 catch the ball in football. We were playing the game and I was playing wide receiver. Ball was laid up in the air. It was seemed like it was a mile in the air and it seemed like it took forever for the ball to get to me. And as I'm running I'm wide open but the defensive back had time to catch up to me and when he does he tackles me and he interferes with me. The ref sees it throws a flag for pass interference. 15-yard penalty. We continue the drive and we end up scoring. We ended up winning the game. After the game though, my father who's always looking for an opportunity to train me and to grow me and develop me asked me a question. He said, good game son. You had a good game but I got a question for you. He said, how come you didn't catch the ball that the boy threw to you? What ball did I not catch? He said, you didn't catch that ball. You supposed to catch the ball the boy threw to you. Daddy, what are you talking about? I didn't drop a pass. I didn't catch a pass. He said, boy listen to me. How come you didn't catch the ball the boy threw to you? And it dawned on me. Oh, are you talking about the pass where the guy interfered? Daddy, he interfered with me. You saw it. He interfered with me. That's not what I asked you. How come you didn't catch the ball that that boy threw to you? The quarterback threw you a ball and you didn't catch it. Why didn't you catch it? It was pass interference. He interfered with me. He said, you always have some sort of excuse. Now answer the question and I'll ask you again. How come you didn't catch the ball the boy threw to you? It was pass interference. The man tackled me. You saw it. Everybody saw it. The ref saw it. He threw the flag. He said, you're not getting it and I wouldn't. He said, before the play started, did you know that the defensive back was going to do everything that he could to stop you from catching the ball? Well, yeah, I knew that. And at the beginning of the play, did you intend on doing everything that you could to catch the ball? Well, yeah, I did, Daddy. So why didn't you catch the ball? He said, suppose it was the last play of the game and you were down by two, three, four, five points and you knew that touchdown to win. And now suppose that the man interfered with you, but the ref didn't see it. He said, you know what you do? You're the kind of person that for the rest of your life, you will talk about how you almost or how you could have won the game if only someone else didn't stop you. If only he didn't interfere with you. If only he didn't get in your way. You mean to tell me for the rest of your life, you're going to be the kind of person who is going to complain about what somebody else did instead of what you didn't do, what you could have done. See, the point that he was getting at is that we too often worry about what others are doing. There's always going to be somebody who's trying to stop you, either for his own game or just to bring you down. And so his question was, who won? Did he accomplish his goals in spite of you or did you accomplish your goal in spite of him? Well, he did. He said, because think about this, every time you see a highlight play, a highlight catch, every time you see a receiver make a catch, an awesome highlight catch is because some defensive back was hanging on to him, interfering with him. But the receiver didn't focus on what he was doing. He focused on his job. He made the catch in spite of that. Oh, well, that was got that was my father's point. When the ball is in the air, I don't care what anyone else is doing, catch the ball. If he's going to grab you, so what? That's on him. Catch the ball. If you got to do what you got to do to get to get over him to get around and whatever, catch the ball. But that doesn't just pertain to the football field. When it comes to school and your academics, I don't care what the teacher thinks about you. I don't care what's going on at home. I don't care what your financial background is, what your your family history has been in the past. Catch the ball. When it's time to go get a job or buy for your family, I don't care what the situation is. There's plenty of excuses for you to go and grab, but instead of looking at the excuses, go catch the ball. Let somebody see that you overcome whatever the obstacles were. Because guess what? That's what life is. Getting past obstacles is always going to be a struggle. The day you die is the day that the struggle end. So whatever the issue is, no matter who your opponent is, no matter what he's got in store, no matter what he's going to try to do, to interfere with you, to say bad things about you, whatever it is, catch the ball.