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150: Lessons From KGB Spy Jack Barsky
“I became an American & said goodbye to them [the KGB].” – Jack Barsky
Sounds like the opening line of a spy thriller.
Except this one’s real.
For a decade, Jack lived undercover in the U.S. as a KGB agent.
His mission wasn’t excitement. No tuxedos. No martinis. Just the discipline to disappear — and never get caught.
And he did it so well that he not only avoided capture — he built a whole new life. A college valedictorian. A corporate exec. A family man no one suspected.
Until one day, the story broke on 60 Minutes.
That’s when Jack faced the choice every entrepreneur knows too well:
– Start over.
– Reinvent yourself.
– Risk failing again & again.
He wrote a book that flopped until he rewrote it from scratch.
He gave speeches so bad he wanted to “jump in a lake”… and kept at it until Microsoft put him on stage.
He built a business that went nowhere — and had the guts to kill it when no one showed up.
Every failure became fuel. Every dead end, a redirection.
This isn’t just a peek into espionage. It’s a raw look at resilience, reinvention, & the grit it takes to survive when the plan collapses.
Winston Churchill said it best: “Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts.”
Connect with him on LinkedIn
View all episodes
By Gary Frey & Ben McDonald
5
2121 ratings
“I became an American & said goodbye to them [the KGB].” – Jack Barsky
Sounds like the opening line of a spy thriller.
Except this one’s real.
For a decade, Jack lived undercover in the U.S. as a KGB agent.
His mission wasn’t excitement. No tuxedos. No martinis. Just the discipline to disappear — and never get caught.
And he did it so well that he not only avoided capture — he built a whole new life. A college valedictorian. A corporate exec. A family man no one suspected.
Until one day, the story broke on 60 Minutes.
That’s when Jack faced the choice every entrepreneur knows too well:
– Start over.
– Reinvent yourself.
– Risk failing again & again.
He wrote a book that flopped until he rewrote it from scratch.
He gave speeches so bad he wanted to “jump in a lake”… and kept at it until Microsoft put him on stage.
He built a business that went nowhere — and had the guts to kill it when no one showed up.
Every failure became fuel. Every dead end, a redirection.
This isn’t just a peek into espionage. It’s a raw look at resilience, reinvention, & the grit it takes to survive when the plan collapses.
Winston Churchill said it best: “Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts.”
Connect with him on LinkedIn
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