How one comment can change your life
A look at the power of belief
Do you know what this is?
It’s a device that measures your sit and reach distance.
The sit and reach, along with pull-ups/shuttle run/mile run/sit ups, is part of the Presidential Fitness Challenge that we all had to do in high school. We all had one of those damn challenges that kept us from ever winning that badge. For me, it was the pull-ups. 🤪
In my junior year, our P.E. teacher (who was also the football coach) told me I broke the sit and reach record. I had stretched 13 inches pass my toes and I while I highly doubt this was a record, I was feeling good. What happened next would change the next year of my life. After the sit and reach it was time for the shuttle run, the one where you run short distances back and forth between the cones to measure speed and agility. Coach Maffet clocked my time and slyly muttered “Meyer, you could go out for the football team with that time!”
As a 17-year-old high schooler, I heard, “John, you’re going to be a football star!”
Three months later I decided to go out for football.
I was a great backup football player.
I ended up as the kicker and spent lots of time on the sidelines that season, go Bobcats! But for those four months I got to experience the culture of Friday Night Lights and the Americana of small town, high school football. All of this happened because of that simple comment. What Coach Maffet truly said to me was…
“I believe in you.”
Belief can change your life
Six years later the power of belief changed the trajectory of my life.
I was unhappy, working a corporate job in Minneapolis. I was just six month into my career, but I knew what I was doing wasn’t for me. My brother was living in Norway after graduate school and living visa by visa from the Norwegian government being a tour guide and bartender. We both were restless and in search of a new direction.
We found a grant competition through the economic development department of our home state of South Dakota. The competition was to submit your business idea for the chance to win $15,000. The money came with two stipulations:
Start a business that involved technology.
That business has to be based in South Dakota.
We spent the next five days brainstorming, drawing on the back of a napkin, and completing our application for that $15k. Guess what? We got it!
My first day of entrepreneurship picture.
At the time we thought the $15k was a HUGE deal. Years later, that amount wouldn’t even cover a payroll at Lemonly. But as I reflect on that moment in my life, it wasn’t about the money, it was about South Dakota saying…
“We believe in you.”
Go believe in someone
Playing football didn’t change my life, but it created a lot of memories. Becoming an entrepreneur and moving back home to South Dakota absolutely did change my life. This is the power of belief
Our world has a lack of belief. Today, we are so quick to decide something can’t work — an idea is too big, a project is too expensive, or a dream is too impossible. We are void of belief. People are afraid to dream.
I want to challenge you to go believe in someone. Belief doesn’t have to be expensive like a $15,000 check. Belief doesn’t have to be time-consuming. Belief can be a simple statement — you could go out for football!
Oh, one more really important thing, before you put your believe in someone else — believe in yourself.
With belief
John
I’m building a YouTube channel
After years of tweeting and podcasting, I have a goal of building a YouTube channel in 2024. I’m working on creating long-form, video content and a goal of getting 1,000 subscribers to my channel (click here to subscribe if you want to support that goal)
This is the first educational, long-form video I created about why your business needs a 3-legged-stool of sales growth. Give it a watch.
