As I sit here typing this, I can’t help but think about where I came from. I was raised by a single parent. We went through some tough times. There were nights when we didn’t have a place to stay. I didn’t have the things most kids had. I’d look around and wonder, “Why not me?”

But those hard times did something to me. At first, they made me angry. But over time, that anger turned into something else. It turned into a fire. A drive. A hunger. That fire made me a tiger.

And here’s the thing about tigers. They don’t wait to be fed. They go out and hunt. They don’t expect handouts. They know if they want to eat, they have to go get it. That’s how I approached life, and it’s how I approached sports. And the more I’ve watched others, the more I’ve realized this mindset makes all the difference.

You can see it in athletes. You can tell who’s out there hunting and who’s just out there hoping something happens. The ones who are chasing greatness, the ones who never stop grinding, they’ve been through something. They’ve had to fight for it. They’ve felt pain. And that pain taught them how to push forward no matter what.

On the flip side, some players have never really struggled. Things have come easy. And when pressure hits, they fold. Because they never had to build that inner grit.

I’m not saying you have to go through hell to be great. But I do believe that going through adversity, especially early on, shapes you. It builds something in you that can’t be faked. It carries over into everything. School, work, relationships, and life. It teaches you that nothing worth having is handed to you. You have to go get it.

To the parents reading this, I know you want to protect your kids. I get it. But sometimes, protecting them too much can actually hurt them. Let them struggle a little… Let them fall and figure it out. Let them learn what it means to get up and keep going. It’s not easy to watch, but it’s necessary.

When you do everything for them, when you shield them from every hard thing, you are taking away their chance to grow…You are keeping them from becoming strong…You are keeping them from becoming hunters!

Give them space to learn. Give them room to fight through things. Let them discover their own strength. Because when they know how to hunt, when they’ve built that fire, they’ll be ready for anything life throws at them.

Not just in sports…In everything!