How to go ALL IN in your Life and Business to Succeed!
(Photo I took at Sutro Baths cave yesterday, see more Sutro pics here on my San Fran Blog. And yes, always realize the end of the tunnel is probably in front of your nose, not light years away.)
Here’s a good inspirational post that will help you get through those tough times.
Let me tell you a story about my life (again) where I had to go ALL IN in my business during times when I had no money but only “desire”
to succeed.
These are the most crucial points in your life where I urge you to go ALL IN, risk EVERYTHING for your dreams.
Like a Poker player, if you want to achieve your dreams, you will have to learn to go ALL IN at the last crucial moment where your life depends on it. It could break you but it may make all of your dreams come true. If you don’t take that chance, you will always be broke anyways.
First of all, I had really two times in my life when I had the chance to go ALL IN.
My Golf Career, where did it go?
First time in my life was when I just graduated from college, I was in the process of going ALL IN with my golf career so I can make it into the PGA Tour. Well, I broke my finger during my ALL IN process. During my recovery, I got a job and my mom also kept telling me I shouldn’t go ALL IN and that I should get a job. (What a bad advice that was at the moment when all I need her to tell me was to keeping going until I fail.)
That was probably one of the biggest mistakes I made because I never had the “chance” to go ALL IN fully nor find out if I was capable of making the PGA Tour. Thinking of which now, I think I am capable, I just need to break through by trying again very soon.
After that, a lot of things went south and I kept getting distracted with regular life. After a couple years, I wasn’t even playing golf that much, let alone playing competitive golf.
That was the first time I could have kept going but simply people around me weren’t as supportive. Everyone including my family and friends told me getting a “job” after college was the right thing to do. It’s true, sometimes you must be the one who needs to be strong no matter what anyone says.
I think back now and I know that I could have made the PGA Tour, perhaps already famous as Tiger and other guys. It’s totally my mistakes though, I never hung on after breaking my finger, I should have kept trying, trying, and trying.
But don’t be sad, the good thing is that I have actually been starting to get back on that path again, may be playing PGA TOUR in the next 5 years or so. I am just glad golf is a sport that can be played until the moment you die, unlike other sports where you will retire before the age of 40.
Again, this failure to follow through the tough times haunts me till this very day I wake up. At the time, I was playing fairly well, capable of shooting 66 on any given day. Well, let’s hope I get back on track soon, you can follow my goals on my golf blog.
My Blogging Career, 2nd time around, I risked EVERYTHING!
Another time in my life where I had to go “ALL IN” was my blogging business.
About 2 years ago, I had a “dream” that one day I could run a network of blogs and make money for a living. Well, I thought that dream would take me another 3 years to realize.
Something happened to me at that time, I lost my job. But I still had my network of blog that didn’t make enough money to pay for rent. Perhaps, that’s the best thing that happened to me because if I didn’t lose my job then, I would have kept trying to make money blogging, not as hard.
During the 3 months that ensued, I turned my blogging business completely around. I worked 24/7 at home, just blogging away at bunch of blog posts. Also, I found that I could make 5-10 times more money by optimizing my Adsense ads, placing them where it’s simply more visible to visitors.
After 3 months of losing my job, I was able to bring my online income to around $4000-5000 from $600 a month, allowing me to pay rent, debts, and keep going with my blogging business.
That was probably the most crucial time of my blogging career as if I gave up during that time I had credit card debt collectors calling me, I would be working for someone else right now. I literally had barely enough money, food and rent was paid using cash advances on my credit cards!
Instead, I kept telling myself, “you can do it, just do it, kick ass”. And eventually I did but don’t get me wrong, I was really stressed out because if I didn’t make it, I had NOTHING to fall back on. My credit card debts were reaching its limited near $50K and some days I felt so depressed I wanted to jump out my 12th floor window and kill myself. That was more pressure than any golf tournament pressure I felt because it was simply live or die.
I was so busy working on blogging, I didn’t see most of my friends for like 3 months straight. All I did was work, drink, work, and drink.
Perhaps it would have helped if I didn’t drink but I was drinking to relieve the stress and pressure I was facing from trying to go “ALL IN”.
Why did I go “ALL IN”?
It still haunts me that I never got to fully go “ALL IN” my golfing career, I was determined to not let that happen again.
The outcome is surprising to me because I never expected that I would succeed.
After that incident, I have a ton of confidence in myself that I will succeed in anything I try.
My Advice to You
You may have similar experiences where you want something but family/friends influence you to do something else. I’d say fu** all them and do what you really *want* to do. That is my advice for being happy in life.
If you have a passion for something in your life whether that’s starting a new restaurant or even becoming a professional basketball, by all means, go ALL IN if you want to even have a speck of chance of succeeding.
If I didn’t lose my job 2 years ago, it would probably have taken me another 2 years to achieve my dream. But because I lost my job, I HAD to make myself perform in just couple months, and I did. My dream was realized about 2-3 years quicker than I have ever imagined.
Sometimes life is like that, you will come to a crosspath where you can either go ALL IN or play safe.
If you are passionate about succeeding in something, go ALL IN.
If you play safe, you will never get to take that chance ever again. (Perhaps later in life but it won’t be the same)
Just think if 10 years later you’d regret that you didn’t take that chance to prove yourself and go ALL IN.
Most of people in the world still never take that chance, number one reason why people still have jobs and work for someone else.
Don’t let that be you. If you work HARD enough, SMART enough, you can accomplish your dreams QUICKER that you can ever IMAGINE.
Well, I hope this blog post inspires you to go ALL IN whatever you are capable of. Trust me, if you haven’t had this kind of situation before, you will have it soon.
Just make the right choice. It took me 2 years to realize that at some point I simply needed to do what “I” want to do in life and that’s not working for another person but for myself.
If you do succeed, don’t forget to write me an e-mail, I will post it on my blog. 
Tags: business, go all in, goals, how to, life
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