As you operate your business, you realize that changes are necessary. You have to adapt in order to survive in an inconsistent world. The thing becomes an issue when everyone wants these radical changes, and people either love them or hate them. The crucial way to survive this is to set up wins along the way.

People obsess over this model idea of sitting on the beach, cashing in on millions with your phone while your company pulls in millions a year. They see these dreamboat stories on Snapchat or Instagram and it’s suddenly the American Dream of this century. It’s also a great big lie.

Human beings are technically an animal species. Maybe that thought hasn’t occurred to some of you before, but we’re an animal. We may be vastly different that most animals you know, who either swim or walk on four legs, but for the most part we meet all the criteria that make animals animals.

As a businessman, looking into the future is an absolute must. The long term goal is something that weighs heavily in my mind at any point in time. With people relying on me for my trade and my business with employees and their families, I have no choice but to focus on how to keep my business afloat and sailing. Instant oatmeal businesses go as quickly as instant oatmeal.

We trade our fresh sense of curiosity for the comfort of the reassurance that comes from seeing the sun rise for the thousandth time. In every person’s life there comes the night they go to sleep fearing that the sun won’t come up the next day, only to wake up and understand that nothing will impede the sun from making its voyage across the sky. It’s a natural part of life, aging and growing old doesn’t have to be a sentencing, it’s something that can be savored and enjoyed.

No matter what profession or situation you find yourself in, one of the hardest things for us to do is tackle something by ourselves. It’s one of the unspoken difficulties of being a leader, in fact it’s something most people gloss over, but a lot of the time you are looking down the barrel of a gun at whatever challenge is coming up all by yourself. You don’t have the luxury of taking it on with a well-assembled team, you’re out there fighting all by yourself. You have to learn to be okay to do it by yourself.

I like to stress the importance of having people around you who support you and elevate you while pushing you to do your best. By surrounding yourself with people to help you maximize your potential, you’re creating a safety net. I’m sure you’ve seen in a movie or heard someone say “I’ve got your six” or “I’ve got your back.”

You’ve been told by coaches, teachers, friends, instructors, generally anyone with a pulse that “winners never quit and quitters never win.” As cliche as it sounds, it’s important to remember that losing and quitting aren’t the same. Losing is a type of situational criticism, as loss can be our greatest teacher. Sage wisdom doesn’t come from a place of overinflated self-importance, it’s a humble understanding and acceptance of your flaws, your weakness, and the revelation about how to do it better.

As much as you may want to strangle the snot-nosed brat with a beret ordering a 16-syllable drink at Starbucks, you have to realize for every one of them, there are three others who are hardworking and willing to see what the world has to offer. They don’t know the struggles of the past and how the world has changed, to them the world is inconsistent and equally full of threats and wonder.

Hesitation is the most crippling human affliction, it prevents us from taking the chances we need to seize to move forward. Especially in business, people are harmed by their inability to make a decision. For better or worse, the choices you make are more crucial to your business than staying still.

Something taught to me by a business owner I had the pleasure of working with years ago. He said, if you want things to get done, inspect what you expect. What he meant by that is how we should check up on the things we care about. Physically interact with every facet and joint of the business.

When I started in the industry, 40 hours a week was a bare minimum. Suddenly, it seems like 30-32 hours is the official part time company line. Statistically speaking, the people who are bringing in the real money aren’t working 40 hours a week. They’re working 10, 12, up to 14 hours a day for 7 days a week.

Details define and illustrate everything you see and everything you do. In a construction business, they play such a crucial role that even missing the most minute detail can result in disaster. From the engineering aspect to the production and shipping aspect, if the details aren’t correct and confirmed, the whole process can be moot. Just the other day we were preparing an order when we get a call from a fellow asking when he could expect his delivery that day.

If you read something, read it again, and before you commit to memory as a fact, read it somewhere else. The difference between a Facebook post and propaganda is nothing, anymore. No matter what the story is, you’ll hear a different spin from any given news source. It’s hard enough to tell what the truth is.

At the risk of sounding stupid, we withhold our questions and curiosities. As humans, we’ve created this idea that to be inquisitive and display our curiosity publicly, we are showing ourselves to be ignorant and foolish. In reality, this is counter to the truth. Ignorance is a state of being in which misinformation or the lack of knowledge becomes the defining feature of someone/something. By denying ourselves and others of the rewards of curiosity, we perpetuate the idea that it is better to be a closet ignoramus than a momentary one.

All your life you’ve heard that the only thing you can control in your life is your attitude. It makes sense, right? As unpleasant as a day can get, a little attitude can turn it around. Rod Olson wrote this book, “The Legacy Builder,” and in it he asserts that life takes two things, not just attitude. It thrilled me honestly, since one of my biggest beliefs is on hard work and a solid work ethic, to hear that “effort” is the second part of that equation

When someone says that the grass is always greener, it’s usually said in a cautionary tale. When you drive past a farm and you see cows sticking their heads through the fence, eating the grass of the unfortunate fellow living on the other side, these cows don’t realize they’ve probably got their heads stuck. It’s a fun comparison to make, and it sheds light on how we as people are always anticipating the next best thing. We are happy, we are content, and then we are bored. In the context I’ll be speaking about today, I’m going to talk about work.

Comfort is a sign of stagnation. If you aren’t uncomfortable, odds are you’re at a plateau. When you climb up a hill, you’re pushing yourself; you’re straining to achieve greater heights—heights you can’t achieve if you’re strolling across a plateau. When I went to my first Austin Builders Association meeting, there were about 500 people gathered there and I felt really uncomfortable and out of place.

God won’t ask you for your balance sheet when you get to heaven. Today may be a victory, but tomorrow may be a defeat. Your ego can be your worst enemy. There’s nothing stopping you from eventually becoming the butt of your own joke. Be careful, especially that the praise of those around you doesn’t exceed the worth of what you give to them. Humility is a currency worth far more than any boasting or hot air. So, spare yourself the censure and the ego, don’t read your press releases. Do the best job you can, be grateful for the victories and use the defeats as lessons on how to grow.

There are plenty of times when I don’t care, and then there are times when I do. I begin overthinking things, begin to initiate that process and I realize that it’s my perception of what others think of me that is weighing so heavily. It’s not even known quantities of deprecation from my peers or strangers that cause this self-doubt; it’s worrying what others MAY think. I have to remind myself that I can’t know what they are thinking, and I can’t let myself get engaged with this perpetual circle of anxiety.