25 hours a day

When Nick Bare told his father in 2012 that he was going to make a million dollars in his first year selling sports nutrition supplements, his father warned him "If it was that easy, anyone could do it." Undeterred, Nick took out a $20,000 loan and purchased inventory, hoping to get orders flooding in after sending free samples to fitness YouTubers. But after a year, sales totaled just $15,000, mostly from deep discounts to friends and family.

Nick did not give up on his dream of building a successful sports nutrition company. While serving active duty in the U.S. Army, he slowly built his brand, Bare Performance Nutrition (BPN). He started documenting his own fitness journey on social media in 2014 and noticed small increases in sales when he posted YouTube videos. After four years of relentless effort, BPN was making only about $2,000 per month.

The US Army's Ranger School is an intense eight-week course legendary for its daily misery. Long marches with heavy packs are combined with simulated raids and ambushes to approximate the stresses of war without actual combat. Candidates who struggle can be "recycled" and sent back to repeat training phases, which is what happened to Nick Bare. He initially failed graded patrols and had to stay at Ranger School an extra six weeks. He then failed his first Mountain phase attempt, requiring yet another recycle. By graduation, his weight had dropped from 220 to 170 pounds.

This experience taught Bare an intense commitment he had never known, an "over-commitment" to his goal no matter the pain or obstacles. He later applied this mindset building his supplement company Bare Performance Nutrition (BPN). Ignoring naysayers, Bare relentlessly focused on his vision and pushed forward despite worries about paying the bills. Gradually a pathway emerged from the uncertainty.

In BPN's early days, Bare made mistakes by merely copying competitors without developing his own unique vision and approach. But once he laid out a specific vision and plan, executing it relentlessly, things smoothed out. He became clear on his audience, mission and execution steps rather than throwing darts blindly.

When Nick Bare realized in 2014 that YouTube had potential to grow his nutrition company, he invested his last $500 in a video camera and began learning how to produce videos by watching online tutorials. Nick knew he needed to make the videos himself because he had a clear vision for his company and how he wanted to portray it through video. He didn't think he could convey that vision properly by hiring someone else. The key was providing value to his audience by using video to educate, inform and inspire.

Nick's goal wasn't just increasing sales or making money from his videos. He wanted to leverage video to build a community around his brand and document his own fitness and nutrition journey. Learning videography himself rather than hiring a professional enabled Nick to also learn how to leverage other social media platforms. Teaching himself video production sparked an understanding of social media marketing overall. His passion for learning fueled rapid skill development. Nick applied what he learned about video best practices more broadly across platforms.

Entitlement is a dangerous attitude that prevents personal growth. The belief that the world owes you something just because you have talent tempts you to remain idle instead of putting in hard work. In the military, you quickly realize no one owes you anything – your pay stays the same regardless of effort, and there are no guarantees of recognition or rewards.

Nick Bare experienced this culture shock when he left the Army to focus full-time on building his nutrition business. Suddenly the onus for generating income, self-care, and determining his effort level and success fell squarely on his shoulders. It was a heavy burden, but also liberating since he controlled his own fate.

Nick decided to put his head down and work hard instead of complaining or feeling sorry for himself. He ended up working for five years before he could pay himself, missing his initial goal to make $1 million in year one. This taught him that success requires patience and accrues over time through persistent effort. It shifted his perspective to think in terms of long-term investment rather than short-term sprints.

Building a prosperous company necessitates total commitment and full immersion. Entrepreneur Nick Bare proclaims, "The exclusive avenue to construct something extraordinary is to fully, utterly, and wholly dedicate 100 percent to your undertaking." This entails prioritizing your enterprise above all else in life and willingness to make major personal sacrifices.

For Bare, full immersion meant converting his modest 1,100 square foot abode in Texas into the international headquarters for his supplement firm, Bare Performance Nutrition (BPN). He loaded the garage with pallets of merchandise and altered the living room into storage for shaker bottles. Bare, his brother, and a college companion bedded wherever they could insert air mattresses among the boxes. They carved a path just wide adequate for a mattress in one chamber and zilch more. Constructing the business was their sole emphasis in life, without diversions.

The mindset of "winning the day back" means beginning each morning feeling like you're lagging behind on accomplishments. The immediate challenge becomes cramming as much achievement as possible into the upcoming hours.

Adopting this outlook daily sidesteps worries about the long-term future. Few things deflate motivation faster than early wins giving way to complacency. Guard against this by continually pushing yourself to maximize your potential. View each new sunrise as a chance to end the victorious day, building your life day-by-day through consistent effort. As entrepreneur Nick Bare explains: "I wake up every morning behind where I want to be and work to flip that before I sleep." The alternative is ending days where you started them, wasting time on fantasies rather than concrete gains. Take responsibility for daily progress by winning every next 24 hours. In Bare's words: "Winning the day isn't an accident but a commitment to maximize my chances today. I could pass away tomorrow before reaching the next milestone. But I'm here now, able to give today my all."

Pushing past self-imposed limits allows us to realize our full potential. We naturally restrict ourselves out of fear or seeking comfort. The concept of “going one more” provides a framework to break through these boundaries. It means never being satisfied and continually striving for more – one extra repetition, mile, task.

By leaning into difficulty, we discover abilities beyond our expectations. Progress often lies just past where we want to stop. Embracing the relentless drive to expand limits allows us to live more fully. Through hardship come breakthroughs into new realms of being.

The key is small consistent additions, like compound interest. One extra mile today may not make a big difference, but doing that repeatedly over months and years leads to massive gains. We become the sum of our daily actions. It starts with the smallest steps. Tiny gains pile up from the commitment to repeat.