Doug Kaplicky

I never thought I'd write a book. For years, people kept asking me to co-author something. That sounded perfect. All I had to do was sit on a porch, tell some stories, and let a real writer do all the work. My friend Jon Gordon had other plans. After reading my co-authored manuscript, he looked me straight in the eye and said, "Clint, you need to write your own book." "I'm not a writer, Jon." "You're afraid to write your own book." Well, that did it. The 12-year-old in me showed up real quick. "I'm not afraid of anything." Nine months later, "Hurdle-isms" was born. Those nine months were brutal. There were days I hated writing. Days I wanted to quit. Days I stared at a blank page for hours. But something magical happened in that struggle. Pulling out old journals from Colorado and Pittsburgh. Remembering conversations with players who changed my life as much as I changed theirs. Here's what I learned writing my book: Growth isn't comfortable. It's not supposed to be. The best things that have happened in my life came from doing things I didn't think I could do.