When I was in my mid-20s, I remember thinking and stating to my wife that I was one of the smartest people I knew. I was one of those arrogant dudes who thought he knew everything, lacking many important soft social skills.
This arrogance, combined with an intense drive to prove myself to the world, caused me to work nonstop on side hustles, neglecting very important things in life and rarely living in the moment. I tried a lot of things, from reselling books on Amazon to professional window cleaning, and finally did pretty decent launching a private label brand on Amazon.
One of the people I followed while building the private label brand was Ryan Moran, and he finally helped me learn how to keep my ego in check. It was this specific podcast episode that did it for me: https://open.spotify.com/episode/0JiHCZSKryiqtwmC4fnr6o?si=050a1e1e26a74ae0
This single podcast episode helped me understand that my whole life, I never thought I was enough, which is why I had such a high ego. I was building a wall of illusion to prove to myself and the world that I was enough.
Since listening to this in 2018, it's been so freeing for me. This realization, combined with finding my faith around the same time, has allowed me to slowly break down those walls I've built up and be more of my true self. Because this hit so close to home, I took an extremely deep dive of introspection.
It's allowed me to understand where my weaknesses are and work on them.
It's given me much more social confidence. I'm no longer the quiet dude who gets nervous in big groups of new people or the guy who gets social anxiety leading a meeting with 2 or 3 of my coworkers.
It's shut down my drive to chase shiny new objects, but instead, focus on purpose, live more in the moment, and truly understand what I should spend my time on RIGHT NOW.
It's given me new opportunities and challenges to test my newly found skills and self.
It's given me the confidence to be such a good hiring candidate that I can easily win the interviewer over when given a chance.
It's improved my current relationships because I'm no longer that annoying dude who thinks too highly of himself.
We're all broken in our own unique ways, just trying to do our best in this thing we call life.
