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We just got back from Las Vegas. Jagger stayed home with Mama Sofia, so it was just Courtney and me. She was featured at CrimeCon for her true-crime podcast, Forensic Tales. I stepped back from the loud casino floor to watch her smile at her booth. She was glowing. She was finally living her “Champagne Dream”. It was completely surreal to witness.
Seeing her shine took me back to the exact moment my own business dream came true. But the contrast also dragged me right back to the very dark place where my journey started. It was Christmas of 1999 in Los Angeles… I was home from UC Irvine, studying hard to be an engineer. Then the phone rang. My Uncle Jose never called. “Is your brother home? You need to get over as fast as you can,” he said. I drove over there, heart pounding. A police car was in the driveway. The officer walked up to me. “You need to call the coroner's office,” he said. I blacked out. My brother Richard was gone. The trauma sent me into a total tailspin. I was eating Carl's Jr. every single day. I completely stopped caring about my body. I was drinking heavily just to numb the intense pain.
I was a classic “Soft CEO”. I looked like I was holding it together on the outside, but my internal operating system was crashing hard. A lot of guys I coach are doing the exact same thing right now. You're paying the Exhaustion Tax. You use food or a drink at 6:00 PM to numb the chaos of your day. You assume it's a lack of willpower. It's not. It's a biological leak in your system. You're red-lining your engine. Look out for my email on Saturday. I'll show you the exact “circuit breaker” that pulled me out of the darkness.
P.S. Vegas was great, but I definitely missed my little guy. And maybe Kona too… but mostly Jagger. Sorry Kona. |
