To simply look at Nathan (not his real name) you'd approach him with caution...and half of your friends would actually be afraid.
He has a military-style haircut but a thick beard.
He's well over six feet tall and about 230 pounds.
He has tattoos from his shins to his torso; from his neck to his arms and down to his knuckles.
He's missing a tooth.
(You know he's missing a tooth because he's always smiling, but because he's "big and scary looking" you only notice the gap instead of the smile.)
What else have you been looking at and not seeing? But I digress.
For at least 8 years Nathan has immersed himself into Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu.
Unlike the mediocre majority, he's not a dabbler.
He's diligent in his studies and methodical in his efforts.
He's patiently impatient.
The result?
A force of nature who is 100% martial, 100% art, and 100% humble.
18 Months + 8 Hours
For 18 months I have been studying this martial art for at least 8 hours per week, including eight of the last 9 days.
That's over 622 hours of painful, exhausting drills, sparring, and humble pie served hot, fresh, and sweaty.
You'd think that after all that time, effort, and study you'd be pretty good at something, right?
I mean, the average person can read a 250-page book in seven hours so I could've read 89 books in this time. If you read 89 books on any subject in 18 months you'd be the leading authority in nearly any field in the world.
But in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, after 18 months of training 8 hours per week, you're almost ready to teach an 8-minute class to a group of 8-year-olds.
I bet you think I'm kidding. Allow me to illustrate.
Despite the amount of effort outlined above, not only Nathan but several other practitioners at my school—some of whom are 65 pounds lighter than me—can still submit me, i.e. make me cry "UNCLE" in the form of tapping out, in as little as 8 seconds.
EIGHT SECONDS.
Look, getting thrown off a 1,500-pound bull in under 8 seconds is understandable.
But getting submitted by another human being that quickly? Ugh.
More than once I wanted to say
Pass the Pabst Blue Ribbon and the remote control and turn off the lights when you leave!"
(I know "Full Metal Jacket" comes to mind
He's silly and he's ignorant, but he's got guts, and guts is enough."
But I digress.)
It's why so many people quit Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu—and sales jobs and entrepreneurial ventures: The struggle is just too much.
When you fail to find the easy button (HINT: It doe exist, it's just hard to get to.) you head to the bar and tell anyone who will listen how unlucky you are.
Or you grab the remote and your favorite adult beverage and tell yourself...nothing, hoping tomorrow will just magically be better.
However, like the gold in the back of the cave where the dragon sleeps, there is an easy button.
It's hard to see because it's locked away in the brains of the scary Nathan's of the world, who only present it at the end of a hard lesson of ego-smashing and a larger helping of humble pie.
(What do you want bad enough to set aside your ego and invest time, money, and energy to prepare yourself to recognize, accept, internalize, and apply the lesson the expert gives you?)
Like a good steak, you have to be tenderized in business, in life, and in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu so you are open and receptive to the lessons of the "easy button" that will make everything you do so much better.
You see after 18 months of 8 hours per week of being smashed in 8 seconds by the guy with 8 years of experience, he's ready to share—and you're ready to receive—the exact lesson you need that day that will make 1% of what you do 800% better.
After 18 months I was struggling with a particular move and despite hours of practice over the last several months, I could not figure out why it was such a problem for me.
In 2.8 seconds Nathan saw my mistake.
(It only took him 8 years to be able to see my issue in 2.8 seconds that would've taken me 8 years to see on my own.)
And for 8 minutes we drilled how to fix that mistake.
And now I have a plan for growth that I am excited to implement.
Sure, I need to continue my drills to make this move second-nature, but I know what to do and can move forward with confidence now that one more hole in my Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu bucket is patched.
After 22 years in sales—12 running my own sales training and marketing consulting business—providing for a family of 9, I'm better at sales than Nathan is at Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu. (If you ask him he'll admit it because we talk sales and marketing often.)
Next week I'll share the vital concepts I've learned, applied, and taught to thousands of professional salespeople, sales managers, business owners, and entrepreneurs in 28 countries since 2006.
The entire live, interactive video call will be shorter than an episode of Game of Thrones, but a lot more productive.
In 8 seconds you can register here.
Now go sell something.