Jennifer Gilbert, a wildly successful events entrepreneur, was assaulted to an inch within her life outside her friend’s New York apartment. Not only did she survive but she went on to live a very rich and fulfilling life. How? The struggle was all too real. It wasn’t an overnight transformation. She was able to recognize the vast, and sometimes elusive, source of resilience that she discovered that day and draw on it to create the kind of life she always wanted. Her story is jarring, graphic, visceral, enraging, senseless, but at the same time life affirming, hopeful, and deeply important.

Lessons:
    1.    The resilient person that you are in your most challenging moments is there for life to aid you whenever the need should arise.
    2.    Fear is the worst feeling to make a decision from.
    3.    Beautiful things often grow from dark, ugly places like flowers from compost.
    4.    You cannot control one thing in the world except who you are afterwards, whether you move towards the light or wallow in the darkness.

Before retiring Sgt. Major Frank Grippe was the senior enlisted Soldier for US Central Command in charge of military operations in 20 countries in Northern Africa, Central Asia and the Middle East. He came out of the subzero weather of the Spartan Agoge to share his wisdom of grit hard earned through his 30 years as a ranger in the army. His is decidedly a no nonsense approach. Grippe knew what he wanted and simply did the job day in and day out, learned all he could from the best mentors he could find and when the opportunities to advance presented themselves, he was ready. He has gone through life with a single minded purpose and one might come away with the impression that he hasn’t entertained  the idea of an alternative livelihood, even for a second.

Lessons:
    1.    Knowing exactly what you want makes getting it that much easier.
    2.    Force of will is everything.
    3.    Positions of responsibility demand complete transparency.

According to Col. Liam Collins, Phd., Special Forces Qualified Officer, West Point Professor,and past winner of the Best Ranger Competition - approximately one percent of prospective candidates persist to become members of the special forces. Joe’s always looking for these people but, alas, they are elusive. They may not not linger long by the waterfalls, but are always eyeing the craggy terrain just ahead. Understandably, it is difficult to find those who will consciously fling themselves into relative peril. How does Col. Collins find them and train them? That’s what we want to find out.

Lessons:

    1.    The true test of character is the decisions you make under duress.
    2.    You develop your mental fortitude like developing muscles: push to the limit of your capacity; recover, then push to the new limit.
    3.    The key to success in a highly competitive environment is not to wallow in your comfort zone.

Not too long ago every self respecting long distance runner was toting a dog eared copy of Christopher McDougall’s Born to Run, reconsidering their choice of footwear or forgoing shoes altogether. McDougall’s current explorations have led him to ask new questions such as: what makes a hero, are our vast human skills learned formally or innate and suppressed by culture? Is the ability to survive in dire circumstances unique or is it present in all of us and awaiting the opportunity to be unleashed? You may know Joe’s take on these questions, and in this episode learn if McDougall agrees.

Lessons:

    1.    To be compassionate can also mean to help someone with their problem while it’s small and before it comes back to affect the community at large.
    2.    Many skills are latent, lurking just below the surface, and our mass culture has  limited their full expression.
    3.    Being successful often means identifying and taking that one extra step that no one else is taking.

Kevin Cleary, CEO of Clif Bar, has his company on the right track if not the most trodden one. Whereas most companies only think of maximizing their quarterly profits, Clif bar is planning decades ahead and profiting from the foresight. Whereas most companies focus on satisfying their shareholders, Clif Bar has a firm social and environmental mission that strengthens the company and community at large. They’re one of the few, but important examples that doing good, yet remaining lucrative, are not as mutually exclusive as many believe.

Lessons:

    1.    It’s much better motivation to tell someone they’re a hard worker than to tell them that they’re smart.
    2.    A company that can focus on long term goals, despite the pressure to show quarterly profits, will ultimately make better decisions.
    3.    A purpose driven business keeps those involved with it engaged and passionate.

Wrestling requires a mindset that transcends sport. What can you learn from them? Everything. It’s a sport with no excuses. It’s just you and your competitor and if you fail, there is no one else to blame. The sport by its very nature develops mental toughness. Joe talks to three promising young wrestlers, Nate Carr Jr., an Olympic hopeful in a legendary family of wrestling greats, and All Americans from Cornell, Gabe Dean and Nahshon Garrett. They discuss  the unique aspects of the sport that prepare its participants to excel in life.  The thing that they all share in common is their sense of drive and moving forward no matter what.  The very tools that’ll help you grapple with life’s inevitable adversities.


Lessons:
    1.    If nothing changes, nothing changes.
    2.    Sometimes to master adversity you need to create it.
    3.    Treat people to your gift.

Biohacking ground breaker Dave Asprey, got the controversial trend of adding butter to coffee going and it turns out that’s just one of many hacks espoused by this alternative health entrepreneur. He believes that by gathering the right data, our bodies can be optimized through unconventional methods. Asprey himself has been hacking his mitochondria for many years. Besides the things we can monitor, Asprey describes the confounding array of activity that occurs without our conscious awareness. Yet this state that is most difficult to pin down turns out to be the one in which human performance peaks.

Lessons:

    1.    Recovery is a vital part of training but often gets neglected.
    2.    The flow state is elusive but when we reach it we do amazing things.
    3.    Biohacking attempts to understand when your body is helping you and when it’s betraying you.

While running the Boston Marathon, clinical social worker Jeffrey Zeizel had to call up all his expertise and coping mechanisms when a bomb went off at the finish line. His son was ahead of him and there was a chance he was caught in the fray. Though nobody would blame him for panicking, he immediately went into action administering psychological first aid reassuring others that the worst case scenario is not the most likely one and in the process helping himself to cope as well. Zeizel has a wellspring of insight on what it takes to be resilient and the good news for humanity is that, in short, it involves bringing all of our best qualities to the forefront.  

Lessons:
    1.    The last stage of going through grief is not really acceptance but developing the tools to cope.
    2.    Remember AAA: action alleviates anxiety.
    3.    It’s easy to fulfill mundane responsibilities, but to do the things that give life meaning is difficult yet worthwhile.
    4.    To be resilient optimism is crucial but it must be tempered with a healthy dose of realism.

Reno Rolle, to paraphrase Hippocrates, let food be his medicine when seeking ways to ameliorate his son’s ADD. It worked so well Rolle pivoted his successes into a company, Boku Superfoods. He harnessed the power of nutritionally dense foods, popularly known as “superfoods,” to create a line of foods. In his years long effort to develop a superior product, Rolle not only fulfilled his mission of having a positive impact on people, but gained some valuable insights into a productive life as well. Obstacles are a part of life and a few successes in pursuit of a lofty goal provide the impetus to overcome them.

Lessons:
    1.    Nutrition is a key factor in meeting challenges.
    2.    In starting a business, focus on having a positive impact and the money will eventually take care of itself.
    3.    A taste of success may be all you need to provide the impetus to overcoming great obstacles.

If Ned Spieker is a typical billionaire real estate mogul, then the path to success isn’t what you might expect. According to Spieker, it’s not about being an autocrat, but being a servant, not creating a hierarchy, but sharing responsibility, and not about wanting it all, but starting small and working very hard. Serendipity, Spieker admits, plays a big part, but that’s out of our hands regardless. It often takes a little luck to get past seemingly insurmountable obstacles. But in the meantime we have to lay the groundwork that effectively loads the dice in our favor.

Lessons:
    1.    When you’re going through difficult episodes they’re crises; but in hindsight they’re blips.
    2.    Self esteem is earned; you can’t give it.
    3.    Good leaders eat last: when you serve your people and build trust they will work harder and smarter as a result.