I used to sit on my couch and think to myself, “man if someone just believed in me, I could really be something special.”  I assumed that my “big break” was in the hands of someone else and if someone would just give me the opportunity of a lifetime, my whole life would change.

But that never happened.  No one gave me the winning lottery ticket and Oprah never invited me to sit on her couch.  Warren Buffet didn’t seek me out to invest in my ideas.

For years, I lived that never-ending cycle of waking up excited thinking “today could be THE day,” and going to bed every night thinking, “Am I not good enough? Does no one believe in me? Am I wasting my time with these “dreams” of mine?”

When you have as high of aspirations as I have and things aren’t working out, you can’t help but start to listen to those voices of doubt.  They always seem to get louder when I’m down.

And then one day I had THE day.

I woke up to a letter from someone who had I had not realized had been caring for me, supporting me, and rooting for me the whole time.  It was a short letter.  It was written on the back of a napkin. It didn’t say a lot, it was short and to the point.

It said, “Every day I watch you wake up with hope.  Every night I see the tears in your eyes.  I know you want to give up – Don’t. You’re almost there. It WILL turn around.”

Sincerely, Me – from the night before.

I guess amid the despair of a failed business deal the previous night, I had written that letter to myself to wake up to in the morning.  It changed everything.

The truths in that letter really hit home.  When I thought about it, I guess I was always motivating myself and encouraging myself to try One more time.  I realized I had the potential to be there “for me.”  I realized the only person that will every truly recognize your potential and give you the opportunity you deserve is the person staring at you in the mirror.

I smiled that morning.

It was the first morning in years that I had smiled that big smile.  That note meant everything.  It meant someone believed in me and that’s all I needed.  Who said it has be someone else to believe in you? More importantly, how can they believe in you if you don’t believe in you?

For years, I had traveled around performing, speaking and hustling doing different ventures all just HOPING that somebody would look at me and say, “You’re important. You Matter.”  Sometimes we search the whole globe to find what was right inside of us the whole time.

Ever since that day, my outlook has been different.  I’m not constrained by the need for outside approval to validate my worth.  By releasing myself from that mental prison, I’ve allowed myself to succeed.  I’ve given myself permission to light my own fire, blaze my own path, and live up to my own potential.

And oh Yea, I still write myself letters…and I Smile every time I read them.