Last Updated on July 25, 2026 by Van Phillips
I’ve been doing this long enough now to know something most folks won’t tell you straight: wanting it was never the hard part. Everybody wants it. Walk down any block, sit in any barbershop, scroll through any timeline — you gon’ find a thousand people who see the opportunity clear as day. They know the move. They can talk the game all night long. But talking the game and playing the game are two different sports entirely.
The hard part is what happens after the wanting. It’s what you do when the alarm goes off and you got a choice to make — stay under them covers where it’s safe and nothing’s required of you, or get up, put your feet on the floor, and go put yourself in front street knowing full well it might not work out.
That’s the whole game right there.
The Ability Nobody Talks About
See, everybody’s chasing “talent” like that’s the rare thing. It ain’t. Talent is common. What’s rare — what’s genuinely special — is the willingness to risk failing in public. To take what you built, what you believe in, and put it out there where anybody can watch you fall short. Most people can’t stomach that. They’d rather keep the dream safe inside their head where it can never be wrong, than take it outside where it might get tested.
I’m not knocking them for it. Fear is real. But I am telling you — that fear is the line. On one side of that line you got the folks who stayed in bed, who kept the idea safe and untested. On the other side, you got the ones who took the L, dusted off, and kept it moving. Only one of those groups ever gets to say they laughed later.
You may cry now, but you will laugh later.
That’s an old adage, but it’s old because it’s true. It don’t come with a guarantee attached to it though. Nobody hands you the laughing part for free. You earn it, one risk at a time, one disappointment at a time, refusing every single time to let the disappointment be the last word.
Disappointment Is Allowed. Quitting Isn’t.
I want to be real clear about something, because I think a lot of us get this twisted. Being disappointed when a risk don’t pay off — that’s human, and it’s allowed. You don’t have to front like it didn’t hurt. Feel it. Sit with it if you need to. But there’s a difference between feeling disappointment and letting it convince you the whole thing was a mistake.
Disappointment is data. It’s not a verdict.
What separates the people who make it from the people who don’t isn’t that one group never fails and the other group does. Everybody fails. The separation happens in what each group does the morning after.
| The Ones Who Stay Under The Covers | The Ones Who Get Up |
|---|---|
| See the opportunity, talk about it | See the opportunity, move on it |
| Let one loss define the whole story | Let one loss become one chapter |
| Wait until they “feel ready” | Build readiness by doing the work |
| Protect the dream by never testing it | Protect the dream by refining it through failure |
Know Your Talent — Even When It’s Not There Yet
Here’s something I had to learn the hard way: you don’t have to be at the level you need to be at right now for the effort to count. Knowing your talent don’t mean you’re already operating at the top of it. It means you trust that the work you put in is building toward it, even on the days the results don’t show it yet.
I’ve been investing since 2008. Trading for over five years now, seriously — charts, order flow, the whole discipline of it. And I’m not gon’ sit here and tell you it’s been a straight line up. It hasn’t. I’ve had years that humbled me. Trades that made me question if I had any business being in the market at all. That’s the truth of it, and I’m not ashamed to say it.
But last year, I put together a 70% return. After years of grinding, studying, losing, adjusting, losing again, and refusing to walk away — it finally showed up the way I always believed it could. That number didn’t happen because I got lucky one time. It happened because I never let the bad years be the final chapter. I kept my hand in the fire long enough to learn what it was trying to teach me.
That’s the whole lesson, if I’m being honest with you. The risk is what makes the win mean something. If it was guaranteed, it wouldn’t require anything special from you — and it damn sure wouldn’t feel like anything when it finally landed.
Never Give In
So here’s what I’ll leave you with. There’s a whole world of people out here who see the same opportunities you see. Most of them will stay in bed. Some of them will get up, take the risk, fail, and let that failure be the end of the story. And a few — a rare few — will get up, take the risk, fail, feel it, and get up again anyway.
Be in that last group. Every time.
You may cry now. But if you keep showing up, keep refining your talent, and refuse to let disappointment turn into surrender — I promise you, you will laugh later. I’m living proof of it, and I’m not even close to done.
Never give in. Never give up on your dreams.
