Life is a constant struggle against outside elements and ourselves, how we respond to struggles, trauma, and disappointment. We are just as likely to succumb to ourselves as we are to outside pressure, jeopardizing our ability to cope with hardships as our beatdowns accumulate. When we lose sight of that hope, our will to fight fades. It’s important to remember that if God can give a rat the will to survive, He can give us the means to succeed. It’s a cliche to say that life isn’t fair, and we should expect as much.

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.

When we hold on to our hurts, our wrongs, we build up a well of negativity and bitterness inside of us. This prevents us from doing what God needs us to do and what we need to do for ourselves. We get caught up in our own destructive cycles, putting our grievances before our purpose, losing sight of what’s important. From a psychological standpoint, forgiveness offers us a chance to accept change, and that’s something humans have the hardest time with.

There are two kinds of people in life, those who build you up and encourage you, and those who try to keep you grounded with their healthy dose of reality. They may tell you that “you can’t do _____,” out of fear of your failure rather than the desire to see you not succeed, but the effect is the same.

I genuinely make efforts to be a kind, considerate, and thoughtful person. In trying to be a nice person, I admit I’ve been stepped on and burned for my efforts to be nice, but by doing so I set myself apart from those who practice more unsavory methods. If you run your business with the mindset to treat your employees, partners, and customers with the same degree of kindness and integrity, you’ll create a reputation for yourself that will not go unnoticed.

Anywhere you go these days, tolerance seems to be the new buzzword. Most of us grew up hearing tolerance as something we used when a sibling or classmate was getting on our nerves. Simply put, tolerance is exercised when we put up or ignore something we don’t like. However, tolerance has grown to take on a new shape these days. In a world focused on group hugs and excessive virtue signaling, we find ourselves racing against our fellow man to open our arms to whatever else we can try and “tolerate.”

Don’t try to cut corners because you’ll only make it more difficult for yourself when it all comes out in the wash. If you’re scrimping just to make things go faster or easier, you’re making everything more complicated that it needs to be. If it only costs a little more to keep everything at IRC2015, you’ve made the lives of everyone involved in the project easier. Why, because consistency is an unspoken virtue. It’ll cost you hundreds of dollars to go back and fix it, if something isn’t correct.

There’s no Richter scale for sinning, for mistakes, or for wrongdoings. As humans, we tend to judge another based on our preconceptions of severity for errors and meaningful misdeeds. We may look at an alcoholic, drinking away his life savings as we pack in a few more mini hamburgers, and scold him in our heads. Are these both not examples of gluttony? Everyone, and their brother, has probably told you that people in glass houses should not throw stones. Imagine, there on your lofty hill, seeing someone lying or boasting in the valley below.

By including these kinds of people in your life, your potential and outlook will change drastically for the positive. If you hang around with the best, they bring out the best in you. Misery loves company, if you fill your hours with unsavory activities, you’ll get dragged into their cycle of negativity.

If you live long enough, you’re bound to learn more and more, and it’s amazing how many of us become more religious as we begin to figure it out. When we’re young, we have this superman cape, and as we age, we become wiser and realize we aren’t invincible. We start to fear death; the unknown scares us because we don’t know what we don’t know.

It wasn’t long before my dad told me it was time to get a real job. I got an interview with this lumber company, Stripling Blake. Finally got a job there, took about a month. My official first job with that company was called “yard dog.” I packed concrete, stacked wood. It took a strong back and a weak mind. I went from packing supplies to being the youngest outside salesman by the time I was 21. It’s okay to start at the bottom. What’s important is where you want to go and how hard you’re willing to work to get there. Look at where you are now, and then look at where you want to be. No matter how steep the climb, this journey doesn’t start with you lingering in bed. Shine your shoes, put on your try-hard pants, and get to work.

Someone asked me what the hardest part of being in business is. I thought for a moment. There are plenty of challenging things such as: customers, banks, the occasional coworker, but I would have to say for me is honestly getting up in the morning. Waking up, dusting off your shoes and shining your shoes, and heading out into the beat down of life, it becomes a whole different game—one that isn’t easy to win.

“People are Great!” . . . Think about that. Good people don’t sell magazines and papers. All that magazines and newspapers peddle is sadness, tragedy, and negativity.

Life may seem like it was designed to go wrong. Any amount of little things barraging you with their inconveniences and their setbacks can make you feel bad. Maybe you lost your keys or wallet, maybe your tire goes flat, or maybe you get sick at the worst time possible. But nothing, no force on this earth can effectively prepare you for that one phone call that brings you to your knees.

It was June of 2006, in Mexico and on vacation with some family friends. We got hit with dreaded phone call that someone close to us has cancer. As soon as we got back from the trip, I stopped in to see him. He was someone I spent time with pretty regularly and had frequent contact with. From the day I went to see him in his office to a few months later, now in September, his cancer had become terminal—a 10% chance to survive. We celebrated his 50th birthday, but by January, he was gone.

A cookie cutter world serves no purpose in defining our meaning, which we achieve through self-reflection, adversity, and challenging ourselves to find our passions and talents. You’d walk into a room and say, “Nice shirt,” or “Good work on those spreadsheets, “ and everyone within earshot would say, “thanks,” because absolutely nothing sets you apart. If our differences define us, why wish those away?

“Mind your manners” is something most everyone heard from their parents growing up. Yes sir, no sir, yes ma’am, no ma’am, please, and thank you. The staples of human decency started with your ability to be polite to you superiors, your peers, and anyone around you. At the grocery store? You said thank you for your change. You need help from a clerk? You said please and thank you for the help.

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.

Everyone has them, but nobody is there but you. According to the Larry Dix dictionary, a Pity Party, noun, is any period of time in which the individual indulges in a cycle of grief, wallowing and feeling sorry for oneself. While not limited to any duration or extent, pity parties can range anywhere from 30 seconds to 30 years. While they may feel good at first, soothing hurt feelings, broken pride, or reminiscing on failure, pity parties are ultimately a waste of your time. As a human and entrepreneur, your life is bound to be rife with failures, just as much as the next person’s. What can set you apart from the guy next to you who’s too busy crying to himself over a hiccup in business is your ability to see your success in the middle of your blunders or misfortunes and keep going. Whatever reputation precedes you, the last thing you want to be known as is the guy who gets weepy and weak whenever the circumstances get hard.