Break Through Barriers and Live the Life You’ve Always Dreamt About
The following is adapted from Own Your Power: No Excuses. No Bullsh*t. The Time is Now. by Jayson Waller.
Everyone thinks they’re an underdog in some way. And they are. Every person has stuff they hate about themselves. Crappy attributes, qualities, and circumstances they think are holding them back from what they want.
You included.
Being an underdog doesn’t mean you have to be broke. Or that you grew up in a family with drug problems or dysfunctional parents. Or that you have some physical handicap.
The underdog mentality is any BS story you tell yourself for why you don’t have what you want.
Your underdog story could be that you were a kid who didn’t have to earn anything and was pampered for your entire existence, so you have no real life skills. Or maybe you had a family tragedy and haven’t been able to recover. Maybe you struggle with anxiety or some other kind of “deficiency.”
Everyone has demons they fight. I have my problems. You have yours.
But here’s the truth about all our stories: the BS ideas we tell ourselves are what holds us back.
It’s time to disrupt them.
Get Your Story Straight
Here’s the big not-so-secret secret: being an underdog is not about your circumstances, bad luck, crap timing, or whatever other excuse a human brain can come up with to justify why you’re not where you want to be. What’s in the way of you is you. It’s your own head.
I know this from personal experience. I grew up in a baby blue trailer with a rusted underbelly, but today I am the founder and CEO of POWERHOME, a solar panel company that has done over $1 billion in sales.
So, dudes, ladies, everyone: I’m talking to you. You are capable of living the life you dream about, despite perhaps a crap start to life, a dead-end job, the size of your bank account, or your gender, race, whatever. Fill in the blank with what you think is wrong with you. It’s basically all the same. And none of it makes a good excuse.
Maybe you’re playing small because you’re married and have kids to feed, and you’re afraid to look into their doe-eyed faces and say you’ve failed them. So you suffer through days at a soul-crushing job, or two like my dad did, while you dream of starting your own business or getting ahead at your company or whatever it is you do.
Or maybe you don’t have anyone around you who has accomplished what you want to achieve. Maybe you have people around you who are limited.
It’s also possible you are more successful than you ever thought you would be today, but your past still holds you back. Do you accept a moderately good life and secretly think, Is this it?
Let’s get real — is that how you want to live your life?
If it is, that’s cool. My point is whatever you’re doing, it better damn well empower you.
Why You’re Here
Most people are lions who live like sheep. They follow along and go with the flow while desperately wanting to lead. They have genius ideas, but they hold back from sharing them with the world. They don’t play to win — they play to avoid losing.
I know what that looks like. My parents were blue-collar survivors. My dad worked his ass off as a laborer at a Corning plant that makes fiber for companies like AT&T. My mom decorated cakes at a grocery store. That helped put milk in the fridge, though there was not much in there at times — maybe a half jar of pickles and a shelf of condiments. I’m not knocking either of my parents. We got by. But it was a rough start.
I was the kid who wore the off-brand Tommy Hilfigers and got bullied at school. Kids can be mean.
“That’s not a real Tommy,” they’d say.
“You live in that trailer park, don’t you?” was another common tease I heard from my peers.
“Nice car, you loser,” they’d say.
Eventually I dropped out. And got my girlfriend pregnant at eighteen.
Your underdog story might be similar. Or maybe you had it worse than me. Or maybe you’re just thinking, Geez, I thought I had it bad, and now you’re wondering if you’re not successful because you didn’t have it bad enough! You see what our brains make up? It’s like I said: time to disrupt that BS.
I went on to build two multimillion-dollar businesses and one billion-dollar business from zero while the haters mocked me. Now our solar panels are on NFL football stadium roofs, and I’m a household name with my face on all our commercials. Oh, and the girl I got pregnant? Her name is Liz. I married her even though her family hated my guts. And we all get along today. The baby? That’s my daughter Hannah. She’s smart and talented and beautiful inside and out. Now she has her own children. We got through it.
In 2019, I was one of the first guys without an MBA from Harvard or Princeton or any other preppy school to win the Ernst & Young Emerging Entrepreneur of the Year award. After they gave me the award, a room full of the world’s top business minds with their MBAs and suits told me I had to tell my story. They said I should start a podcast or write a book. And I realized that wasn’t just a good idea — it was my duty. Any underdog who wins has an obligation to tell his hero story in some way. They suggested two. I did both.
The big question that had to be answered: how did I crack the underdog code to become the alpha I was born (and we are all born) to be?
The simple answer: I believed I could and went after it. As for how I did it, it comes down to the principles I live and have laid out in this article.
When reality kicked the crap out of me, the principles were what had me put my head down and keep going.
Remember this: insights are great, but it’s action that gets you to where you want to go.
Your Underdog Playbook: Eight Principles for a No Excuses Life
These eight principles will teach you how to overcome the mindset barriers that cripple you and rob you of living the life you dream about.
Make Your Own Map: This is where you learn how to live life on your terms. Don’t let other people’s ideas dictate your life. Don’t copy what everyone else is doing. You have your own vision of what a great life is, so follow it.
There’s No Elevator in Life — You’ve Gotta Take the Stairs: This is where you learn not to cheat your way to success at anything. Anytime you cheat, you fail. Patience wins every time. It builds character, makes you wiser. Tough times are worth it. Focus on incremental progress. Don’t try to hack life. That never works out.
Don’t Be Held Hostage: Learn how to own your circumstances and build systems into your life or business so that you never feel forced to do what you don’t want to do. You always have a choice.
Scared Money Don’t Make Money: In business, if you don’t invest money to grow, it won’t. The same is true in life. You’ve got to go all in, be willing to bet on yourself to get what you want. Getting what you want in any area of life requires taking risks. You have to swallow your fear and act anyway.
Turn Failure into Fuel: Failure leads you closer to success. It makes you a more resilient, wiser person. Failure is part of success. Embrace it. This principle trains you to celebrate failure because you’re getting closer to what you want. That is, if you’re smart about it.
Love Your Haters: If you’re living an awesome life, haters will be part of the game. Use their hate as your fuel. Teach them by being an example of excellence. Success is the ultimate revenge. And as a byproduct, you can teach them how to live with more class, empathy, and an “everybody wins” attitude.
Team Out: People are the most important building blocks to achieving great success in life. There’s never a meeting not to take. You never know what’s going to come out of a conversation. All people, all meetings, can make you better.
To Be a World Champ, Focus on the Play-by-Play: Massive goals are important, but you’ve gotta chunk it down. Stay the course and focus on small milestones only. Incremental progress is the way.
Everyone has superpowers. Everyone has the ability to overcome any barrier in the way of what they want. All they need is training. It doesn’t matter what shit you have been dealt in life or how bad it is — with the right skills, you can get where you want to be.
And to kick it all off, feel free to borrow my approach to life, which is this:
Every day is a playoff game.
When you live life at that level, anything is possible. Anything.
For more advice on owning your underdog story, you can find Own Your Power: No Excuses. No Bullsh*t. The Time is Now. on Amazon.
Jayson Waller built two multimillion-dollar enterprises from nothing. Today, he is CEO of his third, POWERHOME SOLAR — a solar panel company with over $1 billion in sales. In 2019, he became one of the first people without an ivy-league MBA to win the Ernst and Young Emerging Entrepreneur of the Year Award.
Jayson interviews wildly successful people like Barry Sanders, David Meltzer, and Peter Mallouk about their own underdog stories on his Top 3 Apple podcast True Underdog. He is always looking forward, evolving himself and his businesses while sharing his path to success with others.
