Meet Gregory Franklin

We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Gregory Franklin. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Gregory below.

Alright, so we’re so thrilled to have Gregory with us today – welcome and maybe we can jump right into it with a question about one of your qualities that we most admire. How did you develop your work ethic? Where do you think you get it from?

Looking back, I have to admit that, as much as I struggled with it at the time, my high school football coach taught me one of the most valuable lessons I’ve ever learned: how to get the job done, no matter the circumstances. It wasn’t easy; in fact, it was often grueling. But that’s what made the lesson stick.

A typical high school football team has around 80 to 100 players. At my school, we had just 22. That meant there were no backups, no time for rest, and certainly no room for excuses. We couldn’t afford to take plays off, feel sorry for ourselves, or even come off the field. It was a small, scrappy team, and if we wanted to compete against bigger schools with larger rosters, we had to make up for it in sheer determination and effort. My coach drilled that mindset into us every day.

One of his favorite quotes, which he repeated so often it felt like a mantra, was: “You don’t have to do anything extraordinary; you just have to do the ordinary things better than anyone else.” At the time, it sounded simple enough. But as the weeks went on, I started to realize just how hard it was to truly excel at the basics. To do the ordinary, everyday tasks better than anyone else requires relentless focus, precision, and a kind of diligence that feels superhuman.

Discipline became our way of life. Our coach had us waking up at 5:30 in the morning, showing up for workouts in the dead of a Chicago winter. The kind of cold that makes your breath feel sharp and your muscles stiff. Yet, there we were, pushing sleds and running sprints, our breaths clouding the air as we gasped for it. We’d run drills on a field that was more dirt than grass, scraping our knees and elbows on what felt like borderline concrete. But those moments, those painful, exhausting moments, were where we built something deeper: resilience, tenacity, and an unshakeable sense of discipline.

It wasn’t just about enduring the workouts. It was about showing up every single day, no matter how tired, sore, or cold we felt. Because, as my coach would remind us, discipline is doing what you need to do now so you can do what you want to do later. He was relentless, pushing us not just to be better players but to be more focused, diligent people. I didn’t realize it then, but he was teaching us how to deal with adversity, how to push through discomfort, and how to find strength when we felt like we had none left.

When you’re a teenager, waking up before dawn to run drills in freezing temperatures feels like the hardest thing in the world. But now, I see how those early mornings taught me to show up, no matter what. It taught me that success isn’t always about grand gestures or extraordinary moments—it’s about consistently doing the small, ordinary things better than anyone else. And it’s that lesson, learned on that frostbitten field, that has stayed with me and shaped how I approach everything in life.

Thanks for sharing that. So, before we get any further into our conversation, can you tell our readers a bit about yourself and what you’re working on?

Right now I am working as a Solution engineer at an company that develops AI solutions for enterprises. I love my job but am very excited to launch a music or acting career. After winning the amazing race in 2023, I have bee inspired to tap back into my acting, music and generally artistic side of myself. I had my first concert with my band Sagas a few weeks ago and have started to do commercials on the acting front. I’m really excited to continue tapping into the artistic world.

If you had to pick three qualities that are most important to develop, which three would you say matter most?

The first would be learning how to learn. So much of my early 20’s has been figuring out the way in which I learn the best. The faster you can figure that out, the faster your learning can begin. The next would be realizing that you make your own reality. Whether you think you can or you think you can, you’re probably right. I definitely realized that negative self talk was my worst enemy. And lastly it would be to enjoy where you are. I’m the kind of person who is always planning for the future and once I learned that enjoying where you’re at is as important as planning where you’re going, I felt a lot more free.

Before we go, any advice you can share with people who are feeling overwhelmed?

Everyone has heard this time and time again but I will reiterate it because it is my MANTRA in times of overwhelmed and that is “this too shall pass”. One day you can feel on top of the world where nobody can even lay a finger on you. The next day you can be deep in the trenches barely being able to get a gasp of air. But in both situations, it does not last for forever. I have had the highest highs and (hopefully) the lowest lows. But every time you dig yourself out of a hole, you learn that you will always have a shovel.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gregorydfranklin/
• Linkedin: Gregory Franklin
• Youtube: g7franklin