This is someone with an inspiring story, cycled through numerous foster homes and then adopted into a family with an addicted mother and absent father. Take a listen. The entire speech contains dozens of perceptive life lessons.

Link: https://youtu.be/3rVyJkur0nM?si=bcb7s6icRkQMG9Bv&t=1396

Love the part about how we overvalue motivation and undervalue self-discipline.

I had two jobs, one a factory line worker, and the other in a grocery store. I got along fine with the older guys, who were in their twenties. We even hung out a few times. I definitely saw what they were doing, and I had the very clear realization that there had to be more to life than hanging out in fast food parking lots / cruising the strip at 25. I knew I had to make different choices. Life is about choices more than anything else, and not being a slave to your environment.

Stocking newspapers and worked in the produce dept at the grocery store. Learned that there were better things in life. Glad I didn’t end up in the Midwest.