There were a lot of times during my fighting career where I questioned what I was doing with my life.
I was away from home. I was broke. I was missing my family. I was putting everything I had into fighting, and there was absolutely no guarantee that any of it was going to work.
That's the part people don't really see when somebody finally “makes it.”
They see the UFC walkout. They see your name on the poster. They see you fighting on TV.
They don't see all the years before that when you're asking yourself if you're wasting your time.
There was a point right before I eventually made it to the UFC where I was seriously thinking about being done with fighting. I was tired. I had been doing it for so long. At some point you start asking yourself if chasing the dream still makes sense.
Should I just go home?
Should I get a normal job?
Am I being irresponsible?
Am I actually going anywhere with this?
Those questions get louder when you're tired.
But I kept going.
And eventually I got the call to fight in the UFC.
I think about that all the time now.
Not because I believe everybody should blindly chase something forever. There are definitely times when you need to change direction.
But sometimes we mistake being exhausted for being finished.
Sometimes nothing is actually wrong with the path. You've just been walking on it for a very long time.
Had I quit a little earlier, I would've never known how close I actually was to reaching one of the biggest goals of my life.
That lesson follows me into business now.
There are days when something isn't working. There are days when I'm tired of figuring things out. There are days when I'm wondering why I created another problem for myself by starting another business.
And sometimes I have to remind myself of the fighter version of Frank who wanted to quit too.
You may need to rest.
You may need to adjust.
You may need help.
But don't automatically quit just because you're tired.