This week has been interesting for me. It has been a time to reflect on what is important in my life. For an assignment, I was able to deconstruct some of my fears and work out how I would deal with them, should worst case scenario happen and they come true. That in its self was cool because I really saw that I cant control what happens, but I can control how I respond to what happens.

But I also realized what I need to do to get my health right. That is always something I get concerned about. I would say that I have a pretty good foundation for what I need to do, and I have motivation to do it.

These are some answers to a few questions that I was asked to answer.

1.If you pursue your calling with discipline, intentionality, and the help of fellow travelers, what are the chances that your worst case scenario will really happen? I think that if I did these things the likeliness of something bad happening is low. I mean, bad things happen everyday, but I believe the risks go down when you are on the right path trying to do good things.

2. As you look at your list of fears, what themes emerge? What is at the core of what you really fear? Financial ruin? The judgment or disapproval of others? Physical harm? Endangering the ones you love? Embarrassment? The core of what I fear is financial ruin. I never want to put my family in a position where we have to worry about money. I grew up that way and I don’t want it for my kids. I do believe that I am more driven than either of my parents, but still, I don’t want to let my family down.

3. What is the risk of taking no action – not following your calling? How do you plan to deal with fear when it pops up on your entrepreneurial journey? The risk of not acting is the potential loss of a career that I am happy with. Personal and financial freedom may be something else I could lose. I don’t have REALLY big dreams, but big enough dreams to where I want to not worry about simple expenses.

What really struck me in my learning so far this week was a video I watched about Tom Monaghan. Man, what an impressive guy. He grew up in an orphanage, built Domino’s, then decided to basically give all his wealth away. I keep thinking that I’m not so sure I could do something like that. I don’t like as fancy of things as he had, but I do think it would be hard to give it all away.

His example of using wealth to build something bigger than himself or a business is a great example to us all of what we can do if we are successful and work hard. The goal isn’t the money or the job, it’s happiness. Happiness is achieved in the eternity. I know that things don’t make me happy. Things cover my insecurities and things impress people, but things don’t make you happy in the long run. I’m happy to have that reminder this week.

Also, I liked learning about Magdalena Yesil. What an amazing woman and entrepreneur. This woman just really used her skills and talents to propel her forward into achieving anything she set her mind to. I did some more research on her and saw she was the first investor in Salesforce.

I just keep thinking about these amazing people I read about and what makes them different than others. My conclusion is that it is all mindset. These people want success and happiness so bad, they work until they achieve it. They stay positive and learn from all their mistakes and experiences and build on them. I think that their positive mindset allows them to dream big dreams, and their education, work ethic, and desire to learn allows their dreams to become a reality.

This new journey back into school is really challenging for me. Not in the sense that the work is hard, but I have to make time to do the work. I have to sacrifice to make my dreams come true. The combination of my work and school work is about 90 hours a week currently, and it is challenging my work ethic in a good way. I thought I was a hard worker before, but now I’m learning to manage time better, and in someways, I’m learning to say “no”. This experience is good for me and it is a refining experience. I’m glad to be back and working harder than ever.

Creating a life of meaning…wow it seems like a big task. Randy Pausch is one of the most amazing people I’ve ever read about or had the opportunity to listen to. I’ve listened to lots of great podcasts, key notes, speeches, etc…but Randy’s really struck me in a different way.

Randy viewed the world differently than most people. Everything was fun for Randy. He seemed to have such a desire to have fun, to learn, and to inspire others. Randy is the kind of person that, in some way, we all want to be.

He seemed to have achieve every dream he ever set for himself, and I can’t but help wonder if it was all because of his positive outlook on life. Randy, by admission, had a wonderful childhood. I know that part is not insignificant in his journey to achieving his childhood dreams. I think that if all of us have a positive outlook on life, we can all achieve our dreams.

Even up until Randy’s death, he remained positive. Reflecting on his life makes me think about my childhood dreams. In all honestly, I didn’t have a great childhood. I have more bad memories than good, and it all seems sort of clouded in a layer of sadness. But the dream that I always wanted to achieve, and never did, was be a professional wrestler. I grew up admiring the guys I saw on TV. Guys like Randy “Macho Man” Savage, Hulk Hogan, Goldberg, The Rock, and Stone-Cold Steve Austin. These guys were my idols. Strong people who didn’t apologize for who they were and were loved and hated by thousands if not millions of people.

I guess I never achieved it because I never really wanted to. I’m not sure why, but that is the only dream that I can think of. I really have no plan of ever achieving it anymore, but it is fun to think about how much fun I had watching wrestling as a kid.

This week has really taught me about my mindset. I need to act as if I’ve achieved what I want. I need to view life as an experiment and as a blessing. I think I’ve viewed it more as a challenge, and I’m going to stop that. I’m going to be better.

So…..I’m Josh. I was born in San Diego but I grew up in Iowa. I like all kinds of things from Rubik’s cubes to anime to selling things on Ebay and Amazon #fliplife. I’m a father of 2 beautiful daughters and my wife and I have been married over 10 years.

]So what do I have to say??? I’m not exactly sure. I actually started this blog because of a school assignment. So I’m sure you will see school assignments that have to do with me reflecting to stuff that has to do with that, but you will see other things that I’m interested in as well.

The name of this blog has multiple meanings. All hustle and no talent means, to me, that even if you aren’t gifted with whatever it is that you think would make you successful you can overcome that with hard work. Grinding, that’s what gets it done. Nobody owes you or me anything, so we’ve got to go out and get it…EVERYDAY.

So if you like what you read, cool. If not, cool.