12/23/201
Something I really enjoy is being with my friends. In Monterrey Mexico, it is very popular to assign a day for the guys. For us, it has always been Thursday. Why am I bringing this up?
[media-credit name=”David Martinez” align=”alignright” width=”128″]
[/media-credit]Over the last few years, we started to play “Texas Hold´em”. Very interesting game. As in life, you can´t control what cards you get. However, you can definitely make decisions based on how well you are prepared and on your experience. In this game, you have to be good with stats and numbers to make quick and smart decisions. With this being said, you might get lucky and win once in a while, even if you´re not good at it but one thing is for sure: you will eventually lose if you play long enough. I learned this lesson pretty young as my uncle Capi always told me luck did not exist and if I was basing my results in luck, I might as well just pack and go home. “Life is when preparation meets opportunity”.
I´m now back where I left up on my last blog. While I was busy reaching perfection in karting, the economy was going bad in 1994. How did this translate into racing? Remember I told you about my dad´s successful racing team called Martiga? Well, when I was getting ready to jump up into the series and run in my dad´s open wheel team, the sponsors left and I had no ride, the opportunity wasn´t there anymore. Was that bad luck? NO. That was a series of events that probably hurt other people worse. Collateral Damage I would call it, not luck. At this point, I knew what I had to do. I clearly had enough talent to jump up to bigger things as I had won every go kart class I could race at. If the opportunity wasn´t there, I was going to have to be ready for when it was, and so I kept training in karting.
I was already 14, and until then, I had a really successful karting career. Was it luck? Definitely not. I had the best mentors anyone could have (dad, Capi and of course my brother) and I was the most determined driver in that region.
My next blog will tell you, how I got my first open wheel ride. Was it luck? I´ll leave it up to you to decide.
