business plan for Amazon because he had already backed himself in.
Back it up
Obviously it’s easy to look at Elon Musk’s SpaceX today and be like, of course that makes sense, like duh.
But go back to 2002 when Musk was starting SpaceX and his “friends” were trying to talk him out of even beginning.
Now keep in mind that his “friends” were some of the smartest and most successful entrepreneurs in Silicon Valley but even to them it was crazy that Elon would back himself in.
Musk tells this story of how his “friend” made him sit down and watch all these videos of rockets exploding and he was like, OK, so you’re saying that I might lose all my money here but I already knew that, so what?
Elon would bet it all because he backed himself in and kept backing it up doing whatever it took to get these things working.
Be careful who you listen to is something that Jeff Bezos talks about too.
“Friends”
In case it wasn’t clear the reason I put ” around Elon Musk’s “friends” is because this is what “friends” do.
Some truly love you. Others can be envious. Most are just scared and risk averse and looking out for what they perceive is best for you.
Family can be the same.
In many cases like Jeff Bezos’ family got behind him investing in Amazon your family and friends will be your best allies as Kimbal has been to Elon Musk.
Yet in other cases these people closest to you are most likely to be the last to get behind you.
First and forever you must be backing you.
LtL
A CEO client says “LtL” because we’re avoiding the words and programming on what he means.
It’s Lonely to Lead he would say because if you’re truly a leader then it all comes back to you.
President Biden you’ve seen getting served a double dose of this recently with plenty of “friends” who used to back him now kicking him in the back when he most needs them.
It can be lonely to lead because when you’re truly leading you must trust that nobody is with you.
But you can never be lonely when you’re 100% backing you.
Wheels spinning
Watch how a dog behaves in an uncertain environment and you’ll see its back to the wall.
You’ve gotta know that nothing is coming up behind you and this is a reason to back yourself in.
Like cops backing in the cruiser it’s also the quickest way to chase because you can launch fast when you’re backing yourself in.
In my mind I see a red hot funny car wheels spinning launching off the line when you’ve backed yourself in.
Maybe that’s just how I like to drive but I’m betting that you might too 🚀
Launching forward
I launched from Mum’s belly six weeks premature and I’ve been running ever since.
BS I say to all of those cliches like you can’t sprint the marathon because basically everyone I know and care about has been sprinting for decades along with me.
You’ve either got some target that you’re going after or you don’t, which is why so many “successful” people are miserable in boring jobs wasting their life on things like media and politics.
Those of us with eyes on target are focused launching forward every day.
This is easiest and funnest when you’ve backed yourself in.
Backed in?
What do you think about these things?
I’m curious where you’re coming from and how you feel about backing yourself in?
Because no doubt it’s a pretty interesting time with lots of big moves that can completely rock the road forward.
Most of us are sitting flat footed like forever waiting for guffman when I’d say that there is no better time than now to keep backing yourself in.
What does it mean to back yourself in?
Are you?
Will you?
Backing your win?
Coz, this is ultimately what I’d say on backing yourself in.
Yeah it’s about backing yourself in and getting behind yourself and launching forward but ultimately this is about best driving your winning.
Like Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos there is nobody in the history of the world who has achieved something hard that they truly wanted without first backing themselves in.
You must believe and keep believing and strive and keep striving for as long as it takes to keep driving your winning.
This is only possible when you back yourself in.