I'll Do It, Just Not Today

Note: I am a part of Amazon.com's Affiliate program. I recommended The Four Hour Workweek in this blog. I have and will continue to only recommend products I have used and found useful. I will never recommend anything I find horrible, unless stated. As part of the program, I receive 15% whenever someone goes to Amazon through my blog and purchases the book.


You have your dream. Start a business, begin an acting career, write a novel, paint a masterpiece, learn Spanish. Every time you think of it, you get butterflies. You play out every possibility, over and over in your head. And you know life will be great once you do it.

But You Won't

Now, that is not to say it can't be done. Just that you won't do it.

Tim Brown from Ideo, a design and innovation firm, said that as we grow older, we lose our creativity. Children have nothing holding them back. If they want to be a firefighter, they become a firefighter. They grab their dad's jacket, an old construction hat, and mom's watering hose. And the fighter is ready to begin.

But as we get older, we lose that ability. I know I wanted to be a professional skateboarder...when I was 19. The usual adult would say, "That's stupid. You can't make a living off of that."

Just Give Up

Because so many people tell us we will fail, we never do it. It is fear that takes hold of us and stops us. I will be ridiculed, a shame to my family, disappoint my peers. We think the worst will happen, and let that play over and over in our minds.

But if we give up, we fail anyways. As Angel Brown says in Failing to Succeed, "She knew that, by giving up, she would only succeed at failing." It's like the old basketball saying. If you don't take the shot, you'll miss the basket.

So what can we do then? Well, to borrow another sports related phrase:

Just Do It

Overcome the fear. Don't worry how well you do something. You can be horrible. Want to start a business? Try putting down $1,000. See what you can do. You fail, so what?

This is one thing we aren't taught in school. We are told to analyze over and over any possibility of something going wrong. But like Murphy's Law says, it will. So accept it. If you keep trying to figure out every possible way something can go wrong, you'll never do it. Just do it and fix things along the way. It is better than not doing it.


I like to think of Steve Jobs. When he was creating Apple, all the giant computer makers, such as IBM, thought his ideas were stupid. Had he listened to them, imagine all the technology we would not have today.

Great resources are Tim Ferriss's book, The 4-Hour Workweek and his blog, The Four Hour Blog. Although it is geared towards running a business, the resources in here are valuable to everyone. A psychologist told me it sounds exactly like what he would tell his patients. Tim gives practical advice on how to make things happen, in business and your life.

What About Your Skateboarding Career

Well, like everyone told me, I failed. I gave it up. But this was after 6 months. And during those 6 months, I had fun. I gave up because skateboarding made me want to design shoes. I knew I couldn't start designing shoes, so I thought about starting a clothing company. Three years later, I am running Una Causa and enjoying it.

If I listened to everyone and didn't skateboard. I would have failed no matter what. Yes, I gave up skateboarding, but in my eyes, its not a failure. I succeeded. I am doing what I want.

How many people do you know regret not taking some risk? What if they had?

P.S. My company, Una Causa, is a clothing designer and retailer. Our designs are reflective of various causes. 50% of our gross profit goes to organizations benefitting those causes. Visit our website, www.unacausa.com.