The “sweet” side of adversity

Can I be honest with you?

Life is exhausting.

There’s a lot going on right now, both personally and professionally. And I’m feeling it physically, mentally, and every other which way possible.

Considering what my friends are saying, what the news is reporting, and what I’m seeing around me… I’d say there’s a good chance you might be going through the ringer, too.

That’s why I’m writing about my own struggles today: to broadcast a rallying cry as loud as I can for all our sakes – my own included – as we press on toward bigger and better things.

To paraphrase Benjamin Graham, the father of value investing (and Warren Buffett’s mentor), it’ll be worth it in the end.

I obviously don’t know your specific story. For my part, I acquired full rights and responsibilities to Wide Moat Research about 90 days ago. And let me tell you…

The past month and a half have been among the most stressful stages of my career.

There are numerous new responsibilities and uncertainties to deal with, complete with meetings lined up – often back to back – to deal with those challenges. That’s to say nothing of my normal full-time schedule of researching, analyzing, writing, and managing.

So yeah, I’m drained.

Yet I still wake up every morning with a sense of confidence. Not because I know exactly what the future holds, but because I already know what adversity looks like.

I’ve faced hardship before – several times, in fact. And I’ve come out ahead every time, learning a whole slew of valuable lessons along the way.

Really, when I look back on my life, I realize that every meaningful achievement I’ve ever made was forged through adversity. In which case, every bit of adversity was well worth the trial.

No matter how it felt in the moment.

I’ve written before about how my mother had to raise me and my younger brother alone. My father was an alcoholic, so they split fairly early on. And she got sole custody – and responsibility – of us boys.

My mom did an awesome job. I can’t say enough about the sacrifices she made to provide for our family. Yet there was still a notable and obvious absence in our lives.

That was my first real experience with adversity and therefore my first opportunity to rise above it.

On the one hand, I didn’t have the benefit of a father encouraging me toward my goals – a lack I definitely felt as I moved toward high school with the hopes of playing varsity football. Yet I turned that absence into a source of motivation, determining to prove to myself that I could succeed anyway.

Life doesn’t always just accept that determination at face value, however. Sometimes it wants to test your resolve by giving you a staph infection mere weeks before you begin ninth grade.

At first, I thought it was nothing more than a bug bite on my leg. But when the swelling worsened and so did the pain, my mom took me to the doctor…

Who quickly admitted me to the hospital…

Where I vividly remember sitting in the waiting room, hearing someone say I would likely lose my leg and/or never walk normally again.

Those words could have been devastating: the end to so many dreams. For me though, they became fuel going into my limb-saving surgery and over the next month in the hospital.

I ended up missing most of my freshman year of high school because of that infection. Yet I didn’t let the “downtime” go to waste, determining that I would walk again. Normally.

To that end, I got up every morning to move my legs, starting with a limp… which turned into a walk… which encouraged me to take up running after that.

People could and did say what they wanted to about my future. But it ultimately wasn’t theirs to determine, no matter what obstacles came my way.

I had a much greater say in its long-term trajectory, and I made sure to make it count.

By my sophomore year, I had shifted my athletic attention to basketball, absolutely determined to play in college. But when I tried out for the varsity team, I didn’t make it.

Another setback.

Another opportunity to build character and perseverance.

That’s how I came to spend the next two years working on my game by playing church basketball. So by the time I walked onto South Carolina’s Presbyterian College campus, I was ready to go.

I went on to play four years there while studying and simultaneously participating in the Reserve Officers’ Training Corps (ROTC). All because I refused to take disappointment lying down.

There were plenty of other hurdles that happened after I graduated, while I began my career, launched my own business, and started a family. There always are, as should be expected.

What’s not so expected is suffering a stroke in your 40s.

At the time, I was going through the painful business breakup I detailed earlier this month. The stress was immense, and my expenses were piling up.

One morning, after taking my children to school, I noticed something wrong with my speech. And when I tried to recite the alphabet, it came out sounding more like random sounds.

My wife immediately called 911 when I got home, and I was rushed to the hospital for an entire day of testing… that couldn’t determine a clear cause of the stroke.

Once again, it appeared that life had delivered an unexpected hospital-bed blow. And once again, I reached the same conclusion that somehow, someway, I was going to become stronger from it.

So I did.

I did through the rest of that mess of a partnership and its exceptionally unpleasant aftermath. I did through the 2008 housing market crash that hit right after I’d finally gotten my finances in order. And I did through the years that followed as I remade myself into an author, an analyst, and an entrepreneur.

There are so many memories, connections, and resources I have today that simply wouldn’t have happened if not for all that “doing.” Just as importantly, my trials put me in an expert position to tell you that you can get through whatever you’re going through as well.

SpaceX (SPCX) is still all over the news, making headlines and causing commentary left and right.

But over here at The Wide Moat Show, we’re content to talk about other topics.

After all, other topics – like the seven “boring” bargain stocks Nick Ward and I cover in this week’s episode – are primed to yield very nice results.

Catch the full episode right here.