Would you live out of your car tho?

When I think of interesting attractive lifestyles like an entrepreneur, actor, entertainer, etc, the first thing that comes to mind is rich, glamorous living. The reality is that to get to that point, often we must endure a very hard, uncomfortable, scrappy, frugal, anti-glamorous, and maybe even scary kind of living. John Cena's early days are a fantastic example of this.

He moved out to California in hopes of applying his college degree to a normal 9-5 job; however, nobody would give his piece of paper any validation. (Did ya hear that soon-to-be grads?)

Anyways, without a job, John started living out of his car despite having the option to go home and live with his parents in Massachusetts. And the most interesting part about that is he says, "I'm very fortunate because it was my choice to have hard times." Most people are immediately and intensely repelled by the thought of living in a car or even a shed for that matter (He upgraded to that after about four months in the Lincoln; clearly he was moving up in the world lol.) But John's story isn't the exception. It is the rule.

These non-optional scrappy beginnings don't feel like some heavy emotional sacrifice found in a motivational speech either – life isn't that dramatic. It is closer to quiet satisfied living knowing that you are in the right place, albeit a tough one. I think his attitude towards his interviewer's shock perfectly captures this.

The interviewer, "Homeless?!". John, half-serious and half-joking, with the genuine smile and warm tone of a worn and battered veteran, "Well, a Lincoln Continental is a big car."

The only way to do anything vaguely interesting in life is to be content in, what other people would call, "extreme discomfort".

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For entrepreneurs this is a tough challenge because even if you find living this way alright, you have to find early hires/co-founders that have the guts to persist in this hard living too. In my experience, 99.99% of people would run far far away when they found out I live in the office and eat peanut butter sandwiches & ramen for all three meals.