What If Your Younger Self Is Your Hero

Ben BeeriFor the longest time, I thought the goal was to become someone my younger self would be proud of. I imagine him seeing my life today, the business, the podcast, the people I've met, and thinking, we actually did it. I thought I would be his hero. But the more I think about what that kid went through, how much he had to say, and how he kept going even when he felt like nobody was listening, the more I wonder, what if he's mine? What if some of what I'm looking for today is something he had before I ever built anything?

What if he's my hero? What if his strength and his vision and his ambition is something I could use today. Like, sure, I'm ambitious. I look at things. I have visions. I'm looking to build. But this kid had no evidence of anything. There was nothing telling him that you're going to be okay in life. Looking back at the kid that was sitting in school, looking out the window, not really knowing what to do in class because he was bored, not knowing what was outside of the classroom, of the world, and really just wanted to explore, explore into the unknown.

I was thinking about this the other day, about things that I liked when I was younger. I remember this show called Avatar The Last Airbender. And I'm like, why did I like that show? And I liked it because they kept exploring. It was a journey. They were exploring things that they had never seen or experienced before. When I was a teenager, I liked Assassin's Creed, the video game. Why did I like it? Because they were exploring. Exploring things that were unknown. And today, I catch myself. And sometimes I'm trying to control certain situations.

Sometimes I don't want to take a look at what's unknown. I don't want to explore something that I don't know what's on the other side of it. But he did. He had that imagination. Like, little me wanted that. He wanted to explore the unknown. And thinking about the things that we build over time, we also build these different walls. And for me, what if the wall I built was really wanting to know what situation I'm ultimately going to end up in? What if exploring the unknown was the thing that got lost along the way?

Sure, the kid would look at me today and say, hey, I can't believe you did that. This is our life now. That's amazing. But I look at the kid, and I say the kid wanted to explore, explore the unknown. And that's something that I can get better at today. I can get better at going on the random hike and venturing into an area I haven't been before. Taking the next step on a path I haven't walked before. Looking at the view I haven't seen before. Trying the new activity, trying the new food, talking to the random person who's standing right in front of me instead of being quiet and looking at my phone.

And the unknown is really where the greatest things in our life actually happen. Like, you walk into a situation, and you never really know what's going to happen. Like, the greatest things we have in our life started as unknowns. The greatest things we have in our life are best friends. There was a day you met your best friend. You didn't know the person. You introduced yourself. You started talking. You realized you wouldn't be opposed to doing it again. And it kept building from there. Your favorite hobby, your favorite job, the thing you do in your free time.

There was a time you'd never tried it before. And then you did, and you fell in love with it, and you realized you wanted to keep doing it. I look back at my childhood, and when I was younger, I really liked to collect autographs. I'd never done that before at a certain point in time. But there was a day I did, and I got something that I couldn't get anywhere else. And for me, what I got from collecting autographs when I was a kid was human connection. That was something I really struggled with.

I didn't have friends at school. I didn't resonate with anything the teachers were saying. Home wasn't easy for me with my family. And I kinda felt alone in things. But when I went to a basketball game and I got an autograph, I could feel that human connection. And that was something that was unknown to me. And as I kept building over the years, I realized that there was more to it. I realized that it's not just a connection between me and the person who signed the autograph, it's a connection between me and other people who relate to the athlete or celebrity.

And I also realize that the connection with them is meaningful. I also realize I can help them achieve a similar connection. I could help them meet the athlete. I could help them make the autograph. I could build my own collection, and I can give them an autograph. Eventually, my young entrepreneur self knew that I could... I learned that I could sell them the autograph, and then I learned that I could make a business out of it. And then I realized that I like business. And the business was fun.

And that entrepreneurship was a really unique challenge that I could try. I tried entrepreneurship a few times when I was a kid. I remember that time when I sold candy when I was at school. I got yelled at by the school counselor. They confiscated my candy. I got sent to the principal's office, and I got detention. I had detention for for selling candy at school. But I didn't feel like I did anything wrong. It was just something to try. It was the tip of the iceberg. Then when I was older, I bought my tickets. I bought my tickets for Warriors games. I'd always wanted to buy Warriors tickets.

I started selling my tickets. Started building customer relationships. I learned that building customer relationships was meaningful because you had the opportunity to connect with somebody, But not only connect with them, you had the opportunity to give them a connection that was an even higher level, and provide a real value for them. And that was something that my teenage self discovered. And I look at myself today, and there's a part of me that set in my ways. There's a part of me that wants to keep going on the path that I've been going down.

But where can I look at things and possibly peel them back a little bit, and maybe return to the person that was willing to explore the unknown, and explore the uncomfortable, and explore the thing that I may not know what's out there? And I think that's the beauty of what we do in life because my younger self knew how to do that. And my younger self knew how to go out there and try the new thing because my younger self was trying to become me. And my younger self couldn't see what it was like to be me.

So he just tried all these things that were unknown and he didn't know what they could become, but he wanted to become a greater version of himself. That was his vision. And me today, I might be that kid's hero, but he's also mine. And I could use his vision because he had a great vision. And sometimes, it's kind of fun to fall back into that childlike state of imagination and vision, and venture into the unknown, explore into the unknown, and see what else is possible for you in life that you haven't experienced yet.

Because your greatest days are ahead of you, and you have no idea what they're gonna look like.