I was lying by the pool on vacation when my 10-year-old son came over. He wanted a specific song to be played at the pool bar. “Can you ask them for me?” he said.
My first reaction: I don’t want to bother the staff. A small hesitation. A small limiting belief.
Then I realized: this is a great moment to teach him something. So instead of asking for him, I gave him one simple English sentence so he could ask himself. Excitedly, he ran over (how cool is it that kids always run because they are so enthusiastic!) and asked.
One minute later… his song was playing. (Seven Nation Army, in case you’re wondering.)
And it hit me: the song says “a seven nation army couldn’t hold me back.”
But often something much stronger holds us back — our own mind.
Our mind creates:- stories about why we can’t have something- resistance to our own desires- fear of rejection.
So we hedge our bets. We play small. But rejection is not a fact. It’s a thought. An interpretation. That doesn’t mean anything.
What’s real is the action we take — the courage to ask.
Whether the answer is yes or no, what matters is that we tried.
That we didn’t stay small. That we didn’t dilute our dreams.
A simple lesson from a child at a pool bar:
👉 Dare to ask. 👉 Dare to create. 👉 And remember: not succeeding doesn’t mean anything about you.
