Executive TLDR
Every entrepreneur goes through optimism, pessimism, and the Valley of Despair.
Most people quit at the bottom; winners push through.
The problem is rarely the opportunity — it’s skill set and belief.
Jumping from opportunity to opportunity guarantees failure.
Increase your capacity, belief, and skill to win big.
Video Summary
In The Valley Of Despair: Where Winners Are Made, Jude and Niki Tranquille deliver a powerful message on perseverance, belief, and capacity.
Jude begins with a biblical illustration of Peter walking on water. Peter succeeded as long as he focused on the vision (Jesus), but began to sink when he focused on his circumstances. The lesson: excitement about where you are going must outweigh discouragement about where you are.
He then breaks down the five stages of the entrepreneurial cycle:
Uninformed Optimism – Excitement at the beginning without fully understanding the challenges ahead.
Informed Pessimism – Reality hits: chargebacks, rejection, teammates quitting, low show rates.
Valley of Despair – The emotional low point where most people quit.
Informed Optimism – Skill and confidence grow; belief becomes grounded in experience.
Achievement & Success – Results compound as capacity increases.
Jude explains that nearly everyone enters business excited, but most leave when difficulty appears. The Valley of Despair is not a sign the opportunity is broken — it is the proving ground where winners are built.
He challenges the common excuse that “there are no good people.” The real issue is not a people problem — it’s a skill set problem. Improved skills in prospecting, inviting, presenting, overcoming objections, and closing produce different outcomes in the same environment.
A major theme of the talk is opportunity hopping — individuals who jump from business to business whenever they hit difficulty. Each new opportunity begins with optimism, dips into pessimism, hits the Valley of Despair, and is abandoned. Years pass without mastery because they never push through.
Jude reinforces that successful leaders in the same opportunity prove that the system works — the difference is commitment and skill development.
He closes with a powerful biblical story of the widow and the oil. The oil only stopped flowing when there were no more vessels to fill. The principle: provision is not the limitation — capacity is. Growth is determined by how much capacity you build.
The final call is clear: increase your belief level, increase your skill set, increase your capacity. The next 90 days will separate those who are present from those who are committed.
The Valley of Despair is not where dreams die — it is where winners are made.
FAQs
1. What is the Valley of Despair?
The low emotional point where most entrepreneurs quit.
2. Why do most people quit?
They misinterpret temporary difficulty as permanent failure.
3. What are the five stages of the entrepreneurial cycle?
Uninformed optimism, informed pessimism, Valley of Despair, informed optimism, success.
4. Is the opportunity usually the problem?
No. Skill set and belief are typically the issue.
5. What is opportunity hopping?
Jumping from one business to another without mastering any.
6. How do winners push through?
By building skills and staying committed.
7. What limits success according to the message?
Capacity and belief level.
8. What does “increase your capacity” mean?
Improve mindset, skill set, and execution ability.
9. Why is belief important?
You cannot outperform your belief level.
10. How long should someone push before quitting?
Long enough to build mastery and see compounded results.
11. What is informed optimism?
Confidence based on skill and experience.
12. Why do people misjudge opportunities?
They quit before compounding occurs.
13. How does rejection fit into success?
It is a normal stage of growth.
14. What determines long term success?
Commitment level and skill development.
15. What is the ultimate message?
Push through the Valley of Despair and increase your capacity to win.
Glossary
Valley of Despair – The emotional low point where most entrepreneurs consider quitting.
Uninformed Optimism – Early excitement without awareness of challenges.
Informed Pessimism – Doubt that arises after facing obstacles.
Informed Optimism – Confidence grounded in skill and experience.
Capacity to Win – The combination of belief, skill, mindset, and persistence required for long-term success.
Transcript:
When you fired up about your future, hey, listen to this. I’m not telling you to be fired up. You can be fired up about where you are right now, but you got to be more fired up about where you’re going. Would you agree? Let me explain. Let me try to explain this principle to you. The story says Jesus. Somebody say, I’m in church now. Jesus was on the boat with the guys and it was nighttime. They were looking for him. They couldn’t see him. They couldn’t find him. And Peter saw somebody walking from a distance, walking on the water. And Peter said, jesus, is that you? Is that you? Jesus said, yes, if it is you, Jesus, just make me walk on the water just like you. Jesus told Peter, just come. And Peter made the first step. Guess what happened?
He started walking on the water. He kept walking. Do you remember when Peter started drowning? When was that? When he stopped focusing on his vision. That was Jesus. He started focusing on his current circumstances. So sometimes the circumstances, the conditions that you are living, you might not be too excited about it, but you need to keep reminding yourself of where you’re going and be excited about that one. Would you agree? So today we’re gonna talk about why most a lot of people quit in this business and how you don’t quit because you’re still here. You guys fired up? What team? Fired up? Team Fired up. The fired up. Most fired up team in the house. And for those who don’t know me, my name is Jude, Nikki’s husband. What’s Nikki? Nikki’s husband. Okay. She’s the one, right.
So I joined this business in 2017 and I was looking for an opportunity. I was broke, like a joke. And I couldn’t take it anymore. Anybody feel that way sometimes? You like book? Like it? Yeah, I couldn’t take it anymore. And a good friend of mine named Jennifer introduced me to this business. And I saw some people that came. They were very excited. People came. They were very smart people. And then during my career, I was very, you know, quiet guy, standing in a room, looking at what’s going on, observing everything. And I’ve seen those people quit. And I’ve seen this guy, I thought this guy was going to be in sns, a million dollar earner. He’s the first one to quit. And I started to realize why a lot of people quit in this business.
Number one, some people, these are the five stages of the entrepreneurial cycle. Some people, they come in this business, they come with uninformed optimism. They’re so excited in front of them. Tell Them that this business is great, they can make a bunch of money. They’re not informed about what’s going to happen, but they’re excited, they’re optimistic about the opportunity, and they come. Anybody join this business that way? Most of us, right. And as they start doing the business, they start facing what we call informed pessimism. This is when church bucks start hating. This is when their friends start quitting. This is when they start inviting people and people are not showing up. Your best friend says, I was going to be on the Zoom, or I was going to come to the office.
And at the time, you keep calling them, and then you can’t reach them on the phone. Anybody that ever happened to. So now guess what’s happening. Oh, this business doesn’t work. This is what a lot of them say right now. They start getting a little bit pessimistic about the opportunity, and then if they keep going, this is where they hit the bottom. We call it the value of despair. This is when most people quit. They have the chargebacks. Friends are quitting. People they’re inviting, they’re not showing up. But what they should do. The winners, those people, you guys that are here, you guys face the same thing. Would you agree? The same chargeback, same people quit on you. You invited a bunch of people. Very few show up. But guess what? You do. You hid the value of this pay as well.
But guess what happened? You keep going. You keep going. And when you keep going, say, wow. Well, the business might be a little bit hard, but it’s not much more about the business. It’s more about the skill set that I need to have. Because this is what I usually tell our teammates. The business is not hard. You don’t have. When they say, oh, I don’t find people, I said, you don’t have a people problem. You have a skill set problem. Because take me, put me in the same environment where you work, in the same environment you are in. I guarantee you I’m gonna find the same people that you don’t see. I’m gonna find a lot of clients, I’m gonna find a lot of recruits. So you don’t have a people problem. You have a skill set problem.
So now, as you push through, you start learning how to make some calls, how to invite some people to come on the Zoom, how to do a winning presentation, how to overcome objections, how to close. So now you start closing on your own, and your confidence levels start going up. Now guess what’s happening. You have what we call informed optimism. You know, there’s got to be some work to do. And you are willing to do the work now you get. You start making some money, you get optimistic again. And as you keep going, you start gravitating towards the level, the goals that you have, and then you’re going to reach a certain level of success. But guess what? Most people do when they start this, when they reach that bottom, the value of despair, they say, this doesn’t work.
And somebody was telling them about another opportunity, credit repair. They leave this one and go into another one. And guess what happened? They joined the other opportunity with the same mindset, uninformed optimism. Then reach pessimism. Then they hit the valley of despair because the grass seemed a little grittier on the other side. But when they reached the valley of despair, oh, this one is hard, too. Oh, my cousin was talking to me about that opportunity. Let me join that other opportunity. And they spend 5, 10, 15, 20 years, their whole life, jumping from opportunity to opportunity, and then find out that they can never succeed at anything simply because they’re not willing to go through the process. Am I making sense? And guess what?
Every single one of them could probably work, but you didn’t give them much time that it requires, enough efforts that it requires in order for you to win. So you keep jumping from opportunity to opportunities, and you keep saying, none of those opportunities works. But Coach Salmon came, and the same opportunity you said didn’t work. He made $1.7 million last year. Well, the opportunity works. You didn’t work it. Md Tesha, Sina and Gerda said. Now they came, they found the same opportunity that you said didn’t work, and they made $1.2 million. Resi and Loewy Verde. In my course, they came, they found the same opportunity you said didn’t work. They work it out. They’re close to a million dollars right now. So the opportunity works. You just didn’t work it.
But every time they jump from opportunity to opportunity, they think that it’s not working. And I remember that story about that guy that was cleaning his baby diaper. And then, you know, as he was cleaning his baby diaper, he kind of scratched his mustache and stuff like that. And then he said, after cleaning the baby diaper, he said, oh, it stinks here. He left the womb and he went to the living room. When he got there, oh, it stinks here, too. And guess what I did? He went to the kitchen. Oh, it also stinks in the kitchen. He went out on the porch, he went out in the street. Oh, it Stinks everywhere. But he never realized that he was carrying that thing on his mustache. And then that’s what happens with most people that quit.
How many people you see that quit for America? They go out there and become successful at something else? Most likely. No, because these things were everywhere for them. So whatever they do, they’re always gonna quit. But you made a decision to come here to. You’re not gonna quit. Would you agree, folks, this year, this is a year for you to increase your capacity to win. This is it. You’ve already made the decision. You’re not gonna quit, but this is a time to increase your capacity. And the next 90 days is going to define. Is going to determine who’s the winner. Who are the committed ones? The. Because you can still be here, but you’re not that committed. I mean, I’m not saying not that committed, because if you are here already committed.
But it’s not a binary thing whether you committed or not, but it’s what to what level you are committed. On a scale of 1 to 10. It’s not a level whether. It’s not a binary thing, whether you believe or not, but it’s a continuum where, like, how much belief do you have? Because you can never outperform your belief level. Let me. Oh, let me show you this real quick. Let me. Let’s just read this part as we’re closing. Can somebody help me with this? I don’t hear after three. One, two, three. Your servant, my husband, is dead. And you know that your servant feared the Lord. The creditor is coming to take my two sons to be his slaves. So Elisha said to her, what shall I do for you? Tell me, what do you have in the house?
And she said, you, maidservant, has nothing in the house but a jar of oil. Then he said, go borrow vessels from everywhere, from all your neighbors. Empty vessels do not gather just a few. Do not gather just a few. And when you have come in, you shall shut the door behind you and your sons then pour it into all of the vessels and set aside the full ones. So she went from Ham, shut the door behind her, and her sons, who brought the vessels to her, and she poured it out. Now it came to pass when the vessels were full, that she said to her sons, bring me another vessel. And she said to her, there is not another vessel, so the oil is seized. When did the oil cease? I didn’t hear, when did the oil stop coming?
That means if she had 500 vessels, there would be 500 vessels of oil. Would you agree but if she had only five vessels, there would be only oil for only five vessels. That means God is not limited by. It’s not. God is not limited by. God is only limited by your capacity. So now it’s time for you to increase your skill set. Meaning increase your capacity, increase your mindset, increase your skill set. So you can go win big. And win big for yourself and your family. Because that’s the only choice there is. Winning big for yourself and your family. God bless.
