Welcome to In Search of Excellence! You're listening to part two of my awesome conversation with Joe De Sena, the CEO of the global fitness and wellness brand Spartan, which has a community of more than 10 million athletes around the world.

If you haven't yet listened to part one of my conversation with Joe, be sure to check that one out first. In this part, Joe shares his incredible story of perseverance, the importance of mentorship, and how pushing your limits can lead to extreme success and personal growth.

Time stamps:

00:58 From Cornell to Wall Street

• The entrepreneurship class at Cornell
• Won a $5000 prize in a competition for the best business idea
• The advice from one of the judges to go to Wall Street
• Went back to his pool business

05:00 Joe’s bold stock investment

• Buys Syntax stocks and earns $ 100,000
• Sells his pool business for $500,000
• Blew it all on the wrong stock investments

07:25 How to get a mentor?

• Mentors are looking for basic human skills
• Randall’s experience with his mentors
• Earning a mentorship – a story about Max

13:35 The importance of taking meetings

• You might add value to their life, they might add value to your life
• Money comes from the most unexpected places
• You never know where a meeting could lead

17:46 A risk to peruse your dream

• Leaving the shore is uncomfortable
• Take the chances, you can always come back
• An incredible red barn story

21:20 The Spartan Company 24 years ago

• Getting people outside their comfort zone
• In the beginning, it didn’t work
• People don’t want to buy discomfort
• The change that came with Facebook

23:18 The Death Race

• It’s like a Navy SEALs or Delta Force event
• Spartan’s toughest event meant to break you
• You look in the mirror and find out who you are
• What does the Death Race look like?

26:27 Serious health issues in Japan

• Joe was stressed out about his business
• Woke up one morning and couldn’t see anything
• Ended up in the hospital – and was told a part of his brain is dead
• He decided not to accept that

28:59 Why do people come to the Spartan race?

• When people experience the transformation, it’s addictive
• Even if it sucked while they were doing it
• Joe’s philosophy - nobody cares, work harder
• Optimize your health and wellness to be able to operate

31:01 The fear of failure

• Failure is a learning opportunity
• A lot of our fear is just fiction

32:48 Three most important ingredients for success

• Persistence, Personality, Gratitude
• The level of hard work needed for success
• You must be willing to sacrifice and save the fun for later

35:45 The importance of extreme preparation

• Joe is constantly working and always preparing
• He prepares months ahead

37:42 Joe’s ultimate dream

• A year of some form of military service post-high school
• Disconnecting all water heaters
• Kids doing burpees before they come into the school
• Is a work-life balance possible?

38:55 Fill in the blanks for excellence

• The biggest lesson I've learned in my life is

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