Growing up my mother would scold me what I swore. We were never allowed to say the F-Word. It was a bad word. To this day, I think the F word has crushed more peoples dreams than any pandemic or crisis. So I say Fuck this Four letter word. But before I get into this, let me tell you a quick story. 

Now I’m going to date myself but I recall many years ago watching the Space Shuttle Challenger take off from Florida only to explode. It was January 28, 1986. My family was living in one bedroom. 5 of us were crammed in this one bedroom that my parents rented in my uncle and aunt’s apartment. They are no longer with us. God rest their souls.  My parents were young and just starting their lives. We didn’t have a lot of money. But like many hard working immigrant parents, I admired their bravery and courage to travel to a strange land to start a new life filled with hope. My parents always instilled that mindset, work ethic, confidence and of course hope for something greater.  I remember us sitting around this tiny TV counting down the launch of the Challenger. Space travel was a big thing in the 80’s. In the 80’s space travel was popular. What made this memorable was that this was the first time a civilian would be launched into space. Her name was Sharon Christa Corrigan. A school teacher from Boston. I remember my family counting down, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1 blast off. Everyone was so excited until they weren’t. 73 seconds into flight, the shuttle malfunctioned and incinerated killing all 7 crew members including Crista Corrigan. I remember as a child thinking moments prior to this take off that anything is possible. If this school teacher can go to space, so can I. As a child, to see 7 people explode on live TV can have some traumatizing effects. Especially when you grew up as a constant optimist. The lesson I learned in 1986 was that life isn’t fair. However anything is possible only if you are willing to take risks. Like taking 5.3 million pounds of thrust which is equivalent to 40 million horsepower blasting you into space. You may not succeed. You may fail. You may die. But you must try in order to succeed. 

As of November 16, 2020 a total of 568 people have accomplished space travel from 41 countries. 12 have walked on the moon. If people allowed fear to take over, these feats of amazing human accomplishment would never be possible. The first four letter word is  FEAR.

FEAR is one of the main reasons we don’t live an extraordinary life. We are afraid. I’m sure you’ve heard this acronym that FEAR stands for FUCK Everything And Run OR it can stand for False Evidence Appearing Real. In many cases what we fear doesn’t exist. If we fear getting hit by a car, we will never cross the road to try that amazing new restaurant. If we are afraid of flying, we may never experience the beauty of other cultures. If we fear rejection we may never meet the person of our dreams or close the big deal that can change the trajectory of your business. Fear won’t kill you. If you are scared of public speaking, think about what’s the worst thing that can happen. You forget your lines. I’ve forgotten 3 lines and stories in this speech alone. It doesn’t matter. It won’t kill you so learn to address and rationalize that the things that prevent you from living an extraordinary life, aren’t really there or haven’t even happened so why stress about something that hasn’t happened.