A Near-Death Wake-Up Call | Live Your Lif

Justin shares a personal story about a friend's near-death experience and reflects on the importance of living life to the fullest. He emphasizes the value of enjoying the journey, not just the hustle, and encourages listeners to prioritize their happiness and meaningful moments.



Key Topics
The importance of living life to the fullest
Personal story of a friend's near-death experience
Reflection on work-life balance and happiness
Encouragement to enjoy the journey, not just the hustle
The impact of life-threatening events on perspective
Takeaways
Live your life because you could die tomorrow.
Reflect on your goals and whether you're enjoying your life.
Prioritize meaningful moments with family and friends.
Don't wait for retirement to enjoy your life.
Celebrate small wins and build a life you love.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

What's going on, everybody? Welcome back to the Trailer Hustle Podcast. My name is Justin, and this is the Trailer Owners Network. I am super excited that you are here with me today. A couple of quick announcements before we get into this episode. July 31st, guys. So we've only got a few weeks, actually, barely a few weeks, like two and a half weeks left, before the trailer spot giveaway is officially over. Okay, so if you want to get in and you want to enter to win this car hauler from this from the trailer spot, you guys really need to get in there and quit delaying. What's crazy is we've got well over 2,000 active members now in the trailer hustle app. It's grown very quickly, and I'm very grateful for that. Very grateful for everybody being a part of that. We've got all kinds of new features rolling out. But of those people, not everybody has entered. If you're on the app, enter. It is free to enter this giveaway along with all the other ones out there. So, guys, please do that. Congrats to last week's giveaways, uh, giveaway winners as well. And um, we've got all kinds of cool stuff that's gonna be getting added to this very, very soon, including the trailer hustle trivia that I'm really excited about. Uh more to come on that. We're also overhauling, uh, and that part's actually done. We're building out the trivia now, but the um, or fine-tuning, I should say, the uh service logs within the app, the stolen trailer report option as well. So, like if you're uh wanting if you have a trailer that's stolen, you can submit that to the uh to the app and we'll contact you and we'll make sure that we put out a uh a push notification to all the people in your area or the area where the trailer was last seen to hopefully just have one more tool to get it back, kind of like an amber alert for your trailers. Um all that stuff has already been launched and a lot of it is coming very soon. So thank you guys so much for your support. The app is growing every day. I'm very grateful for that. But guys, please go and join this giveaway. The trailer spot is an incredible dealership out of Rustburg, Virginia. Jake, the uh the owner, he is uh an awesome guy and they have a great team. And um it's a it's a great lot. I drove up there and and checked it out and um you know sat with him for a few hours and and um you know hung out. And it's it's it's a great place. It's a really cool place to be, great place to work, and a great place to buy a trailer from. Um, and he is uh uh just excited to be a part of the trailer hustle community. And again, thank you, Jake, for sponsoring this incredible giveaway um, you know, to the trailer hustle community. So, guys, today's episode is um a little different than the normal stuff where I talk, you know, trailers, trailers, trailers. And I know that that's likely why the bulk of you watch this, or almost all of you watch this, but I just want to share a quick story in this episode from something that happened um a couple weeks ago. I went to lunch with a buddy of mine, and I used to work with him a while back. Um, you know, what's crazy is he's one of those guys where I didn't actually work with him directly um in the stores with within discount tire company, I'll just say it doesn't matter. And but anytime we had a company outing or a company event or something, we always kind of gravitated towards one another. Um, you know, me and him, we went on um one of the private, uh they call it a 200 flight, but we uh basically the company sends one of their private jets out, uh one of the company planes out, and they take you and your crew out. I got lucky enough to be invited to um his store was getting to go, and they had one extra seat for me and mine. So I was lucky enough to go. But you know, with that, me and him, we hung out the pretty much the whole time. The company would always do these outings at different places all over Florida. Anytime we do that, we'd always hang out. Um, you know, whatever it was. So we just, we just, I don't know. We just kind of, you know, there's some people we just gravitate towards, you know, you can tell they're good people, they can tell you're good people. And um, you know, he uh he lives about an hour and a half from me. But um I found out recently that he had some kind of crazy episode, something, something crazy happened. His heart stopped while he was sleeping, or something was going, something happened, okay. And so he survived, but I heard the cliff notes in text message about what had happened, and I'm like, dude, I gotta come see you. You know, so I happened to be doing business anyway in Lake City. I was gonna go out there anyways, but um one of those things. So anyway, so I ended up, I connect with him, we go to lunch, and apparently, I'm not gonna put too much of his business out there, I'm not gonna say who he is, but apparently um he had uh he he died a couple of times, like his heart stopped a couple few times during this whole thing. He ended up, you know, busting his head open, got a concussion, and you know, when he when he flung himself out of bed and like all this craziness. Like it's just a crazy episode. And after the fact, they can't figure out what's going on. They they have no idea. They assume it's like a um, I know they did like genetics testing, they did all that kind of stuff. Like there's not anything major that's standing out. Like, hey, this is what happened. Wasn't like a big heart attack type thing, wasn't where I don't know, or maybe it was a heart attack, but not quite the same as a regular. I don't really know the details. All I know is it scared the shit out of them, and it's pretty crazy. And I asked him the question that I'm sure everybody wants to ask somebody. Um, you know, I actually had the opportunity to ask somebody that basically died. He had the EKG from when he was being life flighted to the surgery center or to the primary place where he was at, and it shows where he had flatlined, and that was after his wife had already resuscitated him at the house before they came and picked him up. Um and I think he may have had one or two more close calls after that. But of course I got a chance to ask him, hey, what'd you see? Did you see anything? Was it just darkness? Do you just not remember anything? Did you see God? You know, those kinds of things. And I don't listen, uh it's not that I don't care what you believe, but whatever you believe, that's great. I have no issue there. Um, I'm one of those agnostic jerks, you know, where it's like, I believe there's something, I don't know what it is, so I don't really like um uh subscribe to anything specific. You know, I just want to live a good life, take care of the people around me, do good onto others, all that stuff. You know, that's basic morality. Um, but I don't get into that too too much. Uh but one of the if you are super religious or if you have a religion that you subscribe to that you are um very uh devoted to and all that, that's amazing. And I will never hate on anybody that has their beliefs. I can't hate on anybody for theirs. I hope they don't hate on me for mine. Okay, that's that's all I'm gonna say about that. But I asked him, I was like, Did you see anything? And he said right out of the gate, he's like, Yeah, and I'll I'll spare some details, but the gist was he he was told it's not his time. Okay, now my bigger message for this or my bigger takeaway from this isn't what he said he saw. Okay, first of all, I believe this guy, he would never make something like this up. Okay, he he's he's an extremely honest person, has a lot of integrity, and uh he's a very, very close friend, and he would be straight up with me. Won't talk about the the personal side of what he saw. But him and I are sitting here conversing at the table having lunch, you know, he kind of caught me up. I caught him up because we hadn't seen each other in a little while, and I'm telling him all these things I've got going on, you know, the things that I'm doing with trailer hustle and the rentals, and you know, we're we're building a house and we're doing all these things. And you know, he's proud of me, and I'm proud of him, and like all these things we're doing. But I was certainly saying way more of what I got going on than what he was. Right now he's trying to relax a little bit because you know he just almost almost died, or he did die technically, and you know, he's just overwhelmed with just pride for his buddy, you know, the things that I got going on and things I'm trying to do and this hustle we're doing. And um the biggest thing he said to me was hey, if anybody can say this to you and you know they mean it, especially from experience, it's me. So I'm gonna say this to you live your life. So live your life because you can die tomorrow. And sure, everybody says that. And I've I've said things, you know, before I used to tell people as much as possible, like when I was managing with a different company, I'd tell my my employees and I'd tell my my co-workers we'll call them, like, hey, as much as you can be out of this building, be out of this building. You know, use your personal time, use your vacation time. Um, you know, you can't live to work. And when he said that to me, it hit a little different because this is a guy that's worked very hard his entire life. Um, you know, he's a hustler as well. And he actually, when he left the discount tire company, he um got into the hotshot industry. So he's uh you know, he he's he's he's in our industry, so he he knows the drill and he knows the struggles and a lot of the hustle that can go along with it. And he just he said, Live your life because you could die tomorrow. And then I was like, Yeah, yeah, for sure. And he goes, Hey, Justin, I'm serious. Live your life because you could die tomorrow. And um, shout out to you. I know you're watching this, bro. Um, and it it hit me a little different because it wasn't coming just from some generic talking head or whatever. It wasn't coming from somebody that wrote a book that's you know a philosopher or whatever, you know, or somebody that thinks they're trying to sound edgy and cool or what I don't know. I don't know. I don't even know how to describe it. I'm not cultured enough to be able to explain this the right way. But my point is it came from a very close friend of mine, somebody that I have an immense amount of respect for, somebody that I know just went through something extremely traumatic and is relatively young for this kind of thing to happen to him. And he meant it with everything. You know, he meant it with every fiber of his of his being. And it it got me thinking. It got me thinking about how much work I do, it got me thinking about my goals and my timetable for myself and all that kind of stuff. And um I just wanted to kind of like I I kind of reflected on the drive home because I had, you know, a little bit of a ride, you know, I'm driving through the woods and stuff, and you know, there's no I tried not to pick up the phone, you know, which is rare for me, but I was like, I just want to soak in this and think about the uh the experience of talking to them and and hearing that from them. And it got me thinking like, at what point do I start or do we start enjoying these things that we've built? You know we're we're always, you know, we'll think of the reason why we get started into our side hustles, you know, what's what's the reason for it? You know, more control over our lives or more time with our family, um, you know, more freedom, more financial security. You know, all these reasons we tell ourselves as to why we get started in these side hustles or these these industries or whatever it is that we do, right? All this extra work that we do. But at what point do we start actually enjoying our life or start actually focusing on the reasons why we got started? You know? And I think about this from time to time, but it definitely hit different after after talking with them and hearing about what happened to them and and getting that gut check of like, yo, if this this thing, this whole thing that we're doing here, this could end like that out of nowhere, you know, just be gone. And that would be the worst thing ever for me to have this thing end, have my life end out of nowhere before I've actually gotten to enjoy the fruits of my labor. And I've already kind of been having these talks, you know, I talk with my lady and I talk with family and I talk with, you know, a couple of close friends and some of you guys about this, about you know, when is it gonna be time to be able to relax and slow down and that kind of thing? And I I don't want it to be when I'm retired or at 65 or whatever, because what if I don't make it there? What if I'm crippled? What if I'm just you know 10 times fatter than I am now? You know what I mean? I just can't climb up those stairs to see that view, you know, or whatever it is. I got a million examples like that, but you know, when are we gonna slow down and focus on the things that we started doing these things for in the first place? You know, a lot of y'all, and myself included, we have to sometimes slow down and look like, okay, I'm further along than I give myself credit for. I've been doing a lot better than I give myself credit for. I actually have more money than I give myself credit for. I have more hours in the day than I give myself credit for. Um, and I have built this thing that I don't give myself enough credit for. I don't care if you are one trailer deep or 30 trailers deep. You know, let's just say if you're a trailer renter watching this, you know, it doesn't matter where you're at in that process, there's there's likely um a path for you to slow down for a second and look back at what you've built and what you're doing and be proud of it and be able to just slow down and take a second and celebrate in that. And that could be as something as small as, hey, take your spouse out to dinner, take your kids to um a theme park or whatever, and just unplug and relax a little bit. Um, or it could be something as big as taking a big family vacation or just take time off of work and turn your phone off. I mean, whatever, whatever it is. I'm certainly going to attempt to do that more and more and more. And um, you know, I want to um do what he said. I want to live my life because I could die tomorrow, you know. So I want you guys to take your vacations. I want you guys to go to your kids' ball games. You know what I mean? I want you to visit your parents and spend time with friends and all these things that you want to do, whatever that goal was when you first set out, even if it was just I want more freedom, okay, use your freedom. Because chances are, in the pursuit of that, you're hustling 24-7. You get done with one job. Throughout that job, you're focusing on your side hustle as well. You can't help it. It's just part of it. But then after that, it's straight to the grind again. And even if you feel like, no, I take time off, I do stuff, really just slow down. If, if anything else, just take from this episode, take 10 minutes after this episode and just sit there and close your eyes and think. You know, just think about what is it, what it, or or write it down. Whatever your process is, whatever works for you. What is, what are the things that I do to enjoy my life? How has this hustle benefited me? What was my initial goal? Have I hit that goal? Am I able to actually capitalize on the root, you know, on the things that I said I wanted to do by starting this thing? And the answer is probably yes, you can. The answer is probably right in front of you, but take time and just think about it. I want you guys to be happy. I mean, that you know, we I talk constantly about every day do one thing, you know, and I still believe that, but at the same time, you know, success isn't measured by you know, revenue or trailers or you know, the growth of the business or anything like that. You know, it's it's about building the life that you actually enjoy living. And certainly that goalpost moves quite a bit throughout our lives, but I'm pretty confident if we all slow down and just pay attention just a little bit longer than we normally do in our quick million mile an hour thought process that we always have, this thought carousel that's that's going on. I think a lot of us have actually hit probably that initial goal we set for ourselves or hit um some type of threshold where we can take a step back and start enjoying our lives a little bit more. You don't have to completely stop the grind and you know, don't just pump the brakes completely because of this, but we can incorporate more of live in our lives. And I would love to see more of that um in my own life, and I will share that with you guys, and I hope that y'all share it with me as well. You know, I'm I'm I'm becoming friends with a lot of you guys on Facebook. I never used to accept any friend requests on Facebook just because it was like, if I don't, like if I picked up the phone and called somebody out of the blue that I went to high school with, if they were if they would be surprised to hear from me, then they're not my friend on Facebook. That's how I used to see it, but it's a little different nowadays. I kind of see it a little different. I kind of treat that more as an extension of my community and and um you know my acquaintances and the people that I'm connected with through this thing. I'm a little bit less like black and white about it, but I would love for you guys to tag me or send me, uh, share with me the things that you post up where you're out enjoying your life, doing your thing. I don't care if you're going to the fair, going to the movies, going to another country for a week-long vacation, whatever it is, guys. Um, you know, I want to make sure that you guys are prioritizing it just as much as you're prioritizing your hustle. All right. Enjoying your life and creating memories right now and pursuing the other things, pursuing the things that you think building your business is going to allow you to pursue. Chances are you can go ahead and get started now, regardless of what, where you're at in the process of your hustle. So, you know, uh, I still believe in hustling and working hard, but uh, and that will always be a factor. But uh let's enjoy our lives, guys. That's that's kind of the message of this video. And to anybody that has had one of these experiences, if you know anybody that's had one of these near-death experiences or whatever it is, where it really scared them, you know, or really shook them up, which I imagine anybody that has one of those probably got scared or got shook up, ask them, talk to them about it, you know. Hey, what would you do differently? What if you'd have died? What would your regret be? You know, if you had died right then? What is it that you wish you had done or wish you had said or wish you had accomplished, or, you know, whatever. What memories didn't you create that you would go back and create knowing that that was your time, you know, because we're not going to get that opportunity. You know, when it's done, it's done. And um, this isn't my normal type of content. Apologies once again. This is just a little quickie thing, but I definitely wanted to um comment on this because it's really been sitting with me the past couple weeks. And I really wanted to make this video after I've given it plenty of thought after having my lunch with my buddy. And and um, you know, it's a it's a big deal to me, guys. And I really, really I care about, I care about each and every one of y'all that consume my content or that are a part of the trailer hustle community and the network. And um, I just want anybody that I've ever impacted, whether it be through content or through speaking to you or inspiration for something, or you hear bad advice from me or whatever. I mean, I don't care how I've impacted you, if I've touched your life in some way, please just allow this one thing at least to be true uh or to be um uh as impactful. Live your life because you could die tomorrow. So keep hustling, start living life, have some fun, guys. This is the Trailer Owners Network. I'm glad that you guys are here. Normally scheduled programming coming after this one. So stay tuned. I appreciate you guys. Please like and subscribe as well. That really does help the channel and help trailer hustle, and it doesn't cost you anything. So click below and do that. Thank you guys so much. Y'all have an amazing day. Talk soon.