Hi Reader

“Not you. Step back.”

Didn’t even look at me when he said it.

The 8th grade school council was being picked: not a sports team.

And I had the grades. I’d won debate contests. I topped nearly every class.

​

But it didn’t matter.

Because this teacher only picked the hockey captains. The soccer stars.

The kids who could run, throw, tackle.

Not the ones who could think.

So I got benched.

Not from a game.

But from leadership.

​

I just got quiet.

And then… I wondered…

Could I actually change who I was?

The very next day, during the school’s long-distance running trials…

​

I noticed something curious.

25 kids would start a race.

5 or 6 would finish.

The rest would gasp and stumble…

…hands on knees. agony on their face.

You could see the pain hit: and then the shame.

​

That’s when I saw it:

Distance running didn’t need talent.

You didn’t need to be tall, muscular, a jock.

​

It just needed one thing:

👉 The willingness to keep going when your body screamed STOP.

​

Which led to the next question: dare I try?

​

Summer break with my parents. One lap. Barely finished.

Kept going. Week by week, I pushed the boundary.

Kept going. My times quietly got better.

I rehearsed simply not quitting.

​

Cut to next year. Final race of the trials.

I was in third place with 300 meters to go.

I’d rehearsed this exact moment in my mind fifty times.

My body knew exactly what to do when every muscle screamed ‘STOP’.

​

It found reserves of energy I didn’t know I had.

Passed the second kid.

Made the team.

​

I had the answer to ‘dare I try?’

As I made the district and state levels in the next few years, I knew…

The hardest part of winning is just staying the course when things go sideways.

​

That is the level of persistence I’ve brought to performance marketing last 16 years.

When others burned out, pivoted, or cashed out: I kept going.

Through cycles, platform changes, crash-and-burns.

The advent of mobile, creative, TikTok, and now AI.

’Cos part of mastery? Staying the course.

Keep learning. Stay hungry.

‘cos learnings compound.

BUT only for the focused.

​

If that’s the kind of guy you want in your corner:

Someone who’s seen it all, but still shows up hungry for reps…

​

…and if you’re spending $50k+ a month and want someone like that in your corner…

Reply with “WIN”

and I’ll show you how we build anti-fragile creative systems…

that scale when things get crazy (especially when they do).

Later,

Shamanth