I asked a former NBA player how he knew it was time to retire.

“Dre, when I was coming to the team facility 3 hours early just to get the treatment that allowed my body to feel good enough to make it through practices, I knew that would be my last season in the league.”

Overseas basketball seasons are just as long as the NBA season, just with fewer games. That extra time is filled with practices and training.

I tell people that my favorite place as far as on the court, was Montenegro, where we practiced 10 times and played one game every week. My game was as sharp as ever at that time, with all the shooting drills we did in all those practices.

If you don’t like practicing, don’t play overseas.

And if you don’t like training, foam rolling or submerging 97% of your body in ice, don’t become a professional athlete in any sport. What you see on TV and online is but 3% of the gig.

If all there was to playing professional sports was showing up for the games and posting highlights to YouTube and Instagram, I’d still be playing basketball.

***

My book Work On Your Game was done through a traditional publishing house. 92% of the time between the signing of the contract and the book’s release was spent arguing over the cover design, back and forth editing the writing, and wondering why their wire transfers to me were taking so long.

Someone at another (smaller) publishing company asked me shortly after that book’s release, if I’d consider working with a traditional publisher again.

“It’d have to be a Godfather offer,” I told him.

He chuckled. He didn’t ask me about it again.

***

Business experts say that it costs $4,000 and 52 days for a company to find a new employee, juxtaposing that with the significantly less that it takes to retain the staff you have.

It’s not as easy to quantify time and energy expenditure, not to mention the peace of mind (or lack thereof) that comes with knowing you have a reliable, trained staff member handling certain tasks (or not having one).

I don’t know if anyone has a study on it, but trying to do everything by yourself costs even more. So, you pay the cost to be the boss.

***

Liz Gilbert posed the following question (that she got from Mark Manson) in one of her books: what is your favorite flavor of shit sandwich?

That’s a good question.

Anything you do, even the stuff that looks glamorous, comes with its own brand of shit sandwich. There are no easy jobs.

It’s unavoidable, and creating success is really a matter of which shit sandwich(es) you prefer eating.

Let me explain this in episode #1663: Your Favorite Flavor Of "Shit Sandwich"

Listen here: http://DreAllDay.com/1663-


Listen To The Episode Here