"We shouldn’t give up on our ideas of success but we should make sure that they are our own.  We need to focus in on them and truly own them. We must be the authors of our own ambitions because it is bad enough not getting what it is that we say that we want, but it is even worse to have an idea of what you want and then to find out at the end of the journey to get it that it isn’t what you truly wanted all along." - Alain de Bottom

"The strongest thing to cultivate as an entrepreneur is to not need to rely on luck but to recognize fortunate situations when they're occurring." - Jack Dorsey

"The best time to innovate or start something new is in the midst of a recession or depression." (speaking about launching Square during the 2008 financial downward spiral.)

Make sure to listen to the passion with which he describes the Golden Gate Bridge at the 21:50 mark. It is something that shouldn't exist but does and does so beautifully.

Over the past two weeks, I'v gotten into more debates online than the past two years combined. Part of that has to do with being a little more exposed online via my posts on Forbes or debating Canadian news anchors on live television (hustle brag, yes I know) but the other side of that has come from picking sides. There are a lot of things that I don't have a well formed opinion on but I am learning a lot through the debate, gun control being the current argument du jour on my Facebook page. And then there are others that I can argue with the best of them. Earlier this month FastCompany posted an article called "Why Your Brand Should Piss Someone Off" and it had a few lines that resonated with me:

"If you are willing to be anything to anybody--to surrender your identity and your individuality--no one will have strong feelings about you either way...In business, a dull existence means a weak brand. If you want some people to love you, you’ve got to accept that others may hate you.... Polarization is good. Traveling the middle road, as broad and tempting as it may be, is always and unequivocally bad."

I've for a long time played the middle of the road and cared quite a bit about what other people thought. By hoping to please both sides of the fence ended up with no one engaging one way or the other. There is nothing to debate if everyone is right. But, as I have started to narrow in on the story line that I am telling, those that it pisses off and those that it appeals to is becoming clearer. It is definitely a work in progress, but, the more challenging situations I create for myself, the stronger the resolve and the more I understand the things I am confident in.

It is all a work in progress but, as Martin Luther King Jr. said, "If you don't stand for something, you'll fall for anything."

"If you're not upsetting anyone, you're not changing the status quo." - Seth Godin

When I worked for Marquis Jet, I had the privilege of interacting with some incredibly wealthy people. (And when I say interacting with, I mean cold calling them until their secretaries finally put me on their calendar and I could woo them with the charm of my pocket square) But in that close proximity to the 1%, my definition of wealth changed. Previously it had been something to the effect of "someone with a lot of money" but this new understand of wealth was most clearly articulated by my boss, John Daut, "Wealth is defined by having more options." Growing up in middle class America, my life wasn't too hard. I didn't live on the wrong side of the tracks or have to get a job when I was 12 to support my family. But I also had to learn the value of a dollar saved in order to buy something that I wanted down the road. I started saving to buy a truck when I was 14 years old. Two months after my 16th birthday I finally found the truck of my dreams and handed all the money I had in the world over to get it. That 1985 Chevy Silverado was and still is my favorite vehicle I've ever owned.

But, looking back on it, the process of hunting for that truck that I first learned about the freedom that comes from wealth. The scope of my search, or the options that I had in making that purchase, were limited by the money that I'd managed to save for those two years prior. In the same way, when thinking about life after high school, the number of colleges that I got into was another variation of wealth. The more options I had, the better the choice that I could make. Again in job offers after college and career moves since then. The more options you have, the more wealth, not just money, you have accumulated.

I was asked recently if I could define "hustle." (And no I didn't just tell them to Google "Andy Ellwood") And while there are a lot of variations of how I've heard hustle thought about for various situations, the short answer I went with was this:

Consistently taking action toward an ultimate goal or objective. 

For me, I hustle for options. The more I hustle now, the more options I will have in the future. The more options I have in the future, the more freedom I will have to spend time with people I respect creating things that I'm passionate about. It isn't about hustling for hustling's sake. It is about knowing why you hustle and taking advantage of the options you create along the way.

So, on this 4th of July, here's to your life, your liberty, and your pursuit of happiness.