What's the biggest thing you've had to overcome? Education? Health? Doubters? Etc.

[Justin Whitfield]

What is the biggest thing so far you have had to overcome?  Did you have doubters that hounded you about the mistakes you were making? Did you have any health or family issues that you had to overcome? Originally I was thinking of this question in terms of in your investing/business life, but our personal lives have such a big effect on our business that they go hand in hand for a question like this.

My story: In 2009 when I was a sophomore at Clemson University, I got Mono (or Epstein-Barr Virus) over Thanksgiving break and I was extremely sick until around Christmas.  I recovered and was fine, but I had a lingering fatigue feeling. I felt very sleepy a lot of times in class and had to fight off falling asleep - even more than from the usual boring class.  

Fast forward to last summer (2014) I got sick again, same symptoms as in 2009 and I'm pretty sure I had Mono (or Epstein-Barr Virus) again, even though I was never officially diagnosed with anything.  

My fatigue worsened after recovering from that bout of Mono and now I was having trouble staying awake during the day - I would wake up at 7:30am and by noon I was tempted to stop working and go home and sleep for the rest of the day. I even fell asleep at my desk a few times. Finally in January of this year I was diagnosed with Obstructive Sleep Apnea which through testing, the doctor discovered I stopped breathing and woke up nearly 23 times per hour throughout the entire night. That completely explained why I was so tired - I was never getting anywhere near a full nights sleep! I received the CPAP treatment which I started in late March. It has been amazing. The first few weeks were extremely hard getting used to the CPAP treatment, but now I have so much more energy throughout the day and I don't have a period during the day where I want to go to sleep.

I'm interested to hear some other stories. It's been a huge motivating factor for me to have overcome this obstacle that has been a part of my life for the past nearly 6 years. I finally feel like I should, and its so amazing to feel this way after an especially hard past year.

I look forward to hearing from everyone!