Category: self-reliance

Blogpost, self-reliance

Results Are On Layaway!

Pete Huryk

The concept is old. Not many stores do it anymore with the rise of credit cards and Buy Now, Pay Later arrangements. Still, I remember it well. My mother at Jamesway (a Walmart-like store, for those unfamiliar) putting an item on “layaway.” The store would hold the item for you while you paid it off over time. You didn’t get it until the final payment was made.

By modern standards, it may seem antiquated or even a bit strange, but it was actually a far more sensible way to make a big purchase. The incentive to finish paying was obvious—you didn’t have the thing yet.

Despite stores abandoning the system, that’s still how results work.

Results are on layaway until they’re paid for.

Life, unfortunately, is not a fully reputable vendor. Payment doesn’t guarantee the exact result you want. Sometimes it feels like a strange mix of layaway and lottery, effort and chance. It can be infuriating. It can also be exhilarating. What makes it harder is that our consumer culture of “buy now, pay later” has quietly seeped into how we think about everything else.

The idea of putting in regular—sometimes daily—effort toward a desired outcome feels foreign. People want what they want, on their terms, and as quickly as possible. Layaway feels like yesterday’s news.

I’m not always one for nostalgia, but this is one idea that deserves a comeback—not in commerce, but in mindset. In how we think about effort, patience, and reward. There are no guarantees, but recognizing that progress usually follows a reliable path matters more than ever. In far too many ways, we’ve maxed out our credit.

It’s time to put payment first again.

Put this aside for me—I’ve got to get to work.

Pete

Blogpost, self-reliance

Looking Past the Headlights

Pete Huryk

Driving at night is a pretty dicey affair when you think about it. You’re moving forward at speed with not much more than thirty yards of vision and a yellow or white line to guide you. At the same time, complete strangers are coming at you in the opposite direction with their own ton or more of metal and plastic. It’s a scenario full of real danger. And yet, we look past the oncoming headlights and fix our eyes on the destination. More often than not, we get where we meant to go. The limited sight distance and the doom three feet away don’t stop us.

Take us out of that context—away from paved roads and traffic signals—and we freeze. Paralyzed. All we see are the headlights of doom as we chart a course toward a dream. The distance feels too far. The next steps too uncertain. Our foot is surgically attached to the brake pedal. Forward motion seems reckless. Better to stay here, in the known.

The problem with standing still is that you can’t. The world is moving whether you notice it or not. Time, relationships, money—pick your metric. Opportunities are coming, and if you’re not ready to meet them, they’ll pass you by. So put your foot on the accelerator and look past the headlights in front of you. The danger you’ve built up in your head around chasing that dream is far less treacherous than driving at night.

Get in gear and go.

Pete

Blogpost, self-reliance

IOUs, Wimpy and Simplifying Money

Pete Huryk

I’m not really certain what it was written for, but I remember the big letters on a slip of paper: IOU.

Maybe I’d borrowed a few dollars from a friend. Maybe a teacher had loaned me a pencil and wanted it back. My memory is pretty good, but it’s not perfect. Clearly my spelling and grammar still needed some work too. But the idea itself was clear enough. An IOU. An I owe you.

That simple concept is the building block on which our entire monetary system is built: debt.

That idea came roaring back recently during a conversation with my son about Scott Galloway’s notion of men creating “surplus value.” I haven’t read the book, but I’ve listened to enough interviews to understand the point. Give more than you take. Produce more than you consume. Contribute something of value that didn’t exist before you showed up.

In monetary terms, creating surplus value means that someone owes you something. That “something” is what money was meant to represent in the first place.

Pulling in the opposite direction is J. Wellington Wimpy from Popeye the Sailor Man. His immortal line was that he would “gladly pay you Tuesday for a hamburger today.” Wimpy isn’t interested in surplus value. He’s interested in the now. He wants the benefit immediately and pushes the obligation off into the future. That’s credit. Getting before you’ve given. Consumption untethered from contribution.

Between those two simple ideas—IOU and Wimpy—there’s a lot to be learned about what money actually is, and how far we’ve drifted from its original purpose.

Money was meant to be a systemic IOU. A marker that you had already provided goods or services to someone else. You could then pass that IOU along to another person in exchange for what you needed. If you consistently created surplus value in the world, you accumulated surplus money. If you didn’t have enough in the moment, you could borrow—paying a premium in interest for the privilege of consuming before contributing.

On a small scale, the logic is intuitive and fair. You mow a lawn. You teach a class. You fix a car. Value is created. An IOU is issued. Trust is maintained.

As the scale expands, things get murkier. Someone like Howard Schultz, for example, has created surplus value that touches millions of lives every day. Jobs, products, routines, communities. Quantifying that impact is difficult, but few would argue that it exists. The system is supposed to reward that kind of value creation proportionally.

Where the tension really shows up is at the national level.

Our government has repeatedly devalued our collective IOUs while playing Wimpy on the international stage. Promising Tuesday. Borrowing endlessly. Printing claims on value that hasn’t yet been created—and may never be. When that happens, the IOUs held by ordinary people quietly lose meaning. The surplus value they worked to create gets diluted, siphoned off, and often frittered away.

It becomes harder and harder for the average person to get ahead, not because they aren’t producing value, but because the measuring stick keeps shrinking. You can do everything “right” and still feel like you’re running uphill on loose gravel.

Money, at its core, is a story we agree to believe. An IOU that says, I have contributed, and I will be able to draw from that contribution later. When that story breaks down—when IOUs are issued faster than value is created—the trust erodes. And without trust, the paper is just paper.

Maybe that’s why that old slip with “IOU” written on it sticks with me. It wasn’t just about owing someone a pencil. It was a lesson, early and imperfect, about responsibility, reciprocity, and keeping your word.

Tuesday eventually comes. The question is whether the hamburger ever gets paid for.

Be valuable today!

Pete

Blogpost, self-reliance

Believe In The Nothing

Pete Huryk

For many people, it’s a problem. Especially now. Our world is full of quick routes to small prizes. A short video gives us a hit of superiority because someone somewhere fell flat on their face. A quick drive to the coffee shop delivers our non-prescription drug of choice and a sense of handcrafted individuality (see: You’ve Got Mail). Everything is laid out in front of us like a merchant at the feelings flea market. The action and the result sit so close together that we almost forget to ask whether the juice is worth the squeeze. And since it’s all pre-squeezed, we don’t get any of the fiber anyway.

So my humble reader, I’m asking you—along with myself—to believe in the nothing.

The really important things in this world almost never show up instantly. When you go to the gym or eat a healthy meal or choose the right thing instead of the easy thing, there’s usually nothing. You’re not suddenly fitter or glowing with virtue. The city isn’t handing you a key that probably doesn’t open anything anyway. It’s like brushing your teeth: minty feeling aside, nothing looks different after one brush. The key is the consistency. Believing that if you keep walking the path of “nothing,” you eventually arrive somewhere that changes everything.

It’s a tall order, because the world is engineered to short-circuit your brain at every turn. Grubby mitts are always reaching for your time, your attention, and all the other currencies you carry—because yes, money isn’t the only one. That’s why I’m begging you to believe in the nothing. Do the things that will absolutely work if you’ll simply see them through. Trust the quiet, the unremarkable, the days where it feels like nothing is happening.

Because nothing is exactly where the good stuff begins.

There’s nothing to it.

Pete

Blogpost, self-reliance, SoccerLifeBalance

Back from the Sideline, Soccer Dads Need to Become Playmakers

Pete Huryk

In soccer, the best players don’t control every moment. They create space. They anticipate. They make the people around them better. The playmaker isn’t the loudest or always the flashiest, he’s the one who sees the whole field and moves the game forward with intention. That’s what great dads do. They watch, they guide, and when the moment is right, they can change everything.

For a while now, though, a lot of dads have been stuck on the sideline. Watching, waiting, wondering how to re-enter the game. The world has shifted under their feet. The old playbook doesn’t quite fit anymore. In the wake of cultural reckonings; from #MeToo to questions about toxic masculinity. Many men have gone quiet. Some out of guilt, others out of confusion. What does it mean to lead without dominating? To protect without controlling? To care without losing yourself?

It’s not an easy set of questions. But maybe that’s the point. This generation of dads has a chance to model a new kind of strength: one that trades authority for empathy, volume for vision, and reaction for responsibility. The game hasn’t changed as much as the way we need to play it.

Fatherhood has always been part construction site, part classroom. We build, we teach, we fix. Sometimes we do it well, sometimes clumsily. The past few years have reminded us that brute force and certainty aren’t the same as wisdom. A lot of men have been told to sit down, listen, and reassess. Honestly, in some cases that was necessary. But now it’s time to take what was learned on the bench and put it into play.

Because the world doesn’t need quieter men. It needs better communicators. Not withdrawn spectators, but intentional playmakers. Men who understand when to press, when to pass, and when to let someone else take the shot.

Soccer dads know that feeling all too well. The helplessness of watching from the sidelines as their kid struggles through a tough game. The urge to fix everything is powerful. But the real lesson isn’t about control; it’s about trust. About giving space to grow while staying close enough to catch them if they fall. That balance between patience and presence might just be what our culture is missing most.

We don’t need men who dominate. We need men who direct. Men who don’t mistake power for purpose or silence for humility. We need dads who understand that their example off the field matters far more than their commentary from the sideline.

So yes, maybe Soccer Dads can help redirect the world, not through lectures or louder voices, but through consistent, grounded leadership. Through showing up. Through making the right pass at the right time.

Because the truth is, the world doesn’t just need to be saved, it needs to be played well.
And it’s time for the dads to get back in the game.

“I love you guys so very much, on three!”

Pete

Blogpost, self-reliance, SoccerLifeBalance

The Utility Man (We’ll Miss Him)

Pete Huryk

Today I received some sad news: a former player passed away. It’s always tough to hear when these things happen. As a coach and teacher, my hope has always been to help propel young people toward better lives. It hurts deeply when one of those lives is cut short.

This young man was what we often call a “utility player.” He wasn’t a regular starter. Most of the time he filled in at center back, but he was athletic enough to step into almost any position and hold his own. Soccer wasn’t even his first sport, yet he embraced his role and carried it with pride. He was the teammate every coach needs: willing, reliable, and unselfish.

His passing has me reflecting on the idea of utility. Not just in sports, but in life, especially for young men today. In many ways, being useful runs deep in the male identity. Yet in our current culture, it sometimes feels like that desire to be of service gets overlooked, or worse, dismissed. Between the labels of “toxic masculinity” and caricatures of outdated strength, many men are left wondering where they fit. Sweeping generalizations about half the population rarely capture the truth and often cause harm. I know plenty of men who simply want to contribute: to their families, their friends, the women in their lives, and society as a whole.

That’s why this loss hits hard. The “utility man” embodies something essential. For generations, men have stepped into roles of protection, labor, and sacrifice. Often trading their own well-being for the good of others. While the world has changed and those old trades may not be demanded in the same way, the core desire to be useful has not disappeared.

Men are useful. And most of them want to be useful (of utility). The utility man isn’t just a placeholder; he’s the glue that holds a team or a community, together. My hope is that more men are seen for the value they bring before they’re gone.

Today, I’ll remember not just the utility man on the pitch, but as a reminder of the dignity and worth in being willing to step in wherever needed. We will miss him.

Be useful today!

Pete

Blogpost, self-reliance

The 99% Trap

Pete Huryk

Most people can probably relate to this.

In 7th grade, my science teacher was Mr. Baxter. Good guy, decent sense of humor, and a big fan of showing movies in class, at least once a week. The rumor was that he bartended at night and used movie days to catch up on sleep. I never saw him pouring drinks, but I did catch him napping more than once.

One thing I remember clearly: for three tests in a row, I got a 99% in his class. Not bad, right? The missing point was always something minor—usually a misspelling. The first time, I was proud. The second time, a little annoyed. By the third, I was grumbling to friends that Mr. Baxter was being a “stickler” (or maybe something a little more colorful from my 7th grade vocabulary).

On the fourth test, I locked in. I reviewed every answer like it was under a microscope. And finally! I got my 100%. I celebrated with a triumphant “YES!”.

It wasn’t until later that I really took stock of what had happened. That science class was already my best grade. While I was obsessing over a single point in my strongest subject, I wasn’t giving that same energy to the classes where I wasn’t doing as well. I had zoomed in on a tiny problem that didn’t matter all that much and used it to distract myself from bigger ones that did.

It’s funny how that pattern doesn’t always leave us in middle school.

There are times when it feels easier to fixate on something small that’s just outside of our control than to focus on something bigger that’s fully within it. Chasing down that last one percent in a high-performing area can feel noble, like we’re just committed to excellence. But sometimes it’s just a form of avoidance.

We all have those parts of life where we’re already getting a 99%. Absolutely killing it! Trying to eke out the final percent might feel worthwhile, and maybe it is. But it’s worth asking whether that same time and focus would make a bigger difference somewhere else—maybe in a place you’ve been quietly neglecting. The tricky part, of course, is admitting that it’s not going so well. And let’s be honest, it’s easier to pat ourselves on the back for our success than to own up to our blind spots.

That doesn’t mean we stop striving. It just means we take a moment to look at the whole picture. Take pride in what’s going well. Feel good about that 99%. But don’t let that pride stop you from doing the harder, quieter work of being honest about where you’re not doing so great and finding a way to improve.

Go kick ass in as many directions as possible.

Pete

PS Anyone who noticed that the photo is a completely doctored Spanish test with no answers and 99% on the line for the date, you get extra credit! HAHA

Blogpost, self-reliance, SoccerLifeBalance

The Fed Bait and Switch (Soccer Balls)

Pete Huryk

Before anyone gets their knickers in a twist: no, the Fed isn’t running soccer matches. This is a metaphor. But it’s a helpful one if you’re trying to understand what’s really happening with your money.

Let’s start with soccer balls.

My personal favorites are Wilsons. (I haven’t been paid to say that—yet. Wilson, I’m listening.) They’re durable, reliable, hold air like champs, and play true. But if you swear by Adidas, Puma, Select, or some other brand, great—this still works.

Now imagine a soccer ball hierarchy.
Your go-to favorite is at the top. At the bottom? A ball made out of rolled-up newspaper tied with twine. Technically still a ball…. you can kick it… but it’s barely worth the effort.

⚽️ The Game Changes

You’re mid-match, giving it your all. Suddenly, the ball changes.

It looks similar, but the feel is off. A few minutes later, it changes again. Even worse.

You finally realize: the referee and linesmen are doing the switching. When you ask why, they say it’s to “stimulate play.”

But you also notice the good balls being carried off to another game. One you’re not invited to join.

Now your passes go astray. Your shots come up short. Same effort, worse results.
Frustrating? Absolutely.

💸 Enter: The Fed

This metaphor isn’t perfect, but it’s close enough.

The dollars in your pocket, bank account, or Venmo aren’t being physically swapped—but their value is being downgraded, constantly.

Compared to just a few years ago, your money buys less. That’s inflation.

And the biggest driver? The Fed puts more dollars into circulation. More supply = each dollar is worth less.

Meanwhile, those with more money? They’re not sitting on cash! They’re putting it into assets:
Homes. Stocks. Businesses. Collectibles. Land. Things that tend to rise in price when inflation kicks in.

🏠 Example: The House That Didn’t Really Grow

Let’s say you bought a house in 1980 for $50,000.
In 2025, that house might be worth around $340,000.

Did it become 7x more valuable? Not really. It’s mostly that the dollar became weaker. That price rise is inflation, not improvement.

That’s the bait and switch: the average person holds cash, while the wealthy hold assets. Cash erodes. Assets float.

So while you’re left with a downgraded soccer ball, someone else is playing a premium match with premium gear on a field you can’t get to.

🧠 So What Can You Do?

This post won’t solve everything. I’m not pretending to fix the entire financial system.

But if you’re going to play the game, you need to know the rules.

Now that you’re aware of the quiet switch happening beneath your feet, you can start thinking differently:

  • Learn how money really works.
  • Pay attention to value, not just price.
  • Think in assets, not just cash.

Same effort. Smarter game.

Now’s the time to upgrade your knowledge, decisions and life!

Pete

Blogpost, self-reliance

The Price and The Prize

Pete Huryk

One letter apart, yet worlds away.
The price and the prize—nearly identical in spelling, almost inextricably linked. But our feelings toward them couldn’t be more different.

The prize is desired, fawned over, coveted.
The price is lamented, haggled, resented.

The prize gets downplayed when missed.
The price gets inflated once paid.

Choose your prizes wisely. They shape your focus. They steer your life.
Every prize comes with a price—and the price is the only part that’s guaranteed.
So choose prices worth paying—ones that shape you into someone stronger.

In the end, what lingers isn’t what you got.
It’s how you feel about the path you walked.

Prize yourself!

Pete

Blogpost, self-reliance

The Limbo and High Jump

Pete Huryk

In elementary school gym class, the limbo was one of my favorite activities. My younger self was extremely adept at contorting my body in order to get low to the ground without touching it or knocking off the bar. In middle school, I was introduced to high jump. The concept was largely the same but in reverse. Do everything that you could in order to avoid knocking the bar off the standards while going over. If you’ve never run track and field, you might not know that the term used for the platform/measuring device is the standards. To be honest, I’d not given the word much thought until I came up with the idea for the blogpost.

The limbo and high jump are largely opposites that never meet because one is often a drunken party game and the other is an athletic event only done by a handful of people. Mostly the limbo creates comedy as increasingly more people fail in mildly ridiculous ways. High jump creates heartbreak and champions (more the former than the latter) as individuals look to push themselves to the very last inch, centimeter or millimeter. While I loved both at one time, I’ve spent a lot more time pursuing high jump. As an event, it’s more interesting. My concern is that not enough people are choosing high jump, they’re opting for the limbo (metaphorically speaking).

Everyday people make choices about who they are going to be in their lives. No doubt, there are lots of stresses and issues that people deal with regularly. In no way do I want to diminish anyone’s struggles. My concern comes from what seems to be a cultural shift toward limboing through life. The bar keeps getting lowered and some people seem to be intent on trying to slide underneath. More effort seems to be put into finding cheats or excuses than toward the project at hand.

On the other side of the equation is the high jump. The metaphorical and incremental increase of ability, attention and training until you eventually reach your true limits. It’s daunting because it requires squarely facing our inadequacies, shortcomings and self-image. Reaching higher heights only brings us closer to finding out what we’re not capable of doing (yet)!

As anyone who has read my blog for a while knows, this is not a finger wagging session meant to make anyone feel badly about their diet, career, workout program… whatever. It’s a self-reflection that I put out into the world in the hopes that the things that I struggle with can help someone else. So if you, like me, have been doing the limbo in an area of your life where you’d like to be high jumping, remember! There’s always a bar (or standard). You can choose to go above it or below it. That’s up to you! I’d rather live in a world where more people are high jumping than limboing!

Explode!

Pete