It's not how you start, it's how you finish
How many times have you seen a team come out and perform well, only to be overtaken. Football, baseball, basketball...but learning to finish is not only a lesson for sports, it is a lesson for life.
Danny Trejo was dealing drugs at age 7, arrested at 10. He became an enforcer and a drug addict. As you would expect, he was in and out of prison. Some would say that he was dealt a bad hand but no matter who's fault, there is no doubt that he was a bad man.
It's not how you start, it's how you finish
While it didn't' happen overnight, Danny found Christ and got clean. He was 29 when he was released from prison for the final time. He worked different jobs, just trying to stay out of the rails. Being a mean-looking tattooed guy with a bad past probably didn't help. He was making it, working hard and wanted to spare others from his path, so in what little time he could spare, he became a substance abuse counselor.
While working for a company that created sober living environments Danny was called to help someone with a cocaine issue on a movie set and the rest is history. At first he became an extra. Easy money but more importantly, it got him in front of people in the film industry.
Having been a fighter in prison, he helped train an actor. Knowing what it is like to be in the can, he got a small part to add realism to a prison film and it grew from there. Not quickly, but he kept making headway.
It's not how you start, it's how you finish. Danny didn't care that he was being typecast as a badass prisoner...he knew he was working and bettering himself. It wasn't long before he was being mentored by Robert DeNiro. This former convict was enjoying playing pranks on Nicolas Cage, observing John Voight and Val Kilmer so as to absorb acting lessons and pissing off Eric Estrada by being more popular with the film crew. This guy turned looking mean into a career, but make no mistake, Danny Trejo is a total badass. He beat Hepatitis C, he beat liver cancer. The man doesn't give up.
It's not how you start, it's how you finish.
While talking to Jay Leno about his car collection he said "everything good that ever happened to me is the direct result of doing something for someone else." Danny's film career going full tilt, he has a chain of restaurants bearing his name...needless to say, that former convict is an amazingly successful man. He gives back to his community, continues to help those with substance abuse and is starting an Autism Awareness foundation with his ex-wife.
He has obviously embraced It's not how you start, it's how you finish because Danny shows no sign of letting up.
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