“You will regret this”

He told me that I will regret this for the rest of my life. That I did a very big mistake…

I don’t know if he was right. Maybe he was. Maybe he wasn’t. Time will tell.

About two years ago I was on a trip through Central Eastern Europe and I got into talking with a shop owner in Montenegro.

He said that he lived in Germany for 17 years. He spoke perfect German. He said he was from Hamburg. His family escaped the war in Yugoslavia in the nineties.

And then all of a sudden they had to leave Germany. After 17 years. I didn’t even know that it was possible to be kicked out of a country just like that after having stayed there for 17 years.

And then he pointed at a big and very rundown building right across the street. It looked like it could house hundreds of families. He told me that half of the people living there won’t have a thing to eat for dinner. Looking at the building it seemed very likely.

And there I was, 28 years old, quit my well paid job not too long ago, had written and unsuccessfully published my first book and wasn’t really sure what to do next.

And now this guy I just met told me that I did the biggest mistake ever. That quitting my safe job might have been the worst thing I could have done. That was quite a bit of a downer I have to admit.

Especially having been told this by someone like him who went through a lot of struggle in his life and is now living in quite a depressing city where many people can’t even afford three meals a day. And in such a situation you can’t just tell someone that you’re trying to follow your dreams. That just doesn’t work.

That was about two years ago.

And sometimes I have to think about him. But not about the lesson he wanted to teach me. No, but about the lesson he taught me without even noticing. Without knowing. Or maybe he knew exactly what he was doing. I don’t know.

The real lesson he taught me was that you have to keep fighting. No matter the circumstances. No matter how hard it’ll get. No matter what.

After all, he was a guy who lived his whole life in Germany, a rather wealthy country. And then all of a sudden he was kicked out and had to go and live in a country he’s never been to before. A country that was and still is suffering from what happened during the war. A country, heck an entire region that never really recovered from what happened.

This would probably have broken most people. I’m sure it would have broken me. Forever. I don’t know if it broke him. I’m sure it was a horrible time for him. But there he was, standing right in front of me in his own shop and telling me that he has a family and kids.

I’m sure he’s still struggling. More than I ever will. I’m sure it’s not easy. And probably never will be easy. And I’m thankful that I never had to go through such an experience. And I hope that I will never have to go through a similar experience.

And to this day I’m still thankful for the lesson he (unknowingly) taught me two years ago. He was probably one of the greatest teachers I’ve had in my life so far. Because he taught me one simple thing…

If everybody around you stops running because it starts raining, then you’ve got to keep running.

If everything around you seems to be falling apart, then you’ve got to keep running.

If you feel like giving up, you’ve got to keep running.

You’ve got to run faster than you ever ran before…

P.S. This was part 11 of my 30 day long story. I will be writing one part of my story for the next 30 days. And then on day 31 I’ll make an e-book out of it and publish it. Want the whole book? Learn more and get access here…