Create Your Plan, Make Your Choice!

Know where you’re going and work to be ready for what’s ahead. In this case, I looked at the map and studied the route I was going to be racing, so I’d have a little bit of an idea of the elevations and the changes. We’re out in the Alaska bush—the whole race, not just part of it. We went all the way down to Homer and then turned around and went all the way back, 200 miles.

This is another part that’s really critical. After you’ve studied it, understand where you’re going, and have created your map of how you’re going to build your business, make your commitment and don’t doubt yourself, or you will fail. I kept hearing these voices in my head, “Gary, what about your heart? Gary, what about your lungs? Gary, this is crazy. You’re going to be out there in the wilderness 200 miles from nowhere, and there’s nobody around. Do you realize what could happen?”

And your head will do that to you. You have to decide if you’re in control or if your head’s in control, true or false? So if your cousin, brother, aunt, friend across the street says, “You’re crazy; you can’t do this,” you have a choice. You can either accept what they say; or you can just say, “Forget it; I’m doing it anyway.”

I had a choice. We all have choices. It’s how we act upon our choices that will determine whether we’re successful.