Growth isn’t Easy
Failing upwards from Virginia to Oregon
There’s something inside of me that is scared of being comfortable.
I wasn’t created to remain the same. I wasn’t created to look at screens. I wasn’t created to follow the easy path.
I was listening to a Tony Robbins podcast and they began speaking about growth, “Growth isn’t always easy. The easy stuff rarely makes you grow. There is no failure as long as you’re learning…”
The truth of this resonated.
Each of us has a desire to grow, to become more than what we are today. But that doesn’t happen without facing challenges, without experiencing failures.
It’s by taking those risks, whether we succeed by them or whether we fail by them, that we can come out on the other end with a little more knowledge, a little more confidence, and a lot more growth.
It was Friday night and I was visiting a neighbor in Lynchburg, Virginia when I received a phone call. “Would you like to come work for the Portland Trail Blazers?”
I dropped to my knees in the gravel outside of my neighbor’s house and started to pray. Or maybe it was more of a grunt or a loud shout from within me.
It was a dream job. It was also an unpaid internship. It was also 2,779 miles away from where I lived.
I didn’t sleep that night but the next morning I accepted the position. I packed up all of my belongings that day and the next afternoon, I drove from Virginia to Indiana to Nebraska to Idaho to Oregon.
The internship was miserable. The pay was nothing. I totaled my car. I lived off protein bars and Gatorade from the extra supply at the office. And I slept at night on my friend’s couch.
I wanted to quit but it’s hard to quit a dream position. So I told myself I’d finish the year and then move to Orlando, Florida. Yes, I was in desperate need of some sunshine.
But after a year in Portland, I settled in. I started to see some progress, some growth. I took a second internship, minimum wage this time and I continued to struggle. I continued to fail. And I continued to grow.
At the end of the year, I was offered a full-time job and I accepted it gladly.
And after 13 years working with the team, I continue to struggle. I continue to fail. And I continue to grow.
