You are not a Victim!

Why This Message Matters

I share these podcasts because the right mindset can change someone’s entire life. I’ve watched workers rebuild their marriages, leaders stabilize chaotic projects, and teams step into the best versions of themselves. None of that happens by accident. It happens when people stop operating from a victim mindset and start taking ownership of their future. You cannot grow, lead, or succeed while seeing yourself as powerless.

There Is No Such Thing as a Victim Leader

Tony Robbins once said, “There’s no such thing as a victim rich person,” and it hit me hard. Victims lose, complain, blame, and stay stuck. Victors rebuild, learn, adjust, grind, and rise again. Success always follows mindset. Hand a victim a million dollars and they’ll lose it. Strip a victor of everything and they’ll rebuild it. Leaders cannot come from victimhood real leadership requires responsibility.

My Turning Point

When I first moved to Austin as a lead field engineer, I failed. I blamed everyone around me, resisted feedback, and defended myself instead of developing myself. Eventually, someone confronted me so directly that the truth broke through my ego. Combined with spiritual guidance and studying the Field Engineering Manual, I realized that everything in my life depended on my choices. I wasn’t meant to be acted upon I was meant to act. That realization changed everything for me.

Fixed Mindset vs. Growth Mindset

Victim thinking often hides inside fixed mindset behaviors: protecting your image, defending your mistakes, staying comfortable, refusing feedback, or wanting to “look good” instead of “get better.” Growth-minded people fail forward, adapt quickly, learn constantly, and don’t expect perfection from themselves. They level up like a video game risking mistakes because progress matters more than ego. A growth mindset is incompatible with victimhood.

Extreme Ownership Creates Leaders

Blame kills improvement. Ownership builds mastery. When something goes wrong, great leaders don’t say “They didn’t tell me” or “They wouldn’t let me.” They say, “It’s my responsibility now let me fix it.” Not because they caused it, but because ownership is the only path to solutions. You cannot complain your way into success. You cannot excuse your way into leadership. Victors take responsibility, and responsibility creates momentum.

Stop Feeding a Victim Identity

Your future is shaped by what you put into your mind and who you surround yourself with. If you spend your evenings numbing out, you will drift. If you spend your time reading, training, learning, and challenging yourself, you will grow. If you hang around people who validate excuses, you will live by excuses. If you surround yourself with people who expect more from you, you will rise to match them. Choose your environment. Choose your influences. Choose your identity.

Decide to Win

Winners wake up with intention. They stop using words like “try,” “maybe,” and “can’t.” They visualize clean projects, winning negotiations, strong relationships, and successful outcomes. They expect growth and act like it. You cannot become what you don’t first see in your mind. And you can’t visualize winning if your identity is grounded in victimhood. Every day is a decision: be a victor or a victim.

Key Takeaway:

You cannot rise while holding onto a victim mindset. Success begins the moment you take full responsibility for your choices, your growth, and your future. When you choose to be a victor instead of a victim, your entire life begins to elevate.