A weekly brief for men building careers and families.

Good evening, my fellow night owls, and good morning to the responsible ones who go to bed earlier and will see this in the AM. Back from the West Coast - and say what you want about California, it was dope. I get it. I get why people live there. Just based on the views and the weather alone, I get it. I also spent a summer out in LA during college and it brought back good memories, so yeah, you could say I was feeling it. Also glad to be back in Tennessee. - C

This week's issue is short and sweet (and a day later than usual) because ya boi left it all on the field traveling with three kids across the country for a week. It was turnt - and then turnt all the way down when we got home. Still drained and recovering from five days of little sleep.

01 - The Core 🎯

One principle to carry into the week.

THE QUOTE

THE TAKE

I started writing this on the plane ride home from California on Sunday night, somewhere over the southwest, trying to keep three kids occupied on a long flight (shoutout Delta for seatback screens and solid free WiFi), trying to get my thoughts down before I lost them completely.

The trip started great, with beach days, quality time, the kind of week that reminds you why you work as hard as you do - and ended with a full weekend of family wedding festivities that required every ounce of energy we had left.

We got home at 11pm Sunday, I was back at work Monday morning, and I'm finishing this on a Tuesday night when most people are asleep.

The iron was not hot when I sat down to write this. It still isn't. But this quote is one of the most practical things a man can understand about the season most of us are in right now.

We are building careers and raising families at the same time, which means the conditions are almost never going to be perfect and the energy you need for the next important thing is usually already being spent somewhere else.

The man waiting until he feels ready is going to keep waiting, because the iron doesn't get hot on its own and the right moment has a way of never arriving.

You start before you feel like it. The heat comes from the striking.

REMEMBER: The standard doesn't move because your week was hard. That's the whole point of having one.

THE MOVE

Reflect on this question this week:

What are you waiting on the right conditions for - and what would happen if you just started anyway?

02 - The Question ❓

One question for the week.

Last week, the question was asked, “When your kids frustrate you most, what's usually underneath it?” Here were the results:

Know a man who'd find this useful? Forward this to him.

Hold the line,

-Collier