Accept the Challenge

Matthew McConaughey recently shared a story about traveling through villages in Mali, Africa, on the Diary of a CEO podcast with Steven Bartlett. It went like this:

Each village was separated by miles of hiking, and word spread quickly about the strong white man who visited. They called him Douda. They weren’t interested that he was a writer or actor, but when he said he wrestled, they locked in. Because in those villages, wrestling was their favorite pastime.

One night, after a 14-mile trek, McConaughey was stretching on the ground when the village wrestler, Michel, appeared. He was five feet nine, with tree-trunk legs and weighed 220 pounds; he just looked like a wrestler. Soon the crowd gathered, and the challenge was clear: it was time to wrestle.

He was tired. He was sore. But he stood up, accepted the challenge, and went all in. Back and forth they went, round after round, as the chief and crowd cheered them on. Eventually, the match ended with blood, bruises, and McCaughey being raised on the shoulders of the crowd. It was an electric and magical evening.

The next day, as McConaughey was getting ready to leave the town, Michel showed up and walked all 14 miles with him to the next town. Before Michel left, he looked at McConaughey and said, “You did very well in our match, but it wasn’t about you winning or losing; you became the big man of the village when you accepted the challenge.”

That’s the point. It’s not necessarily about winning or losing today, it’s about accepting the challenge in front of you. I don’t know what the challenge will be, but I do know it requires you to accept it.

Don’t wait for the perfect moment or try to avoid the challenge. Accept it. Embrace it. Attack it.

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