written by john c ashworth
...by his junior year, he was a millionaire and poker was no longer the distraction - school was.
are you betting on yourself?
the story is that of poker superstar Dan Cates, and how the stories from his youth included below provide important insight for the rest of us...
Cates first took-up poker when he was 15; and after many years of trying to squeeze himself into a normal lifestyle ultimately decided to bet BIG and bet on himself.
Cates career earnings now top $23 million.
how would you respond?
1. when Cates was 12, a girl broke his heart, and he started wondering whether something was wrong with him. So he read the Bible front to back. When he reached the end and the answers hadn’t revealed themselves, he decided to read the whole thing again.
2. after being cheated out of $5,000 playing poker as a kid, Cates wasn’t deterred. He took a job working the drive-through window at McDonald’s to build back his stash, determined to get better.
3. Cates eventually lost his academic scholarship. By his junior year, he was a millionaire and poker wasn’t the distraction — school was.
“I could focus on poker, or I could go back and write book reports and take these math classes that I don’t remember one thing from,” he says now. “So the decision was really clear for me.”
what do you need to do to get clarity?
what's speaking to you?
what’s your path?
what’s your choice?
-john
here's a link to the original Washington Post article that inspired this post.
