Go harder…

Yesterday, during practice 61 with a team of shit kickers, we began with my challenge to the team to finish authoring their opus. I asked the team of nine which one wanted to share their progress. Richland couldn’t wait to give me some truth. “I’m not doing it,” he said with some serious shoot in his eyes. I asked him to tell me more. “My opus isn’t going to happen here. Putting it on paper isn’t going to help.”

Richland wasn’t lying. I appreciated his honesty and told him so. I told him I understand where he’s coming from and it’s quite common. The world, remember, is filled with laborers. Some are highly paid. Most are not. Either way, all laborers lose energy as they work and wind down in some bottle or wind up in some corner office which looks good even though the occupant is crumbling down inside. So, I told him a part of my story. It seemed to sear some, so, here it is for you.

I told the team of nine I recalled early in BTL when my largest client fired me for talking about God too much and dressing up too little. Shortly after this firing I was sitting in the most prestigious law firm listening to another client tell me I didn’t know what it was like to be a black man, work my way up to the pinnacle of prominence only to discover I loathed the practice of law. He told me he wasn’t gonna work on his CORE or author any kinda opus either. We had worked together for six months and he fired me. It was a good firing but it felt like death at the time…

I can remember sitting in the parking lot and feeling a tear moistening my cheek and then another one. I remember thinking and wondering if anybody was ever gonna hire me and do the hard work I imagined was the work it took to become BTL. I sat there frozen in fear. I thought about all the experts who had told me that nobody was gonna buy what I was selling. Doubt was creeping up from my bowels and my knees were beginning to buckle. So, I can remember praying, turning the ignition and heading home.  I remember thinking maybe I should settle, maybe I should calm it down, maybe I should compromise and, like a drug dealer, just give my audience what they so desperately want. And, as I prayed for clarity, talked to some truth tellers, and slept on some lonely nights alone with my thoughts, I began to deepen my belief in this work. I decided I was not gonna settle, instead, I would go harder.

Go harder.

This provided me the way toward my dream not toward settling. I went harder after my clients early and often. I didn’t want them to fire me in 6 months, I was after 6 days. I became tougher. I decided my problem wasn’t that I needed better clients. My problem was I needed to become a better builder. And so I did.

I still am.

You see, dreams don’t come true because of how much you wish them to. Dreams come true because of how hard you exert your will toward making them happen. You gotta push. You’ve got to pull. You’ve got to practice and work at mastering your craft. You’ve got to go harder. Today, I went hard. I pushed my client at 7, the same with my client at 8:30, no different than the defensive one at 10, or the very friendly little fricker at noon. Today, like every day in this work, I decide to go harder. My problem, not unlike yours, is I like to go easy. I like to avoid the hard stuff. Over time, however, I am learning to lean into the acute stuff and test my beliefs. As I lean in, something kinda cool has been happening. My clients, practices, and business are getting better.

Want a better team? Become a better leader. Go harder. Point the finger at yourself, friend. Get after it instead of watching others grapple. Go harder. Good…