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Starting Late? Here's Why You'll Go Further Than Everyone Else · Harder Than Life

• 0:01
  Now at Lowe's, faster quotes start at the Lowe's Pro Desk. Got a material list handwritten on a sticky note or saved us a photo? Perfect. Bring it to us and get a quote in minutes. And if you don't see what you need on the shelf, we'll help you get it. You can access thousands of products beyond what's available in-store or on Lowe's.com, right from the Lowe's Pro Desk. Build quotes faster and source the materials you need to keep your jobs moving. Just like that at Lowe's.
• 0:30
  The most dangerous version of feeling behind is feeling behind in someone else's race. And who cares about those people anyway? Get clear on where you're going. Every job taught you what you don't want. They gave you data. Every hard season that built your capacity for pressure gave you more data. So the gap you feel is not evidence of your failure, it's an evidence of your ambition.
• 0:56
  and ambition aimed correctly is unstoppable. You're not behind anymore, you're just getting started. I always say this, don't stand on the tracks when the train's coming through. I'm the train and I'm coming. I'm not stopping until I get what I came for or something better.
• 1:18
  Those of you who are watching and you tune in every single week, please smash that subscribe button. We are focused on growing that for you to get bigger and better guests. I appreciate it. It means the world to me and our team breathing into you. If you're watching this on YouTube, Apple Podcasts, or Spotify, subscribe on that platform. When you feel behind, you're closer than you think.
• 1:48
  Something nobody else is gonna tell you today. That feeling that you're behind, it's not a sign you failed. It's a sign you care. It's a sign you give a damn. In a world full of people who stopped caring, that's your competitive advantage. Let's leverage it. Why the people who feel the most behind are closest to their breakthrough, we're gonna provide a framework
• 2:17
  for using that pressure as fuel instead of letting it bury you. So if you're feeling behind, this is the episode for you. We're gonna cover three things in this episode. First one will be why late starters almost always win. The second point is the mindset shift that separates catch up from quit. And finally, the third is the one question you need to ask yourself.
• 2:47
  Welcome to the Heart and Life Podcast, another solo episode with me, trying these a little different. I am literally all alone today. No producer, no nothing, very few notes, things set up everywhere. It is Saturday night and I'm chasing my dream. So starting late isn't a disadvantage. It's a filter. It's a filter.
• 3:13
  Most people who start early waste it. They move slow because they feel safe. The person who starts late moves with urgency, more intentional, no luxury of screwing around. That pressure, that little pitter patter, the butterflies you feel in your heart, yep, that's you. You know that.
• 3:39
  that you're meant for so much more, that's not a weight on your back, that's a rocket behind you. And I'm not blowing smoke up your behinds, people. I've sat across from enough people who thought their window had closed and it hadn't. I know what separates
• 3:59
  The ones who come back from the ones who don't. Remember, today is gonna be a call up, not a call out. I also wanna remind you, a lot of times, it's better to be the second one to market. Just think of, what is it? Think of Facebook over MySpace.
• 4:21
  Think of Lyft over Uber. The first one, the first company has to bear all the R&D as well as failures. And it's that first bird in the flock that's cutting them when he's working the hardest. So let that sink in for a quick second. We're going to talk about the compression effect. When your timeline shortens, something happens to your decision making.
• 4:47
  The noise falls away. You get ruthlessly clear on what matters most. I like to take in, I've never taken guitar lessons, but I've studied a lot of people that do because I've always wanted to be musically inclined. I like literally couldn't, I tried out for band in elementary school. I couldn't even play the flute. I was terrible. But if you think about it, if you say, I want to become...
• 5:14
  good at playing guitar, and you give yourself 10 years to do so, you'll pick it up twice a week, you'll cancel on yourself, you'll give yourself grace when you don't, and then you might just quit. But you said, I want a masters, I want to be able to play a tune in 12 months. You'll practice every day, you'll hire a teacher, and you'll get obsessed. And then each time
• 5:41
  you cross a checkpoint where you get a little better, it'll rocket fuel you into the next one. So, fueling behind creates that 12 month energy whether you realize it or not. There's a great book called The Science of Scaling. It talks about how give yourself unrealistic timelines and
• 6:03
  cross out every single excuse of why you can't do it. You will move mountains to get it done. So that feeling behind energy, it will create the amplification that you need to go forward. So the problem isn't that you're behind, it's that you're not thinking big enough. And you're letting the story that you're behind drain the energy that could get you there. It also, what do they call that?
• 6:33
  It's not progress over perfection, but it's the paralysis through analysis. Oh my goodness, do I do this all the time. I'm gonna give you several examples of people who started late, and these are people you know. And some of these you may have heard of, some of them I think you'll be very surprised. The first one, I love this one, because who doesn't love themselves some Colonel Sanders, some KFC chicken.
• 7:02
  He started a franchise at 62. He had failed at a service station and multiple careers. He had tried multiple things. He was living on social security checks when he began pitching that chicken recipe. He built a global franchise
• 7:24
  into his 60s and 70s. My takeaway from Colonel Sanders is he didn't need motivation, he needed standards and persistence. This one you may not have heard of, his name is Ray Kroc, and he was the man behind the man. So he joined McDonald's at age 52. He was a milkshake machine salesperson before that.
• 7:52
  He scaled the franchise model to a global empire. He didn't invent McDonald's. He engineered the system for all the franchises. That's what starting late with wisdom does for you. The older founders have systems thinking. And remember what I say about systems. Systems stands for save yourself time, energy, money, and stress. So way to go, Ray Kroc.
• 8:22
  Here's one I know that you've heard of, and I would be dismissed if I didn't say it. Sam Walton started Walmart at age 44. Built the largest retail empire in the world in his 50s and 60s. Most people think at 44, they're settled in. That's it. And he was just getting started. Way to go, Sam. Here's one.
• 8:51
  Vera Wang. She entered fashion design at 40. And it became a luxury bridal empire. This was her second career, and it can outperform the first ones when clarity replaces ego. And my favorite of the bunch, Henry Ford. He had multiple failed companies in his 30s. He founded Ford Motor Company at 40.
• 9:21
  He didn't win until repeated failure hardened him. Sound familiar? Harder than life? Failure wasn't a stop sign. It was training. And he refused to let his dream die. So the real pattern was none of these people were overnight successes. They had experience.
• 9:48
  pain, pattern recognition, resilience, less need for approval, higher tolerance for boredom.
• 9:59
  That's an advantage that most 25 year olds don't have yet. Now if you're 25 and listen to this, start now. Remember to, as we're older, you know, guys remember I'm 50. When we say I'm too old, I'm set in my ways, it's what we're really saying is I don't wanna start over. I don't wanna look back. I don't wanna lose status.
• 10:22
  I don't want to fail publicly. Age isn't the problem. Your ego is. The most dangerous version of feeling behind is feeling behind in someone else's race. I just gave you five people. And it's just for motivation, people.
• 10:38
  It's just to say if they did it, we can too. If I'm doing it, you can too. I'm just a poor kid, grew up on 8 Mile that probably shouldn't even be there. So I know what you're saying. All right, Kelly, you don't ever give me a problem and don't give me the solution. So here we go. Here's the framework. These are the three steps of what I used to get going. And I want you to guess if you're driving, hit record,
• 11:08
  Pull over, write these down. This is important. The first step, audit the race you're running. Remember, what you measure gets better. Before you close the gap, know which gap you're actually trying to close. That literally is clarity. So what am I actually trying to achieve? Most people are sprinting towards a finish line someone else drew, could be your parents,
• 11:35
  could be what everybody, your friends are doing. So I want you to say whose timeline and whose path are you going down? Instagrams, your younger self, who didn't even know better? So what does caught up actually look like to you? Not them. Pro tip.
• 12:01
  Now at Lowe's, faster quotes start at the Lowe's Pro Desk. Got a material list handwritten on a sticky note or saved as a photo? Perfect. Bring it to us and get a quote in minutes. And if you don't see what you need on the shelf, we'll help you get it. You can access thousands of products beyond what's available in-store or on Lowe's.com right from the Lowe's Pro Desk. Build quotes faster and source the materials you need to keep your jobs moving. Just like that at Lowe's.
• 12:31
  Make sure that it's important to you and it really fires you up. I went down a path that was not my own for a minute, electrical engineering to appease my grandfather, and I hated it. So I switched and now I'm in IT.
• 12:51
  So make sure that you write this down. Write down where you're gonna end up. How many times have you ever gone to a place without putting the address in your GPS? This would be like not putting somebody's address in your GPS. You're just gonna aimlessly wander all over. Nobody would do that. So if you can't write it down in one sentence, you don't know what you're chasing. Clarity, be crystal clear and be specific.
• 13:20
  Remember, be smart, specific, measurable, attainable, realistic, and timely. Smart. Step two, you got it? Again, step one was audit the race you're running. Be clear on your goals. Step two, calculate the real starting line. People count the years they wasted without counting those times.
• 13:43
  years that they were building. Edison said he didn't fail 10,000 times. He figured out 10,000 ways that it wasn't going to work. And actually that still moves you forward because you check all those off and you keep going. Every job taught you what you don't want. They gave you data. Every failed relationship showed you your patterns, more data.
• 14:08
  Every hard season that built your capacity for pressure gave you more data. How much can you tolerate? Boom! You didn't start at zero. You started loaded with information that people ahead of you don't have. I'm starting over. I'm starting wiser. Stop discounting your experience because it doesn't fit on a highlight reel.
• 14:34
  Guys, full disclosure, this is how I feel with the podcast right now. We're doing year four. I know exactly where we're going. I know exactly what success looks like. And the real starting line is the day that I've released the first podcast. Now, when I thought about it, because the prep and everything was before that. It wasn't the two years of recording videos.
• 15:00
  So I've been at this three years, this is year four. I'm gonna be number one in the podcast arena before I'm done. Step three, shrink the window on purpose. Take whatever goal you've been slowly working towards, cut the timeline in half. Yes, in half. Not because it's realistic,
• 15:26
  Because urgency is a skill and you need to practice it. And that urgency will make you work harder. You won't take days off. You won't say tomorrow I'll start. You'll get started today. When you cut that window, you'll make decisions you would have delayed for months and years. You stop waiting for the perfect conditions. You start right now and you create the perfect conditions. Progress over perfection.
• 15:55
  People who catch up the fastest don't have more talent. They have more urgency. Urgency is a choice. Keep in mind, not one time in this podcast did I say I needed to be lucky. Not one time. To recap the three steps. Audit the race you're running.
• 16:17
  Calculate your real starting line and shrink your window on purpose. If this sounds remotely familiar, I borrowed some of it from Elon Musk. Not saying I'm for Elon, I'm against me, but the guy is a genius. If you're sitting there behind right now, hear this. People, I feel like this right now. This is why I'm recording this.
• 16:42
  I am literally practicing, I'm drinking this Kool-Aid and I'm sharing what I'm doing with you. So the gap you feel is not evidence of your failure, it's an evidence of your ambition. And ambition, aimed correctly, is unstoppable. That literally is the definition of harder than life. The question isn't whether you're behind, the question is,
• 17:09
  behind on whose timeline and towards what, and who cares about those people anyway. Get clear on where you're going. You're not behind anymore, you're just getting started. And remember, I always say this, don't stand on the tracks when the train's coming through. I'm the train and I'm coming. And I'm not stopping until I get what I came for or something
• 17:38
  Guys, please share this with someone who needs to hear it. Not later, right now. The person in your life who's been hardest on themselves. This might change their week or their life. I want them to go deeper. There's going to be a link in the description for this. See you on the next one. Remember, be harder than life.
• 18:00
  Please rate and share this podcast. I'm active on all social platforms and love to hear from my Segal supporters. Each and every episode is sponsored by my company, National Technology Management, the easiest and best IT company to do business with, delivering peace of mind with technology every day, even simplifying cybersecurity. Visit TrustNTM.com for more info. Until next week, be harder than life.