971. Today Is Temporary-Unless You Quit & Make It Permanent.

Are your dreams pulling you forward, or are today's circumstances pushing you down?

You will have to fight for your dream. (Period)

Today's message comes from the inspiration of Raising Cane's founder, Todd Graves, who chased his "chicken-finger dream."

What is your "chicken-finger dream?"

Thank you, David Senra and Todd Graves, for the inspiration for this episode. Subscribe to David's podcast. 

Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B5rRIdQKB0A

Transcript

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All right. 3, 2, 1. Let's get it. I love today's episode. I really do. Today is temporary unless you quit and make it permanent. Now, think about this for a second. Are your dreams pulling you forward? Are are your circumstances, your circumstances of today? Are they pushing you down? Just think about that for a second. Just pause it. Are your dreams pulling you forward right now? Are they pushing you now, lemme rephrase that. Are they pulling you forward? They're not pushing you, they should be pulling you forward, or are the circumstances you got right now? Well, you got a lot on your plate. You got a lot pulling at you. Are those circumstances on the back of your neck just pushing you down as if your face is in the mud? And bro, I get it, most days suck. You wake up tired. It feels as if the entire world is on your shoulder and the odds are completely stacked against you. But here's the thing I want you to be reminded of. Today is temporary. Here's the thing I need to be reminded of today is temporary unless you quit. And make it permanent. This is the difference between people who keep moving and people who just shrug their shoulders and, oh, well it, and they just give up. They settle. Pain is temporary. Rejection is temporary. Fatigue is temporary. Exhausted is temporary, but quitting and the regrets that come from quitting, boy, that makes it permanent. This thought came to me when I was listening to. Todd Graves own David Senra's podcast. If you haven't subscribed to his podcast, he's got two different one. He's got conversations with Senra David Senra S-E-N-R-A, so he has one that's conversations. These are long form. One-on-one conversations with founders, and then he's got a founder's podcast where that's where he started. That's the mothership where he basically reads, biographies, autobiographies, and really just kind of, uh, gives you the Cliff notes versions of what's going on in their life, and it's very inspiring. And he sat down in conversations with Todd Graves. Todd Graves, if you don't know who it is. Uh, you probably have eaten there. It's, he's the founder of Raising Canes and he, he tells a story on that episode that I think beautifully ties in how you should fight for your dream. I mean, let me set it up for you. Here's a guy that's fresh outta college and he's got this one idea. I'm gonna open up a restaurant and only sell chicken fingers. No novelty, no burgers, no wraps, no whatever the latest, greatest trend is. None of that. Just straight up chicken fingers. He said, I'm gonna do it better than anyone else. And he wrote out a business plan. He knew exactly what the aprons called. He knew everything. And he went to the bankers with his chicken finger dream, and the bankers looked at all the big boys, the Burger Kings, the Wendy's, the McDonald's, and they say, Hey, this ain't gonna work. We're not loaning you any money because you can't, you can't bring this thing to life. And be successful just selling chicken fingers. Not everybody likes chicken fingers. Some people want burgers. Some people want salads. What about all that? He said, no, not gonna do that. He said, I'm not trying to become the next McDonald's. I'm not. He said, I'm gonna do one thing and I'm gonna do it better than anyone else. And when all the bankers, all the world told 'em no. He decided to find his own way, and one way that he found, he, he heard that you could go to Alaska and fish for sockeye salmon, just get on a boat and fish. The, the, the job was super, super dangerous. It's icy waters of Alaska. I live in southwest Louisiana, so I'm sure I've never felt water like that. Icy waters of Alaska, 20 hour work days. You make a bunch of money, but you get so tired and so beat down that a lot of times men fell overboard. They lost their lives because they were just, there was nothing left. They weren't thinking anymore, and they were so tired. They threw themselves completely off the boat with the net by accident. And he said there was a lot of times they, people were scalped the tanks would the, uh, the, the, the, the nets would, would hit 'em and just scalp 'em. And helicopters would come out there and have to rescue some of these guys off the boat. And so understanding the dangers, he just went out there and tried to get a job. He had no contacts, he had no place to stay. He just pitched a tent and went from boat to boat trying to convince boat captains to let him own as a greenhorn. Now, if you get hired as a greenhorn, you don't know anything, and so you're not paid really anything. You're paid well, but not as much as the seasoned veterans. And he said, fuck it. I'm gonna go. And he said, as hard as that. Work was as tired as I was with these 20 hour days and these freezing waters. He said, I wasn't thinking about the salmon, I was thinking about my chicken finger dream. That's the difference. He wasn't fighting against his circumstances. He embraced him. He embraced them because he was fighting for his dream. And this mindset is what pulls you through those hard days., it pulls you through the hard days because you're willing to fight for your dream. It's so strong that it doesn't matter how brutal the day is, you just keep plotting along. You keep showing up, you push through the fog because your dream is worth fighting for, and you refuse to let whatever the circumstances are, they're temporary. The pain, the, the rejection, the moment I refuse to make it permanent is temporary, and I'm gonna keep it temporary. I mean, think about that. Well, laid business plan knew everything Bankers told him. No, life told him no, but Graves kept saying yes. He said yes to himself. He chose himself. When's the last time you choose yourself? Hmm. You gotta read that book by James Altucher. Choose yourself. Maybe we'll do an episode on that. But you gotta choose you, man. Nobody else is looking out for you. No one else has your best interest in mind other than you. And no one else is gonna fight for your dream like you are. You think it's gonna be just a straight road, you think it's not gonna be rejection, you think it's not gonna be hard? You think it's just going to be certain and there's not any adversity and people don't think that you're crazy. That's not a dream. That's a wish. A dream is what you see in the future, and you wade through all the bullshit to get there and it'll pay off. Todd Graves is the wealthiest person in Louisiana. Now you have the Benson's people. Okay. The Bensons own, the New Orleans Saints. Think they own some dealerships, Mercedes dealerships. So Highlines, they own the, the New Orleans Pelicans. They own it. I, I don't think they have a third of his wealth. Tillman Fertita. The owner of sole owner of the Golden Nugget Casinos and the Houston Rockets. And if you've ever been to Galveston, the Keah Boardwalk, like Bubba Gump's restaurant, like all these restaurants, salt grass, I mean e, everything that's right there. I mean, just look up Golden Nugget Casino and all the restaurants inside. He owns those. He owns those. Todd Graves and, and think about the all, I mean everything that's diversified for Tillman Fertitta He's got all these different businesses. Todd Graves has one Chicken Fingers and he said, I'm a fanatic about chicken fingers. And he said, I'm gonna do one thing and I'm gonna be the best in the world at it. Results show. He said, think about all of the great products and all of the inventions that could have happened, but most people quit when the going got tough. I don't wanna be one of those people the best. There never was. I don't wanna be that guy. And that's what most people do. We stop right before it turns, bro. I'm not talking to you. I'm talking to me. We stop right before it turns and we make the temporary pain permanent by giving up too soon. I just got one question for you today. What is your chicken finger Dream? What's the thing that you'll, you just obsess over? You just think about it like every waking moment. Sometimes you can't even sleep. Sometimes you wake up with just very little sleep. I, what's the thing that you're willing to just fill in the gaps and grind on? And that people just don't get like to the outsiders. It looks like you're crazy. Whatever that is, it's yours. You don't even have to share it with anybody. Whatever that is, don't let today's circumstances talk you out of it, because the moments of today, they're fucking temporary. Your struggle temporary, your doubt temporary. But if you quit right now. If you're gonna make it permanent, you literally have to fight for your dream and you have to fight through hell fight for your dream. Because one day that dream may be the very thing fighting for you. Keep it simple. Keep it moving. Never settle. Stay tough. Please share this episode. Peace