The message from Roy Keane has stayed with Dave Cawley for 12 years.
The one he got from his schoolboy coach at Ballina Town has lingered even longer.
Two vastly different arenas, two vastly different people, but one core belief: to make it in football, you can’t afford to get comfortable.
No League of Ireland player ever has that luxury.
There’s no such thing as life-changing money in this League.
The only security a player sees is the word printed on a fluorescent jacket worn by a bulky bloke at the turnstiles.
So Cawley knows all about scrapping for a living.
He tells a story about applying for a mortgage with his partner - seeking a permanent home to raise their three kids.
If only it was that easy.
“At the time it was hard, hard work getting approval from the bank manager,” he says.
“At the time my contracts had the words ‘one year’ written across them. The mortgage lenders asked: ‘What’s next? What is it you are going to do after football?’ I worked part-time in retail over the Christmas period to show that I was prepared to work all year round.
“That was the reality then, nine-month contracts, when there was a pay gap between the end of one season and the start of the next.
“It is getting better for players in the League now, contracts are getting longer, but if you want to reach the highest level you can’t get comfortable. You always need to have that desire to improve.”
That was the lesson Keane told him day in, day out when the pair worked together at Ipswich Town, Keane’s last managerial job.
Cawley was an apprentice then - thrown across the water from Mayo with nothing but a pair of boots in his hand and a dream in his head.
He says: “The gaffer (Keane) was always saying ‘look, fellas can make careers out of just working so hard’. I always put myself down as a hard worker and even then when I was a teenager.
“But there was always more you could do. I had so much spare time from the age of 15 to 19. After training, you can do so much more to improve yourself.
“I always gave everything in training but there was always more you could have done afterwards. You have to just live and breathe football. You have to always seek to better yourself even when things are going well. You can’t rest.”
That’s why, at 31, he’s buzzing at the thought of another new season starting.
This is his 10th year at Sligo, his 12th in the League.
“This is your living, so you are still working towards earning that contract and the graft never stops, because if you ever think ‘this is great’ you can get comfortable.”
That’s one motivation.
But there are others.
Last year Sligo thrilled the nation when they progressed through two rounds of the Europa Conference League beating Bala from Wales and then Motherwell from Scotland.
And even though the run came to an end in the third round against Norway’s Viking, they still managed to record a 2-1 home win, another scalp to add to the club’s list of great European results alongside an away win at Rosenborg, a 3-3 draw with Nantes and a scoreless draw with Dutch side Heerenveen.
Cawley says: “The European games last year were huge and a lot of our lads got a taste of that, those big nights in Europe. So we want to get that feeling again, we want to stay in a title race as long as possible, get to Cup finals because it means so much to that town.
“It is football-driven in that town. It is like living a big bubble. You get so many volunteers seeking to help out. The plan is to get some of those nights back, to repay the faith and time they put into helping us.”
The first part of that plan starts tonight, Shamrock Rovers, the defending champions, arriving in The Showgrounds to take on Sligo.
A bumper crowd is expected, each new year bringing renewed hope, the dream staying the same for every fan and every player that this could be their year. “You always believe that,” says Cawley.
The day he doesn’t is the day he’ll stop.
