Codie Sanchez

I didn't have a fixer to write these intense stories.

I had like a notebook.

I might've had a recorder because I don't even know if there are iPhones back then.

And I had a tip on a story everyone around me said was a terrible idea to do.

And I went anyway.

I stood at the border, I remember, to cross over the Rio Grande where there was barbed wire everywhere, barking dogs, a bunch of border patrol agents.

And I remember thinking, if I turn around right now,

No one will ever know I almost did this.

And then I walked across.

And actually kind of wild story.

The first thing I saw was a man getting stabbed right next to me.

So that was actually incredibly traumatizing, but I kept going.

And that day I found one of the most incredible stories ever in my career about how the number of bodies getting counted in the desert wasn't right.

And that story ran to really big headlines.

And it led to the next one and the next one and the next one.

And all of those eventual pivots led to contrarian thinking.

And none of that happens if I sit waiting to feel ready.

So you don't wait for the feeling.

You walk across the bridge.

Trap four, the future self-illusion.