Dear David WygantToday’s Dear David is from a guy called Matt. Matt is going through what I call his adult adolescence, and struggling to find his way. His question is essence is, “How do I become successful when everything seems so bad right now?”

Here’s the email he sent me, and my reply.

Dear David,

I’m not e-mailing you to complain or say I quit. I never will. Your products have awakened me and changed me to the point I’m constantly evolving, and keeping an open and accepting mind. But here’s the thing. I’m currently at a very low point in my life.

I’m stuck in a relationship I’m not happy with, and working in a shitty dead-end job at Home Depot which pays $9.75 an hour. At the same time, I’m living with my parents because I can’t afford to move out. I’m 26 and I want so much more from life. The reason I’m e-mailing you, is because you built yourself from the ground up.

You’ve had low points in your life, but then created a huge world-renowned dating business. That must be a difficult business to make profitable. I have tons of respect for you.  I was wondering if you could share a story from your own life that could help me find success through this tough time.

Thanks David,

Matthew

David Says…

Matthew

I’m going to give you some advice because I know you’re 26, and that can be a difficult age to be at sometimes. I call it your adult adolescent years. They’re tough. You’re trying to figure yourself out. You’re trying to figure out what you want to do for a living. You have friends that are far more successful than you are, but you don’t know what to do our how to get there.

You’re trying to find your passion in the world. You want to discover who you are as a man. And what I’m going to tell you is what I would tell the young version of myself. I would have said, “Write down your dreams. Write down the kind of man you want to be. Write down your perfect day.

They write this down on top of it all…

Life is a marathon, not a sprint.

You see, when I was 26 I felt the same way. I felt angry at times. Why wasn’t I making the money I needed to make? Why was I broke? When was I going to meet a woman I was really attracted to? Often I had to eat pasta and bread and butter because I didn’t have any money in my couch that night to pay for a proper dinner.

Now I realized that all of the beautiful times when I was broke, was all helping me to build the character I needed to be to become successful. You see life is all about character building. But while you’re going through it, you can feel like it’s the end of the world. You can feel like you’re never going to get there. Every experience you have is there to make you stronger and more successful in life.

This is all just temporary for you. Never lose track of what you want. Home Depot isn’t going to be a lifelong career. Figure out who you are, what you want, and then set up an action plan. Set realistic goals every day, and watch what happens. Eventually, you’re going to get exactly where you want to be. Life is all about the journey, and we always want to grow. Even now, I still want to be somewhere else at times. It’s not that I’m not satisfied with what I’m doing. It’s just that in life, we’re very goal oriented. Wherever we get, we always need to get somewhere else.

Even the Seahawks who just won the Super Bowl will already be striving for more. I’m sure they want their second Super Bowl. After a week or two of enjoying the victory, they’ll already be plotting how they’re going to win the next one. Life is just a building block, and someone told me a long time ago, when you have a solid foundation, that’s when you’re on the road to success.

What you’re doing right now is building the foundations for your future. There are no shortcuts. Enjoy the long run, and realize everything is just temporary. Enjoy every moment because they’re precious.