I got my first tattoo at 19.  It’s a dumb, but probably relatable and common story.  I saw a design I liked and asked an artist to draw it up.  I didn’t do my research, I didn’t ask to see it ahead of time, I just booked an appointment and walked into the studio.  I was in college at the time, so funds were scarce.. and when I saw the design he had drawn out, I wasn’t exactly in love with it.  But I wanted the tattoo, and I wasn’t sure how to extricate myself from that situation, so I sat down and we got it done.

It looks about as good as you’d expect from the story above.  And also probably a little worse to be honest.

As a “tattoo guy” I don’t really have many regrets about it.  It perfectly captures the impulsivity and mindset of my late teens, so it gets to stick around as a snapshot of that period of my life.  But.. it’s pretty awful.  I got what I paid for, and I got what I deserved.

I learned an important lesson from that experience.  Good isn’t cheap, and cheap isn’t good.  Rushing head first into something to feel fulfilled won’t always get you the outcome you want.  In fact, it’ll probably still evade you while you’re left holding the bag.  There will always be hucksters out there peddling cheap options, or short cuts to things that are, unfortunately, always going to come with a significant cost.

I could write a few dozen anecdotes like the one above that illustrate the same principle — seen athletes from pretty terrible gyms get absolutely wrecked in the ring and cage, seen people get injured in training because they’re using cheap gear, and seen people simply just not get the results they want because they weren’t expected to, or were hesitant to, pay the price for it.

Now, this isn’t even all about money.  I guess that’s a big part of it, unfortunately.   It’s about effort, discipline, time, energy.  It’s also about standards.  Why put yourself in a place with cheap standards?  Why hang around people whose “good enough” simply isn’t good enough?  Why allow yourself to keep the cost of feeling accomplished so low?  Good isn’t ever going to be cheap, and cheap will never be good.  Aim and expect higher.

What keeps me around in Jiu Jitsu and Muay Thai after all these years is my trust in the returns.  I know what it costs to get what I want, but I also know that what I want is worth that cost, and I am happy to pay it.  It’s a lot of time.  It’s a lot of energy.  It’s a lot of missed opportunities elsewhere.  But it’s worth it.