Really inspired by Rivian CEO R.J. Scaringe, on episode 890 of the Rich Roll podcast – essentially ignoring every single logical argument against starting a car company – and doing it anyway.
Imagine needing billions of dollars from investors long before a single dollar in revenue could be achieved. Imagine needing to build a car factory from scratch while GM is going bankrupt. Imagine needing to hire thousands of engineers, finding hundreds of suppliers, innovating as the only way of survival ….
Every excuse in the world was readily available to him – but he had a vision and was on a mission. And he did it.
The lesson for me is – there are excuses at your fingertips every single day for every single thing you want or need to do. And it’s so easy to pluck them out of the air and use them to quit, or do less than is needed, or to not even start.
Want an excuse to skip that workout today? Easy – I didn’t sleep good last night.
Want an excuse to miss that event. Easy – I’m an introvert.
Want an excuse to deliver a weak presentation. Easy – I’m not a graphic designer.
I often wonder if people like Mr. Scaringe are simply “built” different – and that’s why they can do what they do. But that’s simply not true.
He simply chose the hard path.
He simply chose to ignore the excuses.
He chose.
The lesson for me is … I have a choice.
Choose the excuse or not.
Thoughts? Is it really that simple?
