Hard times create strong men.
Strong men create good times.
Good times create weak men.
Weak men create hard times.
The quote is from Those Who Remain by G. Michael Hopf, a post-apocalyptic science fiction book.
We create most of the Stages in our lives and how long we will remain in each one!
The Stages of Life have dominated my career over the years but we do NOT have to go through all 4 all the time!
The Strong Stage
“Hard times create Strong men.”
I have owned several businesses over the years, and the first 12 to 18 months are crazy hard. We work 7 days a week, 12 hours a day to get this new business up and running. Every day is filled with challenges and having to do things that scare us. It’s during these first months we have to learn delayed gratification, hard work, discipline, to be comfortable being uncomfortable and personal responsibility. Most of the time, this stage is HARD and Demands a Strong Man or Woman. This stage is all about being uncomfortable and Growing through a struggle that scares you.
The Good Stage
“Strong men create Good times.”
There came a time in each of the businesses where they started producing and didn’t demand the same time and effort. This stage was all about the Harvest of the prior Stage. We started making money, the businesses grew, and broke records. Life became much easier, and we learned to enjoy the spoils of our hard work. The problem was we stopped pushing, stretching, and taking massive action. This Stage is the most deceptive and dangerous because we were living off our PAST effort and not putting in much work to maintain the harvest. This is like the Farmer who gets so excited about the Harvest he forgets to continue planting for the Stage. This Stage is all about Comfort.
The Weak Stage
“Good times create Weak men.”
At this Stage, we are in full-blown denial. This is the place of no action and all excuses, blaming, and whining. We refuse to accept responsibility for what is happing in our lives because it MUST be someone else’s fault. During this time, we lost everything as one of our businesses failed. We were in Stagnation. There was no flow, no effort, no facing our problems. This Stage is all about the Mentality of Entitlement…I Deserve to take time off because of all the hard work I used to do.
The Hard Stage
“Weak men create Hard times.”
A mentor of mine finally got tired of listening to me whine about my life and called me an Idiot! Those words ticked me off, and I got offended at first. It took me a couple of days to realize I was in this mess because of the poor decisions I made. The HARD part was admitting to everyone I was the problem and accepting responsibility for all the debt we owed. It took us 10 years of HARD work to pay off the debt and repair our credit, but it was worth every minute! This Stage is all about Learning from your failures and accepting Responsibility for them.
Your past actions and accomplishments can motivate you to press and push on or become Passive and Pass out!
Stay Strong my friends!
Find Your Passion…Find Your Life!