1923: Tough Times Need Tough People

I started Taylor Sheridan’s new epic series 1923 that follows the Dutton family of Yellowstone fame through their adventures in Montana and Africa (yes, Africa). In the middle of miserable drought, locusts, a range war with sheep farmers and legal war with some ruthless businessmen; the Duttons really start to expand their cattle empire that we know so well from Yellowstone.  

To survive the horrors of the 20th Century you gotta be a pretty tough cookie. 

There is a telling comment during a conversation with all the cattle bosses. One of them says “If it weren’t for the easy years, I wouldn’t waste my time in the rough ones.”

The main character played by Harrison Ford, Jacob Dutton responds: “I’ve been here since 1894, I do not remember an easy year. Do you?”

I remember being a young kid and thinking that life would be easier when I got older as an adult. Boy, was I wrong. You just start to get new problems and challenges. 

It’s a crazy competitive world out there. Always has been. Jacob Dutton says: 

“Man will choose to take what you built, rather than try to build it for himself. Every civilization in this world, built on top of one they conquer. You go to Rome, or Jerusalem, or Paris, France, you have cities stacked on top of towns, stacked on top of villages, on top of one man’s house, on top of one man’s cave. You wish it wasn’t so but it is. Your enemies gotta be so terrified, that their fear is greater than their greed.” 

Life is a massive sized competition. Life is always hard. It’s supposed to be. Life is a struggle and that’s what makes you who you are. It’s a big test to see how you rise to challenge and grow. Or for many, how they do NOT. 

This is why I am such a big believer in self development. You have no idea what tomorrow or life will throw at you. But you can work on yourself all the time. The more you can prepare yourself, work out, read, evolve, learn, get smarter, the more fit you are to handle things that inevitably come up. Tough times require tough people. You don’t ever surrender.