“It is not ease, but effort – not facility but difficulty that makes men. There is perhaps no station in life in which difficulties have not to be encountered and overcome before any decided measure of success can be achieved.” – Samuel Smiles
I have lived a perfect life. It was filled with challenges from the start. I learned to overcome some of them early and what that felt like. I got my butt kicked, and I started learning how to deal with different people. I was rejected and underestimated.
I wasn’t the biggest or the strongest or richest and I had to figure it out. I couldn’t afford to go to college, so I had to turn to better sources and habits of learning. I worked outside and learned to brave the weather or I couldn’t eat.
I had no money to make payroll the following week, had no leads, not enough customers, and people cheated me. Later, I lost my house and everything in it in a fire, lost my marriage, and a billion-dollar “investor” directly attacked me, trying to take all my customers and my life’s work away.
I have been half-dead in the middle of the desert, lost and hungry. I have endured pain, and learned how much of it was my own making. I learned that suffering was not outside me, but inside me as a response to the gap between my hopes or expectations, and what happened.
Yes, I have lived a perfect life.
I am strong, able, confident, resilient, proud, and no one can hurt me.
Amen 🙏
EST mea culpa
GM!
I have read your daily posts, your book and made significant changes in my business over the last 10 years. I often share your posts with those in my inner circle. I am a dirt biker, snowmobiler and 56 years young. On 12/14/24 our son (fellow dirt biker and snowmobiler) fell 53′ and suffered life threatening injuries, including a spinal cord injury rendering him paralyzed from the sternum down. It was a situation that was new and uncharted for me. The good news is he wiggled his toes Monday night and began to move his legs yesterday!
I was able to completely walk away from the business that our team has built, now 30 employees strong and growing at a rate of 35% year over year since 2020 on 12/14/25 and it keeps running strong, supporting the 30+ families that depend on it, along with all of the suppliers and other folks that support us. I could not have done this if we were not this size. I would have had to choose to work instead of supporting the ones I love. I am so thankful I grew this business and so thankful for the team I have in place.
I started to put the pieces together in 2015 for this growth, the infrastructure (vans/warehouse/office spaces) and of course the training. Your book, your blog posts, you taking the time to share your ups and downs in Baja and business and beyond…they all have impacted me in a positive way.
Circling back…without reading the highest calling I would have more than likely kept doing it all myself. In November of 2024 I passed the last two items on my plate to my business manager (filing monthly taxes in a neighboring state and 401K contributions) and as fate would have it not a month too soon. I can now sit anywhere in the world with internet service and with a few keystrokes look at data points that tell me where to spend my money on advertising, hiring, firing, infrastructure needs (yes we are opening our second location in 2026 now that we have hit $10M in gross sales!) and keep this going. Your recent post about wanting to sell a business after building it helped me quantify to my wife, who now more than ever wished I would sell the business to spend time with our son, why I will never sell it. It made sense to her, I’m not in this for the money, I’m in it because I love it and I love improving our lives, our teams lives and the people we service lives.
Our tiny little HVAC business in Southern NH pays all of our teams health insurance premiums…including their dependents, we allow them to participate in the company 401K just 30 days after they start, with no vesting so what they save is theirs forever, we have the newest (and cleanest) fleet, we have the best tools, we have virtually no turnover, we just hired our first mechanical engineer (cultivated over 6 years as we bring in local high school students each summer for paid internships), we donate 1% of our gross income to non-profit organization, and the list goes on. Yes, I could make a lot more money if I wanted to cut these perks, however that would promote turnover and it is just not me.
The proof of your thoughts and embracing growth is happening to me right now. I am currently practicing for the Iron Dog Race (snowmobile race in Alaska) instead of spending time in the office directing people. I am at the office one day a week when in NH and available remotely to my staff on any weekday. I will finally ride (two wheels) in Baja this year (MS Adventures so not nearly as grueling as your rides!). What you have said works. Simply put hire the best people to offer the best value of what you are selling and bingo the rest takes of itself.
Safety
Delivery
Quality
Price
These are our core values, these are my core values. It amazes me how many people put money over everything else. Money is the least important thing to me and this value has afforded me to be where I am. I teach this principle to all of my team members. We say the pledge of allegiance each day, we celebrate our 5 star Google reviews each Monday, we make mistakes, we fix our mistakes, we keep growing.
Thank You Larry!
❤️
I am also grateful for the difficulties, past, present and those to come.
A wonderful message, Blessed and grateful !
Your story is inspiring and it lets others see what is possible with determination. Your commitment to sharing your experiences daily allows others to learn from someone who has done it, and knows what it takes. Thank you!
Thank you for being open and honest. Very few people who have a achieved a high level of success are willing to be so vulnerable. I admire and respect you. It encourages me to start my own business late in life(I’m 65). Thank you again for authenticity.
As always – thank you for sharing your experiences and the inspiration đź’«
Yes me too… Went through an awful lot. Had a very big company with offices nationwide. Lost it all after almost 30 years and took it all and rebuilt myself to a new me. Still working at almost 67 years old with no plan to retire but build new company bigger and better
My parents were both Marines. They always taught me that what doesn’t kill you, makes you stronger. My parents were tough on me. Tougher than most. I am eternally grateful to them. And thank you for sharing your experiences.
Proud of you, Larry. Like you always say, from the inner the outter. Btw, diamonds are made under pressure. You are living proof.
Thank you, Larry, I appreciate you and your transparent honest story that has made you resilient. The challenges presented in our lives build grit and I too wouldn’t trade it for anything! We love you and are grateful to continue to learn from you! Thank you for being you!
Great share. Thank you. Was just discussing this in our mens small group this morning of 4 years. It sort of like God allowing hard times that we then grow and learn from and can ultimately help others through it. That is a high calling.
Amen Larry, one of your best posts to date, thanks for this.
This was great. Thank you for sharing and it’s inspiring. It lifted me up this morning. I’m grateful you wrote this. I’m going through my own challenges.
I love this…
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đź‘Ť. Typical Tech pride. Challenges always made us stronger!
Very proud of you. You are a beacon of light.
I am proud to be your friend! You taught me a lot, and you changed my life! Thank you brother…