Fortune is defined by a culmination of wealth and resources or simply luck influenced by external sources. Well, it doesn’t take fortune to make a fortune. It takes hard work, so when I tell you to make your own fortune, I’m telling you to make your own luck--that’s what will bring you success.

Life beats you down, you need to dust yourself off, shine your shoes, and get back out there. You take enough punishment from others and life itself, so even if you distance yourself from your naysayers, you can never outrun yourself. Take a moment each morning to look in the mirror and realize that you make a difference.

It’s important to give yourself the same respect you need to be giving others. It’s also crucial that you remember that while you’re not perfect, your value comes in the fact that you will be the only you to ever exist. That alone makes you unique, filled with unlimited potential. Respect your boundaries, respect your goals, and respect your integrity.

Suffice it to say, to be a man is almost to endure a shame so great that it eclipses any feeling of achievement or accomplishment. The merit of the self is lost in a sea of collected ire towards a faceless patriarchy. With the blame allotted, there’s no need to take personal responsibility when you can blame the nearest man for your latest misfortune.

As you get older, you start being able to look back through time. Back in Texas, I had the chance to pass by our old house and places we remember very well. It’s amazing how much water has gone under the bridge.

Without making decisions and choices that actively support our pursuits and help further our achievements, we face the treadmill effect--where we can make efforts, but ultimately we get nowhere as we set ourselves back.

You, like most people, probably plan out your day, your week, looking as far as five to ten years ahead. As much as you may invest in those plans, what are the chances they’ll come to fruition? Remember, you are one phone call away from being on your knees. Tragedy can strike in an instant, rendering everything you have in life meaningless.

Each witness has a different story; a different perspective. Some will say it was the truck’s fault, some will say that it was the car’s fault, and you may have one or two who give you a completely different story. You’ll find that most things in life fall somewhere in the middle.

Some of you may or may not be familiar with the experience of heading down to the station in the back of a police car, just waiting for your first mugshot. For those of you who are ignorant of the feeling, I’ll spare you the suspense and tell you it’s terrible. Let’s take a minute to talk about what other kinds of handcuffs you can find yourself in and how they’re holding you back.

It may seem like an impossible goal to accomplish, looking at it this way. Yet, in the face of such daunting odds, it becomes that much more incredible that we are able to set our goals and succeed. Our ability to reach new heights and obtain the finer fruit speaks volumes about our achievements. Look at yourself, are you where you want to be?

When someone tells you to “man up,” they’re telling you to be strong and do what’s necessary. It’s not always easy, and sometimes it requires sacrifice, but the burden of being born a man isn’t privilege, it’s the kind of strength that is impossible to put a value on.

The low hanging fruit is often the easiest, but is it the most appealing? Animals and humans are both prone to going after the fruit that is the easiest to get, the fruit that dangles off the bottom most branches of the tree.

When you walk out the door, the instant your feet hit the pavement there is going to be risk in everything that you do. There is an inherent danger that anything and everything that could happen to you. No matter who you are, you can’t mitigate life. You have every chance in the world of catching a disease or getting hit by a bus. The only thing that makes any difference is you.

We lose our light and vibrancy to the tune of the same drivel we see time and time again. It seems no matter where you go, the song remains the same. When I was in Europe visiting my eldest son, I would be on the train and see these people headed to and from work with a look of absolute defeat and surrender on their faces. The walking dead is a phrase that most commonly is used to describe a zombie but in our case shall be used to describe a person who has succumbed to their tedium.

There’s a lack of respect and awareness for anyone from everyone, but the song remains the same, “respect is earned, not given.” That sounds an awful lot like a credit score. In truth, we build a lot of respect and trust by how we treat others. Someone who views his peers and strangers as inferiors probably demands respect or has a very poor concept of how it works.

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.

Awareness is key into understanding how exactly the givers and takers work. When examining your relationship with someone else, you’ll want to examine how they treat you and treat others around them. Are their motives and interactions self-serving or do they prioritize the well-being and prosperity of others, even if it inconveniences them?