I was supposed to give a demo of our new iOS feature to the exec team last Tuesday. I woke up with what felt like a small elephant sitting on my chest, congestion that made me sound like Darth Vader, and the kind of headache that makes fluorescent lights feel like personal attacks.

My first thought? “I should reschedule.”

My second thought? “What would Michael Jordan do?”

The Flu Game Mindset

You probably know the story. June 11, 1997. NBA Finals, Game 5. Michael Jordan has a fever over 100°F, can barely stand during timeouts, and still plays 44 minutes and scores 38 points. The Bulls win. It becomes legendary.

After years of shipping features, managing deadlines, and occasionally getting absolutely wrecked by life, I’ve come to believe that the days you show up when you feel like garbage are the ones that actually build something important. Not confidence in the traditional sense. Something more like proof.

The “Wait Until You See Me on a Good Day” Energy

I gave that demo. Was it my best presentation ever? Absolutely not. Did I nail the technical details while sounding like I’d swallowed gravel? Somehow, yes.

The weird thing that happened afterward: I felt unstoppable¹.

Not because the demo went perfectly — there were definitely some rough patches. But because I proved to myself that my output doesn’t depend on perfect conditions. That even at 60% capacity, I could still execute.

I think of this as “Wait Until You See Me on a Good Day” energy. The confidence that comes from knowing your baseline performance is solid, even when everything else is falling apart.

When to Push Through vs. When to Rest

I’m not advocating for toxic hustle culture or ignoring your health. If you’re contagious or genuinely unable to function, reschedule. Take care of yourself.

But there’s a category of bad days that aren’t about physical health. Days where your motivation is shot, or you’re mentally exhausted but functional, or you’re just not “feeling it,” or the circumstances are inconvenient but not actually blocking. These are the days I’m talking about. The ones where rescheduling is possible, but pushing through is valuable.

What Actually Happens When You Show Up

Every time you execute despite suboptimal conditions, you’re training your brain that circumstances don’t control outcomes. You do. And that compounds over time.

There’s also a momentum effect. The demo I gave while sick led to three follow-up conversations that week. One exec specifically mentioned being impressed that I pushed through. Would those conversations have happened if I’d rescheduled? Maybe. But momentum has timing.

And it changes your relationship with “perfect.” I used to wait for perfect conditions to ship code, write blog posts, or tackle hard conversations. Now I know that “good enough while circumstances suck” is often better than “perfect when everything aligns”².

The Engineering Connection

This maps directly to how we build software at scale. Figuring out what to build takes energy, creativity, and ideal conditions. But shipping it takes the discipline to execute even when the codebase is messy, the deadlines are tight, and your test coverage makes you cry.

The teams that consistently deliver aren’t the ones that only work when conditions are perfect. They’re the ones that have learned to execute regardless.

My Personal System

Over time, I’ve developed a few rules for deciding when to push through.

First, check the stakes. Is this important enough that rescheduling has real costs? Then assess whether I can hit 60-70% of my normal performance — that’s usually enough. If I’m tired, I’ll script the demo more. If I’m sick, I’ll keep sessions shorter. And afterward, I document the win. I keep a running note of times I pushed through. Reading it on future bad days helps.

That last point is crucial. Your brain will forget these victories. Write them down. Future you will need the reminder.

The Compound Effect

Showing up on bad days doesn’t just build confidence for more bad days. It changes how you approach good days too.

Once you know you can deliver at 60% capacity, operating at 80-90% feels unstoppable. You stop sweating the small stuff. You develop a baseline trust in your ability to execute that isn’t dependent on external factors. And proving you can push through occasionally changes your entire operating system.

The Real Challenge

The hardest part isn’t the execution itself — it’s the decision to try.

Your brain will give you a hundred rational reasons to postpone. Some will even be valid. But if you’re honest with yourself, you can usually tell the difference between “I genuinely can’t” and “I really don’t want to.”

The days you choose “I’ll do it anyway” are the ones that stick with you.

What I’m Not Saying

To be absolutely clear:

• Don’t ignore serious health issues
• Don’t spread illness to your team
• Don’t sacrifice long-term health for short-term wins
• Don’t make this your default mode (that’s burnout, not resilience)

This is about the marginal cases. The days where you could reschedule, but choosing not to builds something valuable.

I’m not trying to be Michael Jordan. I’m just a developer who figured out that the days I wanted to quit but didn’t are the ones that taught me the most about what I’m capable of.

Next time you wake up feeling rough with something important on your calendar, ask yourself: What would happen if I showed up anyway?

Sometimes the answer is “I should rest.” But sometimes — more often than you think — the answer is “I’d prove something important to myself.”

Those are the days worth showing up for.