How To Overcome Life Struggles Will Curry’s Story (Evans Syndrome)

Hey everybody, Toby Potter here with The Unshakeable Investor. Hey, today we have an amazing opportunity to speak to a young man who has at an early age had to deal with life and the bullshit that it brings about. So we have Will Curry with us. Will, glad to have you here, buddy.

I really appreciate it.

Uh, I want to talk to you briefly because we're going to go over, we're going to talk about the book The Unshakeable Self But before we get into that, we need to build a little content here. So can you share with everybody about some of the life struggles you've gone through for the past several years?

Of course. So my health journey kind of started about my junior year of high school, which was 2 years ago. And it started off with me going on a trip and I was going to go ahead and tour Air Force. I was playing baseball at the time, very active in everything around the world. Life was great for me because I thought I was getting ready to go to college to go be a pilot at the Air Force and then also play baseball at the same time. And then all of a sudden I started having these small things happen with my body. Like, I would have really random bloody noses, like a lot of them, multiple times a day that would go on for up to an hour tops. And I would bruise really easily. And, you know, my mom always treated stuff that would happen to me like, oh, it's probably nothing, it's probably something like this.

Well, just kind of blow it off, just blow it off all the time. Typical mom. Yeah.

And I know your mom, of course, that doesn't surprise me.

It doesn't.

Yeah, it's not, it's not a shocker at all, you know. She, she's always like, you've always been the healthy child, you're fine, you'll be okay, throw a little dirt on it and be on. Exactly. And as the oldest child, you know, I've always never expected anything really to be wrong with me. I've always thought everything was completely fine. And we got back from our trip after all this was happening. She's like, well, we can go to the doctor about it. I think it's probably you just have a low iron or something like that. And when I had my doctor do some tests and stuff, he talked to my mom and he pulled me to the side. He's like, hey, there's, there's more that needs to be figured out. I'm gonna go ahead and send you to the Oncology and Hematology Center at Children's, and I think there's more that we need to look into that we can't really help you with. So that's where my health journey started, right there. I was like, what else could it possibly be? After months of going into Children's Hospital 2, sometimes 3 times a week, uh, constantly getting tested, getting my blood drawn, just getting pricked like a test dummy.

Yeah.

Uh, it took, um, 3 and a half months, and Children's Health actually sent me to the Mayo Clinic, um, up in Minnesota. Wow. And they wanted me to go ahead and get tests done by them and their doctors there because they had deeper research, and they diagnosed me with a really rare blood condition called Evans syndrome.

Evans? Like Evans? E-V-A-N-S?

Like, yep.

Okay.

Like Evans syndrome. And basically, it's where my blood, it just like attacked itself and it killed it. Like, my own body was killing my own blood cells. Wow. And it was really— it was hurting my own body, but more than that, It wasn't really affecting my mental state because at the time it was just like, ah, it happens, it's fine, you know, just get treated for it, be fine. But what they didn't prepare me for is the procedure that needed to be done after, which was, uh, which was chemo, which was treatment.

And they have no known way to be able to cure this besides other than doing chemo and just kill all those cells off and let replenish new ones.

And with chemo, that's the only— that's what it does is it just, it wipes out your entire immune system and everything in your body, and it's basically a whole restart.

Wow.

So when doing that, I had 4 weeks of treatment, a treatment a week for 4 times. And, you know, going through it, I was like, alright, this is fine, whatever. I'm sitting in a chair. I'm still skipping a lot of school right now in my fall semester of my junior year, and I'm just not having a lot of time to practice baseball. And when I was getting ready to talk to Air Force, they're like, you got diagnosed with this, right? Do Air Force. That obviously kicked my butt a lot.

Let's pause right there. So you're going through chemo treatments, you're seeing your, your young kid, they're okay looking, uh, was relatively healthy, but now you're going through, you know, the big C basically. If you're going through chemo, there's really no good that ever comes from that. No, you're a young kid, you're not able to continue in school, your baseball is on hold, Air Force said no. Let's talk about your mental state at that moment in time. Where was, where was your mind? What were you thinking and how were you dealing with this daily?

Well, my mental state at the time was like, well, I have a varsity baseball spot, which is fine, but I don't have my dreams in college that I get to go to. So I was basically letting my own self-pity kind of just tear me down. I was just like, well, why are all these things happening to me like all at once? Like I had everything going for me and it's just kind of my mind right there is like, how can stuff go so good and then you get broken down? Okay, when you're at the peak, that's where you're at mentally right now.

Now you grew up with a very spiritual religious family.

I did.

And so were you leaning on that? Were you angry with that? Tell me about— so we are talking about we were mentally— where were you spiritually?

Spiritually, throughout the months of whenever I— beforehand going on my trip, throughout the summer right before, and going through the chemo process, I gotta say I wasn't really close to God. I was trying to get closer and I was trying to—

were you angry?

I, I was, I was angry, I was upset, and honestly I was so self-absorbed on the fact of like making it all about me. Yeah, not seeing the bigger picture.

Okay, um, which is natural, don't get me wrong, you're a kid, adults do this too.

Don't get— don't think you're And at 16 years old going through something like this, it's hard to understand it. You don't know much of what's happening. And you know, your junior year is when you start to figure out college stuff and you don't know where to go from that. And while I was going through chemo and stuff, I turned to ways of the world instead of turning back to God to be able to re-fulfill myself, to kind of fill the void of like—

That emptiness that came in.

The emptiness. Yep. And until out of nowhere one day I made a really bad decision. And on the car ride home, I was with my dad and I was just thinking, and I just— I've never felt this before, but it was like God just came upon me and it was like a spiritual, like, connection that I had with him. And he was like, this is the moment where you need to change your life. And I, I don't even know how to explain it on how it all came about, but it was so surreal.

Yeah. And after that, now are we still in treatment? Are we done with treatment?

This is after treatment.

Treatments are done.

This is a month after treatment. I lost a bunch of weight. I was around like middle 170s, like 175-ish, and I lost 25 pounds from treatment. Wow. I wasn't starting on varsity anymore. I could barely play. I lost all my strength.

I remember your mom saying that your baseball, you just look plump. Look clumsy out there.

I—

yeah, you look, you look terrible. And now because that is not going well mentally, you're now really beating yourself up. I remember having all these conversations with your mom. I'm not—

yeah, I'm not in school. Yeah, assignments can't get turned in. Yeah, I'm really leaning on my teachers. And praise God for my teachers then in the school transfer, the patience that they had, because they wiped out half my assignments, which that did carry some of the load, which made me feel better. But still, baseball was my life at the time, right? Being a kid was still my life at the time, like the high school experience. And I was just broken down. And so when I had that moment, that click, I was like, you know what, I gotta change. So right there, I started changing my mind. All right, well, you know what, bad things happen, but you got to learn to get over it.

Okay.

My dad, ever since I was a kid, there was a— it's a long, keep it short story. This kid was going through something when I was back in third grade. And he was, it was like, we were all talking as a class and I made the comment to him. I was like, well, sometimes you just gotta be a man and like man up and face your fears. And I don't know why, but ever since then, my dad has always told me from then on, you use your own. He's basically used my own words against me. I mean, he's using my own words to help build me back up.

Inspire you. So right now, We're mentally beat down, we're emotionally beat down, we're spiritually beat down, you're physically beat down. You have an aha moment with your dad in the truck and God, and now you said, I gotta transform this. I gotta change. So what did you do?

I first started off with getting back, and when I got home, I started listening to just some worship music. My biggest connection that I have in terms of spirituality is through music. I love music, and it's just that's— I've always loved worship and stuff, you know. Long sermons can sometimes get boring, especially as teens. Like, I can understand that if it doesn't really reach out to you, then you kind of just drift off and you don't really let it click. But music has always been a good way for me to connect closer to God.

So we got into the music, started getting that spirituality rolling back in our, in our soul.

Had to start with spiritually because when I realized that, I was like spiritual needs to come first. Yeah, then I started building up mental because you can't do anything physically or spiritually without your mental state being in the right spot. So I was like, all right, I gotta drop this self-pity and I have to build back what I've gotten, what I've broken down. Like, I've got to train myself hardcore, like David Goggins style.

Yes, yes.

Like, you gotta throw that all behind you. So my mentality from then—

So you didn't say, I need to go be like Toby? You went to David Goggins? You didn't go to Toby? I mean, you know how that just stuck me right here, right here in the heart? Yeah, I mean, just— I mean, it just took an 8-inch blade and stuck me right in the heart.

I mean, David Goggins, he's like the physical motivator for a lot of teens and stuff.

Wow, okay, cool, whatever.

You know, he's like, get out of bed, get him off my show.

We'll get David Goggins to interview you. You know I love you, brother. All right, so, so now we're physical. Now we're—

and now I made the decision. I was like, every morning I'm going to wake up at 5:00 AM. I'm going to sleep— I'm going to fix my sleep schedule. Enough of this doom scrolling on my phone. I'm waking up at 5:00 and I'm going to the gym for 2 hours before school. I did that every single day for the rest— for my spring semester when that— when my change happened. And now it's my physical state. Now my mental state, this is how I fixed it all. I realized that anxiety and depression, it all like comes and goes, but there's nothing to be anxious about when you have to only focus on like what happens happens in life and you have to learn to move past it. And when I was able to reach that step, I was like, all right, this happened in my life, there's always other options, there's always a second option, there's always a better option. And at the end of the day, like the biggest thing was connecting the spirituality and it's that God had a plan laid out for you at the beginning, and that if this wasn't a part of the plan, then I'm okay with that, right? If it's going to lead to better things that you still haven't seen, you have no clue what scenarios are going to be laid out in your life, but there's going to be better things that come to you, and you have to open your eyes and see that. And it was a hard eye-opener for me. I was like, so you're telling me no college baseball? Like, D1, playing for Air Force, going to go be a pilot, like, with my best friend too.

That was right, right, right.

And it's like, well, That's all right then, because now I've been brought so much greater things, you know. I got to enjoy my senior season of baseball playing the best, or the best I have played in the past couple years, right? Um, and I was able to get my starting spot back, made a lot of my friends back after, you know, tearing down a lot of relationships with the ways that I followed.

Because you've gotten a little pissed, got a little mad, so kind of just piss on everybody around you away, and I was only focused on myself.

And then I had others bring me up, and my, my senior year I was really able to connect back spiritually, get back physically, and, you know, be real healthy. And but then also just like mentally, like my mental state's been a lot better because a lot of doors have been open for me that I never thought would— that I've imagined. Because here I am now about to be a freshman at the University of Oklahoma. Boomer Sooner!

Boomer!

And I got an in-person acceptance. They came to my school to give me an acceptance saying that I was the first spot into the aviation program. And nice, now I can continue following my dreams of being a pilot and stuff, maybe a different way. Not right for the military, in God's way, not, not Will's way, not my way, not the way that I wanted to, but it's still a way and I still get to.

So how old are you?

I'm 18.

So you're 18 years old. So talk about the Unshakeable Self. You read this book?

I did.

Now I wrote this book for adults that need to learn what you just did. You didn't read this book first.

I did not.

You did the transformation first. You knew through whatever phenomenal inspiration that number one, you had to get spiritually sound first.

Yeah.

Then you had to get mentally prepared, strong, in the right mindset, you said.

Exactly.

And then with that inspired you to get your butt up early, get to the gym, start working out again, So you rebuilt spiritually, mentally, physically, which is exactly what this book is about. You read the book. What do you think?

I think this book is amazing. Uh, when I was— I started reading it whenever Toby gave it to me and he was telling me, he's like, I really want you to read it and tell me what you think about it. I started reading it and I went back to thinking like, this was like, this would have been perfect for me for the time that I probably would have needed it most. Like the questions that help self-reflect. It's not more of a you telling someone else what to do. It's more of a these are questions you need to ask yourself about your life. Like spiritually, where are you? Like what change are you going to make every day to be able to be more physically healthy? What mental changes are you going to— like what are you going to remove from your lives to help build your mentality more? And it, it really helped me realize like, okay, like maybe like for me, I don't like reading at all. And reading this book, it was like, okay, like maybe one mental thing is I need to be more open to reading, like learning more. Like I don't like learning, but it's like, it is a necessity thing that you need. And I kind of just told myself, I was like, maybe I need to start trying it out more. Like try reading some different stuff. Cause you never know what you're going to get out of it if you don't like at least try it.

Absolutely. Absolutely. So this is why I wrote the book because I deal with a lot of adults who have life thrown at them. And for us, we've been up and down a multitude of times, but never gave up, never quit, just like yourself. And so when I wrote the book, it was for that specific reason, because if I can do it and you can do it, doesn't mean everybody can do it. And all they need is a playbook, is a guideline, is a roadmap.

You just need a push in your direction. And I think my biggest game changer for me, even not having this book, is I needed just I needed a little change in direction.

A little change in direction. And here's the other thing that is so inspirational. There's always somebody watching and listening to this, Will, maybe your age, and they're like, holy cow, I'm that— say, I'm that guy. I'm in that situation. I've been diagnosed with something that I didn't want to deal with, or maybe I had a loss, a family loss, a lot of family, whatever. They're going through a tremendous mental, emotional struggle right now and they don't know where to turn. And now they know because of your testimony that they can overcome it. They can beat the odds and they can become better because look at you're going to OU. Yeah, you're going to OU. If you had gone to Air Force, I'd have disowned you. If you'd have gone to Air Force, I'd have disowned you. We don't like Air Force. We love OU. You just got off the phone with my daughter. She's your now student counselor. I don't know that that was happening, but I like it. But now you're going to where you can really enjoy life. And obviously that's the plan God had for you.

Yeah.

And he had to put you through this little blood thing to get you off your platform and back onto his.

And that was, I think that was the biggest thing for me, Toby, was that like God will bring you down to build you back up, to help reshape you and repoint you in the right direction. And at the time I was so high up in myself and my own thoughts that I forgot who was in control, who was doing it all. Yeah, who made all this even possible. This isn't me, it's not my parents, it's not my friends, it's him, right? You don't have anything else throughout unless you have him. And so that's the biggest thing about it, is just remembering like who's in control and just remembering that like, yeah, sometimes things are going to go your way, but there's Always better path set out in front of you.

Always. You know, in Jeremiah it says, I know the plans I have for you, to prosper you, not to harm you. And if we just take that one passage and live by it with full faith and trust and belief, then, then nothing else matters.

That's true.

Nothing else matters. Sure, it's not going to be easy. Nowhere did he ever say it's going to be easy. That's, I think, the biggest misconception. But the other thing is he implores us to to be mentally, physically, spiritually strong so that we can be an inspiration to others.

Yeah.

And so, Will, thank you so much, my brother.

Of course.

Appreciate it. If you want to know more, this will be posted. Like, share, subscribe, but also hit me up at theunshakeableinvestor.com and let us get you a copy. If you go into the DM or message me, and say Will, W-I-L-L. If you'll do that, I will autograph and ship you a book for free. So go into it, uh, hit the comments, type in Will, W-I-L-L, and I will know that you got it from here. And Will and I will sign, autograph them, and send them to you. Talk to you soon. Have a great day.