I know you want to be great. I know you want to be the best at whatever your craft is. I know you want to be known as someone who is stellar at the work they do. The question is, are you willing to put in the effort, the time, and the sweat to make it all happen?
Kobe Bryant and Michael Jordan are known as two of the greatest basketball players of all time. Were they born with talent? Absolutely. But they also put in more hours in the gym than anyone. Kobe was known to spend hours each and every day in the gym, while Jordan was known to be the fiercest and most intense competitor of all time. These guys put in the effort, the sweat, and the blood to win multiple championships and become the Hall of Famers they are known as today.
Prince and Jimi Hendrix are known as two of the greatest guitarists of all time. Prince would play for hours after his shows ended just to get better. Jimi Hendrix slept with his guitar, and he was rarely seen without it. He would play before and after the shows, and he would endlessly write sheet music. These guys were obsessed with music and being the best at their craft.
Famous inventors like Thomas Edison constantly tinkered with their designs, never resting. Leonardo da Vinci was so obsessed with his art and inventions that thousands of pages of his notebooks were found after he died.
The list goes on. If you name a famous musician, athlete, celebrity, influencer, CEO, business owner, or anyone, I will show you that they were a psycho when it came to their work effort, preparation, and desire to be the absolute best. In some cases, they even went crazy from their own genius.
It's not just genius either. I think this is the piece that gets so mixed up from time to time. I've seen athletes who have half the talent that Jordan had, and they had nice, long professional careers because they were obsessed with their work ethic, and they practiced harder than anyone else. We've all worked with people who we knew were firing with half an IQ, but their desire to learn outworked others.
If you want to be the best, great, but you must be willing to obsess about how to get there. You must be willing to turn off the noise that brings down the success. What do you cut out of your life that allows you to focus on your craft?
Everyone wants to be number one, but few people are actually willing to channel everything into it. There is a lot of sacrifice that comes with getting to the top, and it's not for everyone.
So the real question isn't whether greatness is available to you, it's whether you're actually willing to pay the price for it.
The quiet hours when nobody is watching. The repetition that feels boring. The nights where you choose your craft over comfort, over distraction, over everything else that is easier in the moment. That's where this whole thing separates. Not in talent. Not in opportunity.
How far are you willing to go when it stops being fun?
Because at the end of the day, this isn't about becoming Kobe or Prince or Edison. It's about deciding how serious you are about the version of yourself you keep talking about. You don't need permission, and you don't need perfect conditions. You need reps. You need consistency. You need a level of focus that most people won't understand. So if you're going to say you want it, then go all in and prove it.