Willingness to bear pain
It was about 3:30 am in the morning, very dark, miserably cold, and raining. After 3 hours of sleep I rolled out of my bunk bed exhausted and in pain from the previous days mind numbing training. I grabbed my back pack. I needed to check it one last time to make sure it weighed a full 70 lbs. For that was the requirement for the long march through the woods at the US Army Special Forces School that “fine” morning. This test was going to be one of many more to come. For me it was different this time from the hundreds of miles I had trained to prepare for this day. We were to be timed and any failure meant a life long dream would be over for me. I dragged myself into formation with all the other weary eyed soldiers.
I was the oldest at 40 having a full 20 years on many of the other soldiers. But this was my dream. A day that was the culmination of nearly 18 months of mind numbing training. There was no way I was not going to finish in the time alloted. It was a staggered start. We all had sensors attached to our boots. When we crossed the finish line our time would be recorded without error. We all moved closer to the starting line already feeling the weight of all the equipment on our backs and our rifles in our hands, always at the ready. We began all 250 of us shuffling under the strain and leaning slightly forward to balance our loads. We headed for the woods which was just a few short steps from the starting line. I never knew the woods could look so dark, no moonlight, just a big black wall.
I moved along at an eager pace knowing I had a very long way to go. The group started to thin mile after mile. Occasionally I would hear a moan off in the woods. It was a soldier that had gone down with an injury. I had to keep pressing on. Mile after dark mile I kept moving in a predetermined direction. As I covered more ground the frequency of those that had fallen with injuries increased. I began to worry. After several hours I sensed a presence behind me but did not pay much attention. I knew it was just another soldier who had developed a similar rhythm as I had just hoping to finish.
My breathing started to become very labored. The straps of the back pack started to cut into my shoulders. Now with every step of my boot the weight would shift and cut deeper into my back. Eventually I saw a light in the distance…it was the finish line but I still had a few miles to go. I began to think of my family and how they would not want me to give up. I wasn’t sure if I was going to make it in time. At that moment I stepped into a hole I could not see in the dark and felt my right ankle snap. I went down hard face first with the weight of my back pack driving me face first into the ground. I thought it was over.
I could still see the light in the distance. I got myself back on my feet just as the soldier who had shadowed me for the past few miles approached. He stopped and said, “Are you the old guy I heard about” I said “Yes that’s me”, wincing in pain. He replied, “I’m your Commander and there are a lot of guys betting you won’t finish. A rush of adrenaline surged through my body and I remembered why I was there. I knew I could finish no matter what. We shuffled together out of the woods and covered the remaining distance to the finish line together. He did not know I had broken my ankle.
We got right up to the finish line and he stopped dead in his tracks. He said, “You deserve this, cross the finish line ahead of me”. With a great deal of pride I said “thank you sir”. I finished! I walked across the finish line and looked for some open ground. I slid all of my equipment off of my back, fell to the ground in pain and looked up at the clock. I had finished in the top 15% of the soldiers in the class, broken ankle and all. My willingness to bear pain and the thought of why I was there rewarded me with an enormous sense of accomplishment.
Even before I made the decision to re-enlist in the military, because of my success in Nu Skin, it was common for me to be asked, “What’s the secret to your success”? My answer was always the same, “The willingness to bear pain”.
It was sometimes painful for me to talk to people about my business. It was painful to experience rejection. It was painful to see one of my distributors who I had worked with quit. But I now know that those experiences in building my Nu Skin business shaped my character and my belief in never giving up…ever. Most of us will experience some of those painful moments in our business when things do not go as well as we expected. It happens to the best of us. You have to pick yourself up orient yourself toward the finish line and keep moving forward. You must. I promise you that the thrill of crossing the Nu Skin finish line will be one of the greatest experiences of your life.
