The Price of Greatness

The Blacksmith's Choice

3 Thoughts

I.

Ambition without action becomes anxiety.

II.

Normalize downloading the Kindle App on your phone and reading instead of scrolling social media.

III.

People decide with their hearts and justify with their heads.

If you want to move others, speak to their emotions first, then back it up with logic.

2 Quotes

I.

Theodore Roosevelt on The Man In The Arena:

“It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory or defeat.”

II.

I often think of this Kanye West quote when I'm building:

"I locked myself in a room doing five beats a day for three summers."

1 Game-Changing Idea: The Blacksmith’s Choice

For years, Elias was known for his ambition.

He spoke often of the legendary sword he would forge—one that would be unmatched in strength and beauty. Villagers admired his passion. His friends toasted to his future.

But when the forge fires died at sunset, Elias left with them. He spent his nights at the tavern, laughing, drinking, telling stories of the masterpiece he would create.

Seasons passed. The sword remained unfinished.

One evening, as he hammered a misshapen blade, the village elder appeared in the doorway, watching.

"If you do not sacrifice for what you want," the elder said, "then what you want will be the sacrifice."

Elias barely looked up. “I am working,” he muttered.

The elder shook his head. “No. You are only pretending to.” And then he was gone.

That night, Elias stared at the half-formed blade in his hands. It was warped. Dull. Just like every other sword he had tried to shape.

And he knew.

The next morning, before the sun had even risen, Elias returned to the forge. The tavern doors remained shut. The laughter of his friends faded into memory.

For months, he spoke little. He ate little. He lived by the fire, shaping, refining, destroying, and beginning again. His hands blistered. His arms ached. His friends stopped calling for him. They whispered that he had lost himself.

But for the first time in his life, Elias felt found.

One year later, he stepped out of the forge. In his hands was the sword he had once only spoken of.

Flawless. Balanced. Unbreakable.

That evening, his friends gathered outside his shop. “You disappeared,” one of them said. “We thought you forgot us.”

Elias smiled, turning the sword in his hands.

"I never forgot." He looked at them. "I just finally remembered what I had to do."

Then, for the first time in a long time, he joined them.

Such is the price of greatness.

Until next week,
Jay “Sacrifice” Yang

Ps. Nevermind.

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