A Lion Doesn’t Roar Before the Hunt

In this episode of The Fuck It Shift, Adam Ross explains why some dreams need to be protected before they’re announced to the world.

Adam talks about what happens when you share a new idea, career move or ambition with people who immediately shut it down. Their reaction may have less to do with your potential—and more to do with their inability to imagine something they’ve never experienced themselves.

He breaks down why belief often has to come before proof. The people around you may need to see something working before they accept that it’s possible, but waiting for their approval can stop you before you ever begin.

This episode is about learning to move in silence.

As Adam puts it, a lion doesn’t roar before the hunt. It does the work first and lets the outcome make the noise.

He also discusses how to choose the right people for advice. Instead of asking someone whether they believe you can succeed, ask what they understand about the idea, the market or the path you’re considering. Their answer will quickly reveal whether their opinion is informed—or simply fear disguised as guidance.

Adam reflects on rebuilding his own life from a basement apartment, filling inexpensive scrapbooks with business ideas and holding onto a quiet feeling that something bigger was still possible.

Because not every dream arrives with a complete plan.

Sometimes it begins as a thought that keeps returning, a feeling that you were meant for more or an idea that won’t let you sleep.

Protect it. Put it on paper. Start moving.

You can roar when the work is done.

Socials:

IG: @adamross_online
TikTok: @adamross_online
LinkedIn: Adam Ross

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Welcome to the Fuck It Chip Podcast. I'm Adam Ross, joined by producer Jay, who's going to hit me with a question.

SPEAKER_01 0:05

Adam, what would you tell somebody, or what advice would you have to someone who wants to go and do something and has told two people about what they want to do? And those two people both shut down their idea right away. What would you tell them?

SPEAKER_00 0:17

So you've shared a secret, something you want to do. You want to take a new path, a career path, you want to try something new. And immediately the two people that come in mind that you want to share it with, shut it down. I want you to know something. We live in a world where people need to see it to believe it. And you need to believe it to see it. They say, Connor McGregor said, if you can see it in your mind, you can hold it in your hand. It's the same idea. Those two people you told, or everyone you're gonna tell, has never fucking done it before. So of course they're going to shut it down. Remember, right? People live in this mindset that if it hasn't happened before, or they can't see somebody doing it, or they don't think that what you want to do is something they can see you doing because they don't believe, they're a waste of time to tell. Jay, faith and believing doesn't make it easy. But if you have enough belief and enough faith, it makes it possible. So it's you that needs to believe, not anybody else in your life.

SPEAKER_01 1:40

We talked about this before about when you have an idea, sometimes keeping it to yourself before you tell anybody and kind of like doing that grind in private. Do you still agree with that idea before telling anyone, kind of like doing the work behind the scenes?

SPEAKER_00 1:55

Yes, move in silence. I just told a colleague of mine, a lion does not roar to start the hunt. It roars after the kill. If you run around telling everybody who do not believe you, who have no real experience or have held it in their own hand that you're going to do something spectacular, they're going to treat it like an opportunity to shut it down because people love to hold people down, speak negativity, cast doubt like it's a fucking sport. And if you listen to these people, you're going to stay exactly at their level, exactly at their comfort level, and you're never going to do anything great. Or you're not going to try something you completely suck at and realize that it wasn't for you, which is an even bigger gift for you. Because you'd rather, I would rather you roll the dice and take a chance to find out you're not good at it or it didn't work, than you to lay in bed for the rest of your life wondering if I had taken the chance.

SPEAKER_01 3:09

Now, the kind of opposite of that, if you can find some people in your friend circle that do support the hell out of you and you tell them an idea and they really, really encourage you, especially it'll give you an example. Um, if I had an idea and I told you and you were just kind of like, this is amazing, I love it, go for it. That would encourage me coming from you, somebody who's built something from the ground up. So it would want me to keep going and going. Now, if you can find those people, is that a good thing to kind of ask them their advice, but go in with a kind of a mindset that I'm going in with a learning mindset instead of I just want you to tell me it'll work?

SPEAKER_00 3:50

Here's what I tell you to do. If you're looking for people to align with you and you want to share your idea and try and find advice or get mentorship or get feedback, it's how you pose the questions or the or expose what you want to do. Instead of saying, you know, hey I want to do XYZ and I want to create this new product and I think it'll fit here, X, Y, Z, and you really respect this person, then I would I would open up a dialogue on I've had some thoughts about what we would maybe like to do or what you're seeing in the market. And I respect your opinion, or I would love some of your feedback, or do you know much about what you're trying to do? Because then it comes back, you're asking that person of uh respect, the person that you have some respect for for their insight and their thoughts on it, rather than their thoughts on whether you can do it. And then you're more apt to get maybe a little more even level. If they say, I really don't know anything about it, you've already checked off the box. They don't see it, so they wouldn't believe it. So what's the point? What comes out of their mouth after that is just going to be negative. They know nothing about it. It probably wouldn't work. Here's all the reasons why it wouldn't work. Remember, we're all programmed to say, oh, it won't work. Don't do that, Jay. Instead, if you post it as more of a fact-finding mission and some feedback on what their thoughts would be on that or what did they know about it, then you could gauge the answer. Instead of just blurting out, we're gonna go on a hunt. You've got to be strategic on who you align yourself with, even if they agree.

SPEAKER_01 5:45

Because I know you now, I know you're the type of person that does believe it before you actually see it, but I didn't know you back when you were rebuilding. Back in those days, did you have doubts that this, all of this around us, you right now, would exist? If you did have those doubts, how did you finally get over them? I know you're big on affirmations, and did that help you start to believe it before you saw it?

SPEAKER_00 6:10

Yeah, listen, at rock bottom, you don't believe anything's gonna work out. And I understand that. When I was going through it myself, I had this really strange feeling one night in a shitty basement apartment that I had something big I was going to do. And I would, I'll tell you how strong it was. I used to get out at that time, my kids had scrapbooks, and I used to get out their scrapbooks. I could only afford them from the dollar store, that really crappy craft brown paper. And I would just sit there and write out business ideas and things that I was thinking and problems that weren't working in business, and I knew fucking nothing about trying to like aimlessly search for this idea, and I didn't know what it was, but I had this feeling in that I was going to be okay. But that was not immediately during that period of kind of like rebuilding and ramping back up. It only it was only came to me when I got tired of the live of this of the ceiling and the situation I felt stuck in. So if you have that, there's something more for me, there's something bigger for me, but I'm just not doing it. And I think a lot of young people feel this way right now, with the outside pressure of social media, with why am I not here yet? Don't just dismiss that. It could be the stories that come to you in the middle of the night, the things that get put inside your brain are put there by the universe for a reason. Even if you debunk spirituality, there's a reason why you're thinking it right now. Put it to paper. Write down all the things that would work that would you'd have to do completely fuck up to make it not possible. And do the opposite of that. And maybe you got something there. Until next time. See you on the other side, Jay.