In 2004 my 22 year old wife wife and I were reeling from a failing business venture and looking forward to my return to #realestate. My real estate license had expired and I was forced to retake courses to renew my license which meant I had about a 6-8 month period of no income.
Our #FordExplorer had been repossessed and all we had was my Mercedes #SLK320 two seater coupe. That car was the last bastion of “success” I had from my last entrepreneurial attempt.
We had no money, and for a 6 month period my wife, two children, and our dog drove around in a two seater. The children had to huddle in the passenger leg room of the car. It wasn’t uncommon for us to tell the kids to “DUCK! There’s police!” which then resulted in our 4 year old son Sebas, referring to police officers as “Ducks.” I’ll never forget the first time I heard him say, “Hide! The ducks are coming!”
To make matters better, my car was eventually booted as evidenced in the photo. That was a very depressing day and I took the photograph of the boot to serve as a reminder that I would never let something like that happen to me again. Fortunately I’ve always had my Mother and my Uncle who would come to our rescue and they’ve always helped out in times of need.
Why am I sharing this? Many people want to justify success by believing that someone was lucky or they got good breaks or good DNA, but the truth is, the only difference between someone who has “Made It” and someone who hasn’t, was and is their threshold for pain and ability to stay in faith. You are stronger than you could ever imagine. God has placed inside of you everything you will ever need to reach your full potential.
I paid my dues then. I pay my dues now. You’ve got to be willing to pay your dues.
Just. Don’t. Quit.
– Paul Argueta
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