If there is one thing that all players have in common it is that winning, competitive gene; the ability to overcome obstacles and fight for what you want from your career.
I've observed that if individuals who prevail in a highly competitive environment have any one thing in common besides success, it is failure—and their ability to overcome it.
Some of the things I've had to overcome in my past, fighting helped me deal with a lot of struggles. Obstacles in life don't make you a great fighter, but fighting - or, I should say, martial arts - helps you overcome your obstacles.
Remember, success is not measured by heights attained but by obstacles overcome. We're going to pass through many obstacles in our lives: good days, bad days. But the successful person will overcome those obstacles and constantly move forward.
In a healthy way, I'm super competitive. I want to do everything to the best of my ability. If I'm not giving 110 percent, then it's not worth doing. That's really been the whole thing of my career so far, even down in NXT. I want to be the best I can physically be.
Realize that the reason most people fail isn't because of the competition but because of the limits they place upon themselves, allowing defeat to take over. Take responsibility for your destiny. You can come up with a performance, if you can reach down and dig deep enough into your competitive soul. You can overcome tremendous obstacles.
For a startup to overcome obstacles and succeed, it must foster limitless thinking. By hiring students into their first career job, you get to set their framework for how a company functions and instill them with your values for your company's culture.
Once you reach a certain point in your career, every fight is a new big fight, biggest fight of your life, biggest fight of your career.
Opponents make an excuse as to why they do not want to fight someone. Who are the people you actually make a big payday fighting against? There are not too many people out there. Most people refuse to fight people that are necessary. They think winning is the only thing to do. It is not winning if you have not fought the best.
I've always found that anything worth achieving will always have obstacles in the way and you've got to have that drive and determination to overcome those obstacles on route to whatever it is that you want to accomplish.
Throughout your career, whether you're getting into the sport or have been it in for a number of years like me, there will always be obstacles. The important thing is how you deal with those obstacles and come back from any disappointment or setback, no matter how big or small.
I have had extreme ups and downs. The biggest thing I learned after I broke my wrist is to never give up. Nothing in life will ever come easy. It depends on how you deal with those obstacles and how you overcome those obstacles. If you can overcome them, you're a stronger person. If you make mistakes along the way, as long as you never make that same mistake again, you're a successful person.
Be grateful for your challenges, setbacks, adversity and disappointments. Be grateful for your opportunity to overcome every single one, because doing so contributes to your growth & your ability to help others overcome theirs.
When we talk about genes for anything, like a gene for being gay or a gene for being aggressive or something of that sort, that a gene for anything may not have been a gene for that thing under different environmental conditions.
I am convinced that knowledge is power - to overcome the past, to change our own situations, to fight new obstacles, to make better decisions.
Only direct control of experience, the ability to derive moment-by-moment enjoyment from everything we do, can overcome the obstacles to fulfillment.
When things don't come so naturally to you, you want to persevere, you want to keep pushing yourself to overcome obstacles that prevent you from having the kind of life that you want to have.