week 127: desire + _____ = destination

the missing piece

thank you to over 11,000 of you who tune in weekly and share this with your friends and family. it means the world to me to have you along for the ride as we navigate the journey of building a zero-to-10-million-dollar business (we recently crossed $6m) and beyond.

i also love adding a personal note at the end of these, and i’m so grateful for the space you give me to do that without judgment.

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James Clear, in his book atomic habits, made it very clear, and i use this quote all the time…

people don’t rise to the level of their goals.
they fall to the level of their systems.

i find this to be true in almost every area of business and life.

everyone has goals—to build a great business, make it profitable, have a high quality of life, work hard, and have fun.

my personal take on this is simple:

desire + discipline = destination

discipline is the key word here to get where you want to go.

recently, in our business, i’ve been totally in a zone of discipline.

the output and outcome (if i could brag a little) is 10x.

and discipline comes from focus.
focus comes from clarity.
clarity comes from systems.

in 2025, we now have a real shot at building the company we've always dreamed of.

there are still a lot of unknowns, but the desire, destination, and discipline are all kicking in.

here are a few examples of discipline in action:

• we said no to $300k of new revenue.

• we invested in external courses to get back to learning again.

• we went back to our customers and asked them: why now? why us?

as a result, we now have a system that we're going to test at scale this week.

stay tuned for next week on this…

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on a personal note, krish and i were driving around, and he kept saying, "i want to be the best tennis player in the world."

i honestly wanted to say, "sure, but do you know how hard you have to work?"—and then get preachy and condescending (my unfortunate go-to when i’m i am not in a great mood).

but instead, by the wisdom of God (because i know i’m not that smart), i immediately asked him…

"i can clearly hear your desire, and it’s awesome that you can articulate a destination, but do you know what stands in between the two d’s?"

krish was like, "wah…" (gen z language).

the third d is discipline.

desire + discipline = destination.

he was like, "yo… no way, pops, that you just cooked that up!" (again, gen z language—I took it as a compliment).

that was a cool moment.

i said - “nope, all original!” (that’s gen “me” speaking)

leader point: in business and in life, what stands between your desire and your destination is, quite simply, you—with or without discipline.