Hi, my name is Lewis Howes and welcome to the Daily Motivation Show.

Somebody on my mother's side had passed away in Europe and left some money to our family to go to the funeral.

And we were a family that didn't have that kind of money. We grew up very poor. My parents were using the four of us. There's no money. So this opportunity to go to Europe was like this, like winning a lottery. Wow. From a town where we grew up in an economically depressed town. They've been economically dressed for a century. Like this is a huge deal. This is Montana? Where was this? Yeah. Yeah. We were in Butte, Montana and then Great Falls, Montana. And so this is a huge, like, for us to go to Europe, this was so outside. I was unbelievable. And so I went to all my teachers. I said, we get to go to Europe. And much my teacher's like, oh, that's amazing. Hey, I'm going to give you this assignment.

You know, oh, you're going to all my teachers. I said, we get to go to Europe. And much my teachers are like, oh, that's amazing. Hey, I'm going to give you this assignment. You know, oh, you're going to be in Paris, go to Louvre. You know, oh, you're going to be here, you know, write this little article when you come back and teach the kids, you know, take some pictures and do a slideshow back on the slide show. Like, a slideshow of your trip. It was a big deal and everyone was excited about it.

And then they had rolled out that year in school, though, this new rule that says,

you cannot miss a certain number of days of school.

Otherwise, you're expelled and you miss this semester or the term.

And you either have to take summer school or catch up the following year.

And so the principal calls me,

and I heard you're going to have this trip.

You can't go. You're going to miss the next to the next to the next. And we're like, what do mean we can't go? So literally he tells me I can't go. I go home. I'm so upset. I cried to my parents. I'm like, I can't go. And they're like, what?

So they go in.

They talk with the principal, not a nice person.

We end up petitioning the school board. I can't go. And they're like, what? So they go in. They talk with the principal, not a nice person.

We end up petitioning the school board.

And literally in a public school board meeting, which was televised on TV, they literally go,

we understand why you want to go a young man, but if you could go, then everybody else could go. You can't go. Oh, man. And I'm like, devastated about it. So I'm like, F school. F these people. You know, Mark Twain said, you know, there's more of a, like, never let school get in the way of an education. And so I went. And I came back and I was never going to go back to high school. I was bitter. I was upset. I was like, screw these people. I had the best time of my life. I learned about people and culture. I saw something so amazing, you know. It was just when you're a 16-year-old kid and you owe abroad, it's just so eye-opening. It was life-changing. So I came back, I'm like,

I don't, I don't need to go with this. But for one of the teachers, I did go back and do the slideshow about the Louvre. And in the back, the high school journalism teacher came in to see the presentation.

She walked up to me afterwards and she says, you're really, you have an eye. I would like you to come back and be a photographer for the presentation. She walked up to me afterwards and she says, you're really, you have an eye.

I would like you to come back and be a photographer of the school newspaper. And I was like,

what? I didn't have that competency. I didn't know what to do. And I was just going to go make it

on my own in the world. I end up learning over summer with her and the photography teacher

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