There is a phrase worth holding onto forever. A general said it to someone who had lost everything: "I don't trust anyone without a limp."

If you have a limp, you went to battle. You got hurt. But you are still walking, still moving, maybe even running. That is completely different from someone who got hurt and just stopped altogether.

Pain leads to power when done right. When done wrong, it leads to trauma. But when done right, your lowest point becomes the very reason you can do almost anything.

A woman who escaped North Korea lost her husband in jail, was beaten and starved, and was thrown out of prison because she was too sick to keep alive. She survived, escaped, and spent years saving money to smuggle her son out at age 14. He is now 20 and in university.

When asked how she survived, she says it was for her son. That story is true. But the real story nobody talks about is the everyday fight — finding a reason to keep going, every single day.

That everyday fight is a thousand times harder than any one moment of inspiration.