By Adam Jusko, ProudMoney.com, adam@proudmoney.com

Jocko Willink doesn’t want to hear it. You’re tired, you don’t have time, you just don’t have it today.

Uh uh.

Willink, a retired Navy SEAL who served as commander of the most highly-decorated Special Operations Unit of the Iraq War, looks, thinks, and acts like a human battering ram, destroying all obstacles (and self doubt) in his path. But he will tell you, he’s not superhuman. Having the discipline to outperform is a daily struggle, and he wages it just like you do.

Still… he doesn’t want to hear it.

Struggles are made to be overcome. Weakness is a gift that forces you to work harder, get stronger, and lay down a disciplined path where “getting after it” is a habit that you don’t even question anymore.

By Adam Jusko, ProudMoney.com, adam@proudmoney.com

When I was in my 20s, working my first “real” job, I thought I was rich (though I earned relatively little). I hadn’t moved out on my own yet and could buy more stuff than I’d ever been able to afford. Plus, I could still go out at night and party until all hours — I had the bounce-back capability of the young and my “real” job was pretty low in terms of responsibility.

I wish I had worked harder. And more.

Don’t get me wrong. I enjoyed my 20s and have great, fun memories. And I know no one on their deathbed says they wish they had spent more time at the office.

Still, I feel like I squandered an opportunity.

By Adam Jusko, ProudMoney.com, adam@proudmoney.com

Richard Branson might be the original celebrity entrepreneur, one of the first CEOs to blend his company brand with his personal brand. Branson goes where buttoned-up CEOs won’t, from leading ridiculous stunts promoting new product launches to calling out his competitors in “cheeky” ways (as the Brits like to say). The undercurrent of it all: make it fun.

His baby, The Virgin Group, has the same swashbuckling reputation. When the company enters a market, it makes a splash, offering a unique twist on often tired product and service categories, usually with a dose of humor. While the Virgin name hasn’t always guaranteed success in a new industry, its reputation for fun and freshness usually motivates potential customers to give it a try. From music to airlines to mobile services, the Virgin name has had an amazingly varied string of successes over the years.

In 1998, Branson offered up an autobiography/manifesto called Losing My Virginity, an inspiring take on how he went from a high school kid forming a student magazine to a billionaire entrepreneur with his hands in almost every industry imaginable. Almost twenty years later, as sort of an elder statesman in a much more entrepreneurial culture, Branson chronicles his past two decades in a new book, Finding My Virginity.

By Adam Jusko, ProudMoney.com, adam@proudmoney.com

The Internet changed my life. In the late 1990s I was building a semi-successful Web development/writing business, when I realized that chasing new clients and then keeping them happy was going to crush my soul. I began trying to develop my own Web sites. Many of them were terrible, but in my stumbling I realized a wonderful fact: a guy in his basement on a computer could now reach and influence the world in a way never before possible. I was hooked! Twenty years later I have developed a number of successful Web properties, sold one for a handsome sum, and I continue to experiment with the many possibilities still available. (This site is one such experiment.)

Enough about me, let’s talk about you. You have some skills, some expertise. Maybe you want to leverage those skills into a full-fledged business. Maybe you just want to make more money than those skills are currently bringing you. The answer may start with the Internet (although it definitely doesn’t have to end there). And a nice resource to guide you is the new book Entrepreneurial You by Dorie Clark.

By Adam Jusko, ProudMoney.com, adam@proudmoney.com

Ten years ago, Chip Heath and Dan Heath had a hit with Made to Stick, a book that taught us how to present ideas and information in ways that would make them “stick” in people’s minds, instead of being forgotten or tuned out. Their latest book, The Power of Moments, is somewhat of a return to that theme, but this time the question is: how do we create “moments” that stick?

Some days you’ll never forget, right? Graduating from high school or college, your wedding, the birth of your first child. Why do those moments stick? Because they are different than the everyday. Some of them are natural events, but many of them are manufactured. We give them meaning by the ceremonies we create. Graduating loses some luster if there’s no ceremony and you just get a piece of paper in the mail.