This is Part 3 of a three-part series. Read Part 1 here and Part 2 here.

“You have to find things that you're passionate about to drive you,” asserted former rock-and-roll musician Lee Mars. “That's an important factor in getting kids engaged, whatever that may be, so that they can thread the needle and keep going. You have to get the fire lit to keep it going.”

Wise wisdom for young people to achieve true lifetime meaning from a guy who enjoyed success in a wide-ranging musical career.

Mars is an early member of Rock and Roll Hall of Fame band Nine Inch Nails, venturing on to do sound engineering work for several popular recording artists, including Bone Thugs-N-Harmony, Eric Carmen, Silk, and Jessica Simpson. He has also done such work for commercials and in the movie industry, including for Jack Black’s iconic film, School of Rock.

Adolescence is a swampland of tough challenges that can throw teenagers, including athletes, into lifelong disarray if they fail to "thread the needle" through difficult obstacles to discover a true passion that empowers their ultimate life meaning.

Before taking a deeper dive into Lee Mars's insights, here’s some background context.

This is the final installment of a three-part series reflecting on the youthful years of a pair of........

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