Embrace The Suck

In today’s article I wanted to discuss the trials that come with business. I currently have a good friend and a family member that are starting their own businesses. This article is dedicated to them, but I am sure this will ring true to many of my followers.

I can remember a while back when a good friend of mine named Devo, made a decision to go into the Army. He used to be a roadie for my band and we had a lot of good times together. However, after his 21^st birthday he decided he had to do something with his life. He made the decision he was going to join the Army, not only to get his life on track, but to also help him get into shape. You see he was a very large guy, standing about six feet four inches and weighing in at around 300 pounds. I remember the night before Devo left for basic training. Well, I remember the beginning of the night because we threw him a going away party. Devo was scared but excited at the same time. He had that same feeling inside that someone has when starting their own business, because you are excited about the possibilities, but scared at the same time about the unknown.

About six months after Devo left for basic training he came back to visit us. We couldn’t believe how great he looked and what good shape he was in. He must have lost 70 pounds and was solid as a rock. We caught up in between music sets and he was telling me about how hard it was for him going through basic training. Devo explained that he was never really an athletic guy, nor had he ever done any exercising in his life. So when he went to basic training it was a really tough experience. He went on to tell me about his sergeant and all the yelling he had to endure. I remember thinking to myself; I don’t think I could take someone yelling at me like that. When I asked him how he got through it he told me about a saying they had, “Embrace the suck”! Every time he was hurting, he would think about these words and mentally taught himself how to embrace the suck and push through any mental limitation he was trying to set on himself.

It has been decades since then but I still think about Devo and the term “embrace the suck”. I can remember when I was starting my first business and things would get rough, I would think about that term and it would help me push through.

Recently, I just started trying to get back into running. As some of you know, I  severely injured my ankle a couple years back and haven’t been able to get back into the swing of things without reinjuring my ankle. This whole article came to me yesterday while I was running right as I was starting to hit the wall of pain. For those of you who don’t know what that is, it is a term in the running world to describe a point you hit when running. For anyone who has even tried running you are probably familiar with this moment.  The wall of pain, it is the point when you are running and everything is hurting, your lungs, your legs, your feet, I mean everything. Then your mind starts messing with you. You are convinced this is as far as you can run. You begin questioning yourself and why you are even running in the first place.

I bring this up because there are many times in life when you hit that wall of pain. It doesn’t have to be when you are running, or even physical. You can hit the wall of pain mentally, physically, spiritually, or even in a relationship. I have been married to the most wonderful woman in the world for 31 years, but believe me we have had our share of walls of pain throughout our relationship.

When you are in the business world, and probably even more when you own your own business, you will hit the wall of pain multiple times, sometimes even in the same day. You can’t find the work, or when you find the work you can’t get the guys. You have a customer who won’t pay you and then you have to figure out how you are going to pay your team, or your suppliers.  You have a major piece of equipment break down and now you can’t get the job done until it is fixed. These are all examples of the wall of pain at work. It is at this point when your mind kicks in and starts questioning everything. Why am I doing this, I can’t take this anymore, why did I ever go into business for myself, I am not good enough or smart enough, etcetera. It is amazing how much your mind can mess with you, make you question your own capabilities, and destroy your self-confidence.

Here is the thing though, as anyone who is into running knows, if you push through that wall of pain, if you bust down these false barriers your mind inflicts on you, you suddenly start to get this rush of endorphins known as a runners high. You feel better than you ever have and can press on for miles.

The same holds true for business or any other part of your life. If you push through that wall of pain you will achieve amazing success. The one thing you have to keep in mind is that there is no up without down, there is no good without bad, and there is no success without failure. Remember that if it was easy then everyone would do it. You didn’t start down this road thinking it would be easy, you are doing this to transform your life. So “embrace the suck” and push through that wall of pain. When you get through it all you will feel so much better about yourself and what you can achieve. By embracing the suck and pushing through the wall of pain, it will make your victories feel that much better and you will teach yourself how to embrace the suck!