“The Struggle is when you wonder why you started the company in the first place.

The Struggle is when people ask you why you don’t quit and you don’t know the answer.

The Struggle is when your employees think you are lying and you think they may be right.

The Struggle is when food loses its taste.

The Struggle is when you don’t believe you should be CEO of your company. The Struggle is when you know that you are in over your head and you know that you cannot be replaced. The Struggle is when everybody thinks you are an idiot, but nobody will fire you. The Struggle is where self-doubt becomes self-hatred.

The Struggle is when you are having a conversation with someone and you can’t hear a word that they are saying because all you can hear is the Struggle.

The Struggle is when you want the pain to stop. The Struggle is unhappiness.

The Struggle is when you go on vacation to feel better and you feel worse.

The Struggle is when you are surrounded by people and you are all alone. The Struggle has no mercy.

The Struggle is the land of broken promises and crushed dreams. The Struggle is a cold sweat. The Struggle is where your guts boil so much that you feel like you are going to spit blood.

The Struggle is not failure, but it causes failure. Especially if you are weak. Always if you are weak.

Most people are not strong enough.

Every great entrepreneur from Steve Jobs to Mark Zuckerberg went through the Struggle and struggle they did, so you are not alone. But that does not mean that you will make it. You may not make it. That is why it is the Struggle.

The Struggle is where greatness comes from.”

(Excerpt From: Horowitz, Ben. “The Hard Thing About Hard Things: Building a Business When There Are No Easy Answers.”)

“Andre, I won’t ever try to change you, because I’ve never tried to change anybody. If I could change somebody, I’d change myself. But I know I can give you structure and a blueprint to achieve what you want. There’s a difference between a plow horse and a racehorse. You don’t treat them the same. You hear all this talk about treating people equally, and I’m not sure equal means the same. As far as I’m concerned, you’re a racehorse, and I’ll always treat you accordingly. I’ll be firm, but fair. I’ll lead, never push. I’m not one of those people who expresses or articulates feelings very well, but from now on, just know this: It’s on, man. It is on. You know what I’m saying? We’re in a fight, and you can count on me until the last man is standing. Somewhere up there is a star with your name on it. I might not be able to help you find it, but I’ve got pretty strong shoulders, and you can stand on my shoulders while you’re looking for that star. You hear? For as long as you want. Stand on my shoulders and reach, man. Reach.” 

• Gil Reyes, Andre Agassi’s Coach [excerpt from ‘Open’]

            *God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change

            The courage to change the things I can,

            And the wisdom to know the difference.*

This is how they focus their efforts. It’s a lot easier to fight addiction when you aren’t also fighting the fact that you were born, that your parents were monsters, or that you lost everything. That stuff is done. Delivered. Zero in one hundred chances that you can change it.

So what if you focused on what you can change? That’s where you can make a difference.

Behind the Serenity Prayer is a two-thousand-year-old Stoic phrase: “ta eph’hemin, ta ouk eph’hemin.”  What is up to us, what is not up to us.

And what is up to us?

    Our emotions

    Our judgments

    Our creativity

    Our attitude

    Our perspective

    Our desires

    Our decisions

    Our determination

This is our playing field, so to speak. Everything there is fair game.

What is not up to us?

Well, you know, everything else. The weather, the economy, circumstances, other people’s emotions or judgments, trends, disasters, etc

If what’s up to us is the playing field, then what is not up to us are the rules and conditions of the game. Factors that winning athletes make the best of and don’t spend time arguing against (because there is no point).

To argue, to complain, or worse, to just give up, these are choices. Choices that more often than not, do nothing to get us across the finish line.

[Source: The Obstacle Is the Way: The Timeless Art of Turning Trials into Triumph]

         To the memory of my parents

                           My Mother

Sea waves, golden sand, pilgrims’ faith,

Rameswaram Mosque Street, all merge into one,

My Mother!

You come to me like heaven’s caring arms.

I remember the war days when life was challenge and toil—

Miles to walk, hours before sunrise,

Walking to take lessons from the saintly teacher near the temple.

Again miles to the Arab teaching school,

Climb sandy hills to Railway Station Road,

Collect, distribute newspapers to temple city citizens,

Few hours after sunrise, going to school.

Evening, business time before study at night.

All this pain of a young boy,

My Mother you transformed into pious strength

With kneeling and bowing five times

For the Grace of the Almighty only, My Mother.

Your strong piety is your children’s strength,

You always shared your best with whoever needed the most,

You always gave, and gave with faith in Him.

I still remember the day when I was ten,

Sleeping on your lap to the envy of my elder brothers and sisters

It was full moon night, my world only you knew

Mother! My Mother!

When at midnight I woke with tears falling on my knee

You knew the pain of your child, My Mother.

Your caring hands, tenderly removing the pain

Your love, your care, your faith gave me strength

To face the world without fear and with His strength.

We will meet again on the great Judgement Day, My Mother!

~ APJ Abdul Kalam

• There was a silly damn bird called a Phoenix back before Christ: every few hundred years he built a pyre and burned himself up. He must have been first cousin to Man. But every time he burnt himself up he sprang out of the ashes, he got himself born all over again. And it looks like we’re doing the same thing, over and over, but we’ve got one damn thing the Phoenix never had. We know the damn silly thing we just did. We know all the damn silly things we’ve done for a thousand years, and as long as we know that and always have it around where we can see it, some day we’ll stop making the goddam funeral pyres and jumping into the middle of them. We pick up a few more people that remember, every generation.

• Some day the load we’re carrying with us may help someone. But even when we had the books on hand, a long time ago, we didn’t use what we got out of them. We went right on insulting the dead. We went right on spitting in the graves of all the poor ones who died before us. **We’re going to meet a lot of lonely people in the next week and the next month and the next year. And when they ask us what we’re doing, you can say, We’re remembering. That’s where we’ll win out in the long run. And some day we’ll remember so much that we’ll build the biggest goddamn steam-shovel in history and dig the biggest grave

“Consider the quit at every juncture. You may be inspired to jump even if the ship isn’t actually sinking. Always get out while you still can, but consider getting out the minute it crosses your mind.

Quit to combat stasis. Quit to avoid exhaustion. Quit as a method of crisis intervention. Quit to prove a point. Quit to see what you are made of. Quit because you are driven to it. Quit because you are inspired. Quite because you can.”

(The Quit: A Consideration of the Art of Quitting, Evan Harris, Simon and Shuster)