My dad is 5’9”. Mom is 5’7”.
I’m 6’4”.
For a basketball player: Good Luck.
There were no entrepreneurs in my environment — at least, not any who taught anything about owning a business, investment, or creating something from nothing.
For a future entrepreneur: Bad Luck.
Though we didn’t have any luxuries, one thing in abundance in my home growing up was books. I’ve always been a reader, and that reading made me a prolific writer.
For a future author of 25 books (and these daily articles): Good Luck.
I’ve trained plenty of basketball players who didn’t have money. Their parents wrote the checks.
There are parents out there who will spend a lot on their kids’ sports dreams. It’s truly admirable.
The total amount my parents spent on my basketball progress, from high school to local teams to college to pro exposure camps to trainers to self-training programs: $0.
For a kid with hoop dreams: Bad Luck.
I listen to business podcasts every day. Sometimes there’s a young success story, a 21-year old who’s running a full-time business and knows a lot of stuff that I didn’t learn until the other side of 30.
How’d they learn so much so early? Their parents were entrepreneurs who helped them get started.
For them: Good Luck.
I played for 3 basketball coaches in college. The third was a guy who came in and “cleaned house” in the basketball program.
I was one of the best players on campus. But, I’d played for the previous coach. The old coach and new coach didn’t like each other much.
Guilty by association: Bad Luck.
***
Circumstance: a fact or condition connected with or relevant to an event or action.
99% of your life is circumstance.
Where, when and to whom you were born.
The environment you grew up in.
The family members who influenced your upbringing.
The good or bad genetic luck you inherited (general health, body type, eyesight, propensity to disease, etc.)
Being in the right or wrong place at the right or wrong time.
Even the circumstances that you “create” are not as much under your control as the normal motivational message would have you think they are.
I “created the circumstance” of putting workout videos online before anyone else had done it; to this day people recognize me in the streets from those.
But... I didn’t control the fact that no one else had done it before me. I didn’t invent basketball, video recording, or YouTube.
...Or that hardly anyone ever came into the gym that I recorded 99% of those videos in.
...Or the bad luck that I was many times an unemployed pro basketball player who had the time and space to make all those damn videos.
Looking back on your life, if you really thought about how little control you’ve had over circumstance — I’m talking about the stuff that worked out in your favor — you’d realize just how powerless you really are.
The only thing you actually control is the choices you make in the decision tree of your life.
You’ve seen a decision tree before.
It poses a question to you; you answer (or often a “Yes” or “No” question, but not always). Based on your answer, the decision tree sends you in a certain direction. Then again, and again, and again. Eventually you arrive at a final solution or “decision.”
Circumstances are the the “questions” of your life’s decision tree. How you respond to those circumstances sets up the next question.
——
EXAMPLE DECISION TREE (For the Lucky ones)
Would you like to be an entrepreneur?
Yes.
Is one of your parents an entrepreneur?
Yes.
Would your father teach you everything he knows?
Yes.
Would your parents give you $15,000 to start your business?
Yes.
Congratulations! You’re now in business.
EXAMPLE DECISION TREE (For the Unlucky ones)
Would you like to be an entrepreneur?
Yes.
Is one of your parents an entrepreneur?
No.
Would your father teach you everything he knows?
I don’t know my father.
Would your parents give you $15,000 to start your business?
Ha. Hell no. They don’t even have it.
Can you afford college?
Uh, I’m not sure.
Do you know any entrepreneurs?
Do the drug dealers count?
Ok — you can be an entrepreneur, but you’ll need to get the knowledge and experience all on your own. That will take 5-15 years. Good luck!
This is a raw example of how two people with the same goal can have two completely unique paths.
——
The final “decision” of your life, the bottom of the decision tree, is death.
Your tombstone will share brief highlights of your decision tree choices. Most of what’s not documented (in the form of audio, videos, books, photos) will be forgotten.
People like to tell you that you can “make” your circumstances. People who become successful enough to tell their story like to boast that that’s exactly what they did — which means you can and should do the same.
That’s not the whole truth. You don’t “make” all your circumstances.
What you can actually do: choose the decisions you make, given the circumstances at hand.
You have this power every day.
Look far enough into your future, and make enough choices that are aligned with your desired “decision,” and you can maneuver the decision tree to where you want things to end up.
This will take shorter or longer for different people, based on where and how you’ve begun.
Here’s the key for your understanding: don't allow anyone’s story or preaching make you feel like you’re just not as powerful in “shaping circumstance” as they are.
We all have unique trees to work through.
Check out the following MasterClasses on decision making and circumstances:
#432: Never Let Circumstance Know it's Kicking Your Ass
#1330: How To Overpower The Circumstances Of Life
#1162: How To Take More Control Over Circumstance
#542: NEVER Allow Negative Situations to Get You Down
#541: Problem-Solving: Going to The Source Of A Situation
Get full access to all of these, plus another 1,355 more, in the Game Group Membership. I’ve set aside a FREE 14-day trial membership for you here: http://WorkOnMyGame.com/GameGroup
FREE 14-Day Trial Membership For You Here
#WorkOnYourGame