Till I Collapse

’Cause sometimes you just feel tired

Feel weak and when you feel weak

You feel like you wanna just give up

But you gotta search within you

Try to find that inner strength and just pull that sh*t out of you

And get that motivation to not give up

And not be a quitter, no matter how bad

You wanna just fall flat on your face and collapse

• Eminem, “Till I Collapse”

There aren’t many songs in the world that resonate with me like this one.

I’ve always liked rap music, but not for the same reasons most people do.

To me, it’s much bigger than that.

Rap music has lifted so many people out of poverty.

It’s created opportunities for people through sheer work-ethic.

To me, it’s the perfect representation of what it means to “hustle”.

So many rappers didn’t have 2 nickels to rub together, but that never stopped them from writing rhymes and honing in on a craft.

They literally use rap to create something out of nothing.

And that’s what I love about it.

It’s no different than writing blogs, like I do.

And obviously, anyone who starts writing isn’t good at it at first.

I was horrible when I first started.

But I kept working at it.

I kept chipping away at my craft and learning how to become better at it.

It’s always been hard though.

It’s never come easy.

The hardest part about a creative endeavor like writing is simply having to write, and write, and write, without really seeing any results for a LONG time…

So many days I don’t feel like writing, or shooting another video for my business, or coming up with a creative caption for my videos.

These are daily struggles for me, just as they are for any new rapper, or country artist, or author, or really anybody trying to create something out of nothing.

Anyone trying to build something has to deal with the monotony of doing something repetitively without results, for a long period of time.

That’s why I admire rappers who consistently put out new songs, new mixtapes, new albums, new singles, etc.

They are hustling with no guarantee that it will ever payoff.

They are testing the market constantly, refining their craft day-after-day, and for the most part, the ones who are willing to work until they collapse, will end up being successful.

And that’s one truth I’ve learned in life…

If you don’t quit, and you stay consistent, eventually, you will win.

If you simply outlast all of the thoughts in your head telling you to slow down, you will eventually breakthrough.

This is true everywhere in our lives.

You don’t write a “hit single” your first time picking up a pen.

You don’t make a viral video your first time picking up a camera.

You don’t become Mr. Olympia your first time picking up a dumbbell.

These accomplishments only happen if you are able to work through all of the days where “nothing seems to be happening”.

The days where you feel like your labor and your energy was “wasted”.

But, laboring in a creative direction, is always rewarded, it’s just never rewarded quickly.

The only people that succeed in creative endeavors adopt the rapper mindset of, “till I collapse”….

And it’s not necessarily exhaustion of effort that wears people out, it’s the expectation of results.

People quit when they are so close to achieving their dream because they aren’t seeing the results yet.

You have to fall in love with your craft before you ever see any results.

You have to love the process and what you become because of it.

You have to write each blog with the hopes that it reaches just ONE PERSON.

You have to carefully make your videos hoping it adds value to the life of ONE PERSON.

That’s where it starts.

One person bobbing their head to your new mixtape.

If you focus on small wins like that, eventually, that one person shares your work with someone else.

And then that person shares it with another.

And then all of a sudden, you have momentum.

When you have that you can start reaching more people than you had ever imagined.

I think about this constantly in my own business.

I’m not trying to “go viral” with every video.

I’m not trying to get a blog in Fortune magazine.

I’m just trying to help one person.

Then one more.

And then, you guessed it… one more.

Until I literally collapse from exhaustion it means that I need to keep my head down and do one more….

And so do you.