The Hard Way With Joe De Sena

Tucker Max is an author who pioneered the genre known as “fratire,” an irreverent, tongue in cheek description of his testosterone and beer fueled exploits that gained a decent following about a decade ago. Now CEO of Bookinabox.com, his life appears to have taken on a decidedly different tack as he stands head to head with Joe in the MMA octagon. By his own admission, he’s only achieved modest success in the ring, but what he has learned is priceless. In the ring, as in life, there is no such thing as “losing.” There is only winning and learning.Lessons: 1. There’s no reason to worry about losing. There’s only winning or learning. 2. Great mentors shorten the learning curve and speed the way to mastery. Take the effort to find one. 3. If you want something, make sure you have something to offer first.

Unwittingly paddling into hippo infested waters on the Zambezi was the perfect, if unintentional, predictor of later success for Juliet Starrett who co-owns the San Francisco Crossfit with her husband Kelly. After the most lethal mammal to man upended her canoe, she was already strategizing her plan to survive midair. This is the perfect metaphor for making it in business: peril will gauge a sneak attack at the most inconvenient times and you gotta summon up the fortitude and flexibility to adjust your strategy when suspended at the height of danger. There is simply no time to lick your wounds.Lessons: 1. Taking risks in your day to day life helps prepare you for the risks in business. 2. Be or recruit someone who is highly organized as an essential member of your team. 3. To retain quality staff, create enough space for them in the company to diversify and grow.

“Chefrepreneur” Jeffrey Zurofsky, co-founder of Wichcraft sandwich shop and judge on Bravo’s “Best New Restaurant,” suggests the obstacles of running an efficient kitchen and a successful restaurant should be a model for entrepreneurship. A high quality restaurant is like a virtuoso pianist playing a finely tuned piano: a great deal of talent, coordination and practice goes into an end result that appears graceful, effortless and exquisite. As paradoxical as it seems, for him creativity thrives within the bounds of a certain amount of discipline. In this episode Joe and Jeff discuss some of the finer points of applying these lessons to your business and life. Lessons: 1. To get the job done effectively, follow the kitchen inspired concept of mise en place--organize everything into its proper place before getting down to work. 2. In it’s essence, service is a well crafted method of preparation that ensures that the results are consistent and high quality. It is well worth honing this technique. 3. Avoid the big mistakes but accept the small ones as necessary obstacles to shape the unique character of your business.

John Durant, author of the Paleo Manifesto, dispels the myth that Paleo is a meat intense, monolithic diet. There are many indigenous cultures, he explains, with different levels of meat consumption, and therefore many models to choose from. What he doesn’t accept, however, is that vegetarianism exists in our nature. In his research, Durant could not identify even one xexample. He does agree that the most important aspect of this and any other health conscious diet is the elimination of processed foods. He describes how our cultural shift towards expediency and convenience has made us sick.Lessons: 1. Vegetarian and vegan diets are not noted in indigenous diets and are largely grew out of our industrial cultures. 2. The most important aspect of the paleo diet is not to increase meat consumption, but rather to eliminate processed foods from our plate. 3. We are products of our habitat. To effectively change your diet, change your surroundings.

In this episode, Dr. Fred Bisci tells us how to cut out processed foods from our diet to vastly improve health and athletic performance. In his case, though, “processed” also means any form of cooking. Bisci has found through fifty years of eating a raw vegan diet that meat and cooked foods are optional - and may even be detrimental. Incredibly active at age 85, Bisci certainly makes a good case. Yet he urges us not to follow his and Joe’s example: instead of taking the extreme measure of going 100% raw from the start, try making a more gradual transition.Lessons: 1. In Bisci’s experience, athletic performance can be amazing on a diet of only raw fruits and vegetables. 2. If switching to a purely raw diet is too extreme, the most important way to improve your diet is to eliminate processed food, anything from a can or a box. 3. When coming off of the standard American diet onto this one, it’s common to go through a detox period in which you’ll feel ill. Persist through it and you’ll feel great eventually.

Becoming the only person to win the Boston and New York marathons AND medal in the Olympics, Meb Keflezighi stepped up to the challenge by remembering his father’s sacrifice. His father fled war torn Eritrea carrying only a canteen, stick, sack of barley and matches to ward of hyenas; Keflezighi is grateful for regular aid stations to ease his way. He and his family made it to the United States via Italy and through hard work and perseverance all became successes in their respective ways. Keflezighi details his inspiring journey in this episode.Lessons: 1. Frame of reference can push you towards your goals. Running a marathon with the luxury of aid stations is nothing compared to hiking hundreds of miles through hostile lands to save your family. 2. A goal bigger than yourself, that impacts people in a positive way, is an excellent motivator. 3. It’s not about winning, but getting the best out of yourself.

How does one, like Evan Dollard, become an American Gladiator? The frank answer, according to him, is that you don’t. Instead you make all the preparations within your power; go where the action is; pursue your passion to the fullest; make yourself known and talk to the right people and do everything to put the odds in your favor. If it doesn’t work out chances are that you’ve created an environment where something else, maybe even something better, will. This is the way to live a fully realized life, one without regrets. Dollard is living it and he has some valuable wisdom to help you live it too.Lessons: 1. It’s worth laying the groundwork when pursuing an opportunity because even if it doesn’t pan out, you’ll be ready for the unexpected opportunity that may be around the corner. 2. The riskier path is worth it even if you don’t meet your goal since it means eliminating the “what ifs” and “if onlys” and living a life without regret. 3. Always move forward: If you see a stagnant pond you don’t drink from it but instead seek out the fast flowing stream with the freshest water.

Mike Reilly is the voice of the Ironman. He has lent his voice to over 1000 events and his declaration, you are an ironman, has helped transform lives. Reilly takes great care in choosing his words because he knows they’ll have not just an impact on the racer’s life, but everyone around him as well. Reilly is a firm believer in the power of the individual to shape their own experience, but this doesn’t mean that they wouldn’t benefit from some words of encouragement to propel them towards the next finish line.Lessons: 1. If you live by the adage, “you’re the cause of your own experience,” you’re on the right path. 2. Experiences, unlike things, permeate to other people which makes them more valuable. 3. Live from the inside out and everything else falls into place.

As one might expect from the author of the “Four Hour Work Week,” Tim Ferriss has a solid, well established routine. He awakes, meditates, exercises, journals, blocks off four hours for creative work, then frees himself for meetings and phone calls. This well balanced approach has taken him far. When the inevitable drudging task comes around he slogs himself through it by building momentum with “Scooby snacks,” short, fun activities preceding the boring ones. From the start of this interview it quickly becomes apparent that Ferris is a wellspring of great advice for anyone who is aiming to build a successful business or life.Lessons: 1. Narrow things down to one or two things to focus on daily. 2. Volunteer for great organizations then go the extra mile to stand out. 3. Find a small but fast growing company to work for and observe the deal makers at work. Note the kind of questions they ask to get ahead. Example: “I know its impossible, but if there was a way to make it work, what would it be?” 4. When things start going well in business, to maintain focus, separate the great opportunities from the potentially overwhelming number of good ones. Ask yourself, what it the one step that will make all the others irrelevant.

Forget what your first grade teacher told you, according to Kelly Starrett, owner and cofounder of Mobility WOD, children should never sit still in class. He believes that we learn better, are healthier, and by burning more calories are starting to reverse the obesity epidemic when we are standing. Even healthy adults who work out regularly suffer from the negative affects of too much sitting. Starrett, through his crossfit gym, encourages the type of holistic practice that will prepare an elite athlete, or a normal person, for any situation. In this episode, he describes how in depth.Lessons: 1.The benefit of having a good conditioning program is not learning how to suffer but learning how to problem solve in the face of discomfort. 2.There’s no way to solve the obesity epidemic without tackling sitting and inactivity. 3.If we can’t use the lessons of elite sport to help the layman, then sport is just folly.