You Must Find a Way to Stay Hungry

When you were hungry you did whatever was necessary. It didn’t matter if something was ridiculously difficult or not, you employed all of your initiative and all of your resourcefulness to find a way or make one.

When you were hungry, no challenge was too great. You needed to make things happen, and you turned yourself inside out to do the impossible.

But you are no longer hungry. When something is difficult, you avoid it, instead of digging deep and getting it done. Now, when you encounter the “ridiculously impossible” you employ all of your initiative and resourcefulness in identifying all the reasons you “can’t” or “shouldn’t” do whatever is necessary.

When you are already uncomfortable, doing things that are uncomfortable and difficult is easy. But once you allow yourself to lose the hunger, you don’t want to return to discomfort.

The problem is that you have competitors who are still hungry. They are already uncomfortable, and they are willing to do what you are unwilling to do. The things that you call “impossible,” they call “how we win.” This is how you end up being competitively displaced.

The status quo is complacency. Being exceptional means never growing complacent, never allowing the status quo to take hold, and staying hungry when it is easy to slip into the warm comfort of “how we do things now.”.

You can’t let anyone want “it” more than you want “it.” You must find a way to recall how it felt to be hungry, and revert to the resourcefulness and initiative that defined you back then. If you need motivation, just imagine how it would feel to lose the comfort you have now. It would feel a lot worse than being hungry the first time around because back then you didn’t know any different.

The difference between the professionals and poseurs is that the pros find a way to stay hungry.