S4 | 01: Damn the Excuses. Take Responsibility

People listened to this advice over 3 million times!

Jan 02, 2026

“Excuses are the tools of the incompetent.
They build monuments of nothingness.
Those who use them are not wise.”

I wanted to share that quote with you before you create or accept an excuse. Before you tell yourself the story you’ve been rehearsing for the past twelve months. Before you convince yourself that your situation is different.

Because it’s not.

Let me be blunt with you.

Right now, you have a choice.

You can spend the next 30 days like you spent the last 365—building monuments of nothingness. Stacking reasons. Collecting proof that life is hard and circumstances are unfair, and you’re doing the best you can.

Or you can do what every single person who ever built something exceptional did:

Take responsibility. Ditch the excuses.

Everyone Has Reasons. Winners Have Results.

Here’s what most people don’t realize:

Everyone (and I mean everyone) has a clear, convincing, and absolutely legitimate reason for their current situation.

The broke guy has reasons.
The overweight person has reasons.
The stuck entrepreneur has reasons.
The unhappy employee has reasons.

And you know what?... Those reasons are probably true.

Maybe you didn’t have the right mentor. Maybe the economy tanked. Maybe your family didn’t support you or didn’t even have the capacity to in the first place. Maybe someone betrayed you. Maybe life dealt you a brutal hand.

I’m not here to tell you those things didn’t happen.

I’m here to tell you that accepting them as your story is the biggest mistake you’ll ever make.

Because here’s the truth most self-help books won’t tell you:

Your reasons don’t matter.

Not to the market. Not to your goals. Not to the life you want to build.

The only thing that matters is taking responsibility.

The Graveyard Is Full Of People With Good Reasons

Jim Rohn said it best:
“You can have results or excuses. Not both.”

There are people right now (this very second) who had it worse than you and still won.

Worse childhood.
Worse finances.
Worse health.
Worse timing.

And they still found a way.

Not because they got lucky.
Not because they were special.
Not because they didn’t have obstacles.

Because they made a decision:

“I refuse to let my circumstances write my story.”

That’s it. That’s the difference between the people who transform and the people who stay stuck.

One group builds monuments of nothingness with their reasons.
The other group builds empires on the ashes of their excuses.

Which one are you?

The Bigger the Dragon, the More Epic the Story.

I would like to tell you about Spartacus.

In the arena, there was a gladiator so feared, so brutal, and so undefeated that they called him Theokoles—the Shadow of Death.

Even the Doctore (the master trainer), a legend in his own right, couldn’t defeat him. Theokoles had ended careers. Ended lives. He was the dragon no one wanted to face.

And then came Spartacus.

Wounded. Unproven. Facing certain death.

He stepped into the arena and did what everyone said was impossible.

He brought down Theokoles. And when he did, the gods themselves opened the heavens. Rain fell on Rome for the first time in months. The drought ended. A legend was born.

From that moment forward, Spartacus wasn’t just a gladiator.

He was “the slayer of Theokoles, the bringer of rain.”

Now let me ask you…

What if your biggest obstacle is actually your biggest opportunity?

What if the thing you’re using as an excuse (the debt, the diagnosis, your parents’ divorce, the setback) is actually the dragon you were meant to slay?

What if your epic story is waiting on the other side of the work and dedication you’re avoiding?

You don’t get legendary stories from easy battles.

You get them from facing the Shadow of Death and refusing to back down.

Stop Negotiating With Your Excuses

I want you to watch something.

There’s a video with over 3 million views where Alex Hormozi sits down to offer strategic advice to a guy named Avante. Avante is broke. Frustrated. Stuck. And like most people, he’s got reasons.

He explains his situation. His obstacles. His limitations. But Alex—calmly, methodically, ruthlessly—dismantles every single excuse.

Not with sympathy.
Not with motivational fluff.
With tactical precision.

He shows Avante exactly what he needs to do. The exact blueprint. The exact steps.

And then he says something that stopped me cold:

“You don’t have a resource problem. You have a commitment problem.”

That’s it.

Most people aren’t missing the plan. They’re missing the guts to execute it.

They’re negotiating with their excuses instead of declaring war on them.

If you haven’t watched that video, the link is at the tail end of this post. Let it wash over you. Let it strip away the stories you’ve been telling yourself.

If you ditch excuses, commit to discipline, and stay consistent long enough, amazing things WILL happen for you in 2026.

Not might. Not maybe.

Will.

The Choice Is Yours. But Make It Now.

You’re standing at a crossroads.

Path One: Keep building monuments of nothingness. Collect more reasons. Stack more proof that life is hard. Show up in December 2026 with the same story you had in December 2025.

Path Two: Take responsibility. Face the dragon. Do the work no one else is willing to do for 30 days straight (no days off) and watch what happens when you stop negotiating with mediocrity.