Jesse Itzler (@the100MileMan) is a man of boundless energy and a rigid discipline for time management who has never missed a day of work in 25 years. Still, he hired a Navy SEAL to help him up his routine’s game and then wrote a book about it — efficient!
Special thanks to Jon Samnick for helping coordinate this interview and making the intro to Jesse.
The Cheat Sheet:
- Loyalty is a rare quality in business today; Jesse tells a story about a now-famous former intern to demonstrate why it’s still important.
- You can achieve more than you believe — when you think you’re done, you’re only 40% done.
- Sometimes it pays to get your foot in the door first and figure it out later.
- Why is a big breakfast the least judicious meal of the day?
- Don’t forget to make fun a priority!
- And so much more…
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Some of us are adept at living lives of efficient purpose while balancing a roster of diverse interests. We never lack for the grist of good storytelling, and we don’t seem to lose steam in pursuit of more, even as our contemporaries struggle to keep up. We squeeze the juice from life, pulp and all, and eat the rinds for dessert.
And then there’s Jesse Itzler — co-founder of Marquis Jet, Zico coconut water tycoon, rapper, producer, ultra marathon runner, co-owner of the Atlanta Hawks, husband, father, and author of Living with a SEAL: 31 Days Training with the Toughest Man on the Planet — who makes us all look like lightweights. Join us in episode 466 of The Art of Charm while this powerhouse of a man schools us in the art of leading the pack, going the distance, and having enough energy left over to enjoy the rest of the day — every day.
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Summing up what he does in one sentence, Jesse Itzler tells us: “I try to identify trends early and capitalize on them.” While this may conjure up images of a fortune teller pensively reposed in some shadowy parlor consulting a crystal oracle for surefire directions to a prosperous future, Jesse doesn’t sit around waiting for prosperity to come to him — he sprints toward it.
Admittedly still unsure of what he wants to be when he “grows up,” Jesse seems determined to try on every hat ever made just to see what it’s like. His ambition has led him to co-found a prepaid private jet card company, usher in the coconut water craze, and rap on MTV to name just a few of his accomplishments. So when someone this highly motivated feels himself begin to slack, how does he get himself back on track? By hiring the toughest Navy SEAL he can find to whip his attitude — and body — into shape for a month and then write a book about it so he can share the experience with the rest of us, which is how Living with a SEAL: 31 Days Training with the Toughest Man on the Planet came about.
“I met this fellow [David Goggins] at an ultra marathon,” says Jesse. “I was running a race as part of a relay team of six friends. It was a 24-hour race — as many miles as you can run as a team in 24 hours — and this guy was his own team. He ran the entire race himself! And when I saw him for the first time at the race, there was something about him I’d never seen before. He just had a determination…a look of focus and purpose that I’d never — and still have never seen — in my life.”
“This race was an unsupported race, meaning you have to bring your own supplies. And my friends and I had bananas and masseuses and big chairs and blankets and all this stuff, like, overboard! And this guy had, literally, a chair — a fold-up chair — a bottle of water, and a box of crackers for 24 hours. That’s all he brought!”
Determined to find out what made someone like David Goggins tick and see if he could get some of it to rub off on him, Jesse tracked him down after the race, flew out to meet him, and then invited him to live with Jesse and his family for 31 days. During this time, David would train Jesse on one condition: Jesse simply had to do everything David said.
With a handshake, it was game on.
How tough was the next 31 days? As Jesse recounts: “He would always say that when you think you’re done — or when your brain is telling you that you’re done — you’re only 40 percent done.”
Listen to this episode of The Art of Charm in its entirety to hear more about Jesse’s 31 days of training with the SEAL as well as how Jesse learned from early failures and hustled his way to where he is today — he’s got a lot of stories, and he’s not afraid to share them here!
THANKS, JESSE ITZLER!
Resources from this episode:
Living with a SEAL: 31 Days Training with the Toughest Man on the Planet by Jesse Itzler
The Art of Charm bootcamps
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-The Art of Charm Toolbox
-Best of The Art of Charm Podcast
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