This Wall Street Veteran Is The Next David Goggins... (#427)

Ken Rideout

Back in the late nineties, the trading desk was like a locker room. It was very alpha-driven, with a lot of hazing and stuff. At the time, I was boxing for the New York Athletic Club and had played hockey. I even worked in a prison for four years, so when these nerds were hazing me, I had enough. One day, I just cuffed the guy. I slapped him across the face and almost knocked him out of his seat. Needless to say, they fired me. But I was covering these young guys at Enron, and they told the senior traders what had happened. One of the senior traders, who happened to be from Rogers Vineyard outside of Boston, called me up and said, "Hey, I didn't even know we had competitors." That's how naive I was; I didn't know there were other brokerage shops. I had been there for about two months, and I barely knew what a bid and offer were. Then, this other competitor offered me a job starting the next Monday.

Sam Parr

Alright, we get right into this. Ken, thanks for coming, man. Do you know at all what you're getting into or no?

Ken Rideout

yeah yeah I heard andrew huberman on the show my friend andrew

Sam Parr

Good, well let me... I'll let you kind of do the intro, but I want to tell our audience what I know about you and why I think it's cool that we have you here. Basically, I was telling Sean, we take pride in finding people a little bit before they explode. You're getting quite popular; you were in the Wall Street Journal the other day, so things are happening for you. To me, you're like the next David Goggins in my mind. You're kind of a freak athletically, but you're also more so a freak mentally. You talk a lot about just being tough. You have some crazy quotes that we'll talk about later, like how you enjoy running because it's all about suffering and things like that. Sean and I are also huge combat sports fans, so I listened to the podcast with Teddy Atlas that you were on. I know a bit about your background, and I wanted to have you on to talk about that. Typically, we talk about business stuff. Huberman was a little bit of a non-business guest, and you're a little bit non-business too, but you have an interesting background where you worked on Wall Street and at Enron. I think you did a bunch of interesting stuff, and that's kind of why we had you on. So, how do you give your introduction? What do you say you do?

Ken Rideout

Yeah, well, thank you for that introduction. When I hear people introduce me, sometimes I almost don't feel like they're talking about me. I think part of what makes me unique is that at times, I don't have the highest opinion of myself and always feel like I should be doing more. I think the comparison to David Goggins is somewhat accurate. Although it's accurate, I can see why others would think that, but I don't think that it's perfect. I take it as a compliment. No, I don't think he's soft at all. I think he's probably maybe more aggressive and alpha than I am. I would say I try to be... I don't know. I think that the way I come across, you know, when I was on Rich Roll, he described me as being... his initial impression of me prior to meeting me was that I was very aggressive, alpha, and intimidating. I don't see myself that way. I see why other people would see that, but I think of myself as that alpha or aggressive exterior being almost like a defense mechanism. Inside, I think I'm very emotional and sensitive. So much so that my way of protecting that sensitivity is to be so aggressive externally that it really takes someone unique and special to kind of see through it. At least that's my take from the psychotherapy I've been involved in.

Sam Parr

The reason we had you on is that we typically have just Sean and I, or we have billionaires and other wonderful people on. Something that I've been thinking a lot about lately, and I've been talking to Sean about, is just toughness. It feels good to get out there and work hard physically or to spar, do things like that. Because even though we're doing cool stuff behind the computer, it still feels like we're behind the computer. You say you're not an alpha, but I think in the Wall Street Journal article you said, "I'm the biggest alpha male on the starting line. I'm ready to decide."

Ken Rideout

Thank you for pointing that out because there was context to that quote. I said, "My exact quote was, when I'm on the start line, when it's time to go 100%, I'm alpha. I will step on your neck to win. I want to kill you. I want to destroy everyone." But the minute that race is over, I'm everyone's best friend. If I see someone fall down in front of me, I will stop and help them. In triathlon, I've asked people, "Yo man, you alright?" I'll stop and help you. I say, "Step on your neck and kill you to win," but not really. This is my mental process that I have to go through to get to the dark place that I need to get to, to suffer to the extent that I need to suffer to get the most out of myself. You know, I ran 36 hours ago. I ran the Tokyo Marathon in 2:29:19 and the day before that...

Shaan Puri

the day

Ken Rideout

Before that, Outside magazine wrote an article about how 51-year-old Ken Rideout runs sub-2:30 marathons. I saw the headline and I literally had an anxiety attack. I'm like, "Oh my god, the pressure is on!" I mean, I've run sub-2:30 three or four times, but it ain't easy. I know that those last 5 or 6 miles are filled with suffering and darkness. It's literally the hardest thing I've ever done. It's like everything in your body is screaming at you. It'd be like if you're driving your car and every single warning bell is going off: the radiator's overheating, the oil's low, you're going to run out of gas. You literally think, "I can stop and no one would care," or "I can push myself and know that I don't have another ounce to give." That sounds cliché or might sound corny, but that's my process. That's where I have to go to get to where I've been. It's to the point where guys like you, with this awesome podcast, want to talk to me. I'm just a regular guy. I'm a dope. I don't see myself as special, with the exception of being willing to die to get the most out of myself physically on these particular days at races.

Shaan Puri

And you, so you said you just ran the marathon in Tokyo 36 hours ago. You're here now, and I didn't know much about you before Sam brought it up. Sam goes, "Oh, I really want to have this guy on. Are you down with it?" I thought, "I've heard that name, but I don't know who that is." I was like, "Oh, is that the Atlas Podcast guy? Oh wait, what's the story?" As I started looking into it, there were a few things that really stood out to me. So there's the kind of the obvious headline: here's a guy who's over 50 years old and is basically flying through these marathons, running at super fast speeds. I don't know the exact records or whatnot, but you're one of the fastest, if not the fastest, correct? And you're kind of in your bracket.

Ken Rideout

over 50 yep

Shaan Puri

Yeah, so that's kind of remarkable. I think that's, you know, the key thing I want to get to. That's an extraordinary thing, and that doesn't just come out of nowhere. So you talk about being able to go to that place in the last 5 miles. What happens pre-race? Where do you... how do you flip that switch? What is your sort of mental state of mind or your psyche? What do you do mentally to prep yourself before these races?

Ken Rideout

that's a great question and thank you for the opportunity to explain this because I think that it's important for people to understand when they look at this just on the surface like you just described like wow it's extraordinary and and by the way when I hear it it doesn't even seem like you're talking about me so I I I I don't at times have the highest opinion of myself because of the struggles I've gone through with addiction so as I'm telling you this I'm super cautious that I about coming across like a narcissist I I don't wanna come across like that I wanna be I wanna be very humble in how I describe this but I'm gonna be honest with the process prior to the race I've spent before a race and this one in particular not no different than any other I spent 10 or 12 weeks like devoting all my physical energy or or at least 90 minutes to 2 and a half hours a day of preparing for this for let's say 12 weeks when I get to tokyo the week before I always go by myself my wife I have 4 young children even some of the local races they don't come to even when I think oh I'm going to win and you can see me win a race like they've come to a few of them and it's kind of uneventful for them they come to expect me to win and I in my mind think they're gonna be so psyched when they see me win and then they're like okay dad can we get out of here now and get a donut so anyway long winded way to say I have a very very specific process that I have to go through in the days leading up and again I don't wanna sound like I'm like some elite professional runner but this is how this is what I do this is the process I have to get there in the case of tokyo with a 14 15 hour time change I need to get there at least 7 days early to get my body and my circadian rhythm on track with what I'm about to do because again I've spent 12 weeks devoting so much energy to this I don't wanna mess around when I get there it's very specific I don't make plans to go to dinner with people or very rarely mainly because I'm a jerk I know it I'm very selfish to me again I'm not a pro runner but to me this is my version of the olympics and I am not there to mess around and have fun it's like I'm I'm on a work trip so I get there and I just need to be alone by myself think about what I wanna do try to stay positive I I'm a big believer in mindset and and and what you tell yourself is the truth reality doesn't matter like what other people think about you doesn't matter it's the only thing that matters is what you think of yourself and that goes into the same that that same thought process goes into preparing for this race in my mind I am a professional runner and I'm gonna win the you know olympic gold medal on sunday so I get there early I go through my process and on race day I've said this before in interviews it's like I'm not I'm nothing nice on race day I don't wanna make friends I don't wanna chitchat I don't I'm a jerk I know it so I try to stay completely by myself I don't put my shit on other people but I don't want them putting theirs on me either so I stay by myself the race goes off I know what's coming some people were like how are the sights in tokyo what were the people like in the race I said I couldn't tell you if we ran through the frigging imperial palace or not all I know is the road in front of me and I get into like a tunnel vision where I can't see any I mean obviously if I look around I could but I don't waste an ounce of energy I don't even try to look at my watch for I I don't wanna move any movement that isn't completely necessary to get from a to b as quickly as possible I'm trying to run the straightest line I'm focusing if people get too close to me I'll like kind of give them an arm like dude you're getting too close like I don't wanna trip someone at the start of the race in tokyo I was on right on the start line and 2 or 3 people right in front of me toppled and it was like they were caught in the whitewash of surfers just arms and legs flailing elbows and knees smashing on the ground as people just trampled them at the front of them hmo it was crazy so I don't want them doing that to me so I'm like that's what I meant about being a bit alpha at the start but I don't wanna hurt anyone I don't wanna affect anyone but I don't wanna be effed with either and yeah did I

Sam Parr

see a did I see a picture of of you and jason calacanis over there

Ken Rideout

yeah I mean jake jake cal yeah that's my dude

Sam Parr

how do you know him

Ken Rideout

My friend Casey Neistat, do you know who he is? YouTube? Yeah, yeah, Casey. So, I trained Casey last year for the New York Marathon. My friend Niamh Schulman, who's the host of *Catfish* on MTV, connected us. I trained Casey and Niamh for the New York City Marathon. Then, I heard Jason mentioning running a marathon on *All In*, and I just mentioned it in passing to Casey. Casey connected me, and I saw Jason was in it. We connected via text. I saw Jason was in Tokyo, so I sent him a text. Then, we ended up going to dinner one night and then a Tokyo food tour the next day. We went to some super high-end sushi place and then a bakery. J Cal is like, he's dialed; he knows where he wants to go. I know nothing. Hey!

Shaan Puri

I was just like just tell

Ken Rideout

Just text me the address, and I'll be there. That's what I mean about the week before.

Sam Parr

you're in the in crowd you're you're you're hanging out with all the all the cool guys

Ken Rideout

Brother, again, when I think about my friends like Andrew Huberman, David Sinclair, and Joe Rogan, I can't believe these guys are my friends. I feel like the luckiest person in the world, and I'm so humbled and honored that guys like you want to talk to me. It's just mind-blowing. But it comes back to this: I don't have anything that anyone listening to the show doesn't have. I promise you, I'm not a good athlete. I played Division 3 sports; I was just a hustler. When I found running as a way of getting over an addiction issue with opioids, I just decided I was done being mediocre. We'll get into the career stuff, and I'll tell you how I applied the same practice to my career in finance. But at the end of the day, not to sound cliché, if you're not all in, there are just too many competitors out there that are going to eat your lunch. If you don't bring your A-game every day, it's tough. However, when you do dedicate your 100% effort to one particular goal, it's very hard to beat the guy who wants to die to win. That's kind of what I applied to running, and it's attracted these other kinds of people who recognize that I am serious about the things that I get involved in.

Sam Parr

Well, the thing that’s interesting is you just have an interesting life. Did I read that you used to work at Enron?

Ken Rideout

no good question I I I was working in finance my very first job if you want me to kinda walk through my career I don't wanna like jump around I started in I moved to new york right after I graduated college I had a pharmaceutical sales job for a few months but when I moved to new york I saw all these younger guys my age working in finance and making a ton of money and I was like I was making like $36,000 in my like rent and student loans came to more than my take home pay I was basically like living on borrowed time in new york living in a shitty walk up and long story short I was playing pickup ice hockey at chelsea piers and a french canadian kid all who played minor league hockey asked me if I wanted a job as a like a trading assistant on a on an interdealer brokerage desk brokering electricity trades between the utilities and enron was one of those clients and the way it worked was the junior guys at enron would trade like next day power which was like the commission was like literally like $5 but if you didn't do that as a service for these accounts they weren't gonna trade the like big ticket items with you so long story short I was doing that the guys on the trading desk you know back in like the late nineties trading desk was like a locker room it was very like alpha driven a lot of hazing and shit but I mean I was at the time boxing for the new york athletic club I had played hockey I mean I was I worked in a prison for 4 years so these nerds were hazing me and one day I just cuffed the guy I just slapped him across the face and almost knocked him out of his seat and needless to say they fired me but I was covering these young guys at enron and they told the senior traders what had happened and one of the senior traders who happened to be from mazars vineyards outside of boston called me up said hey I got a job I didn't even know we had competitors that's how naive I was I didn't know there were other brokerage shops yeah I was there like 2 months and I mean I barely knew what a bidding and offer was were and this other competitor offered me a job starting the next monday I was making $40 they offered me a job at $80 I mean to me that was more money than anyone I knew made so I was like and and the other thing is this guy's hazing me I had a huge black guy from a fight at the new york athletic club like I was not like a punk that you could just like I I didn't strike you come across as like hey bully me I'm a big sissy like I was a guy you know so when he did it I was like you got the wrong guy dude and I cracked him and needless to say he almost started crying because I was like when you leave this office I'm gonna beat the crap out of you and he's like I'm not I'm not gonna leave I go you're gonna have to sleep here because when you come outside you're getting beaten and they were like okay ken you gotta go before we call the cops and again I had no safety net I couldn't call home and ask for money there was like I worked in the prison my stepdad and brother were inmates in the prison no one was looking to help me in my finance career in new york to them I was like an anomaly you know I was already like the richest person they knew just by having a job in new york city so yeah it was nerve wracking and so that's how my career started and the guys at enron were just like good customers of my clients that like literally changed my life

Sam Parr

but it did it worked out alright I mean I think at at the end of your career I mean you were killing it

Ken Rideout

Yeah, so when that happened, I mean, from the minute that happened, within two years, I was making like... I mean, not to sound like a narcissist, and I don't have a lot of money; I'm not a rich guy. But within two years, I was making like $2,000,000 a year doing things that, to me, were like... I didn't even know what we were trading. I just knew people, and I had relationships, and they were just doing trades with me. I was living in London, running sales and trading, commodity sales and trading at Cantor Fitzgerald out of London and Hong Kong. I was flying on the Concorde back and forth from New York to London on a regular basis. Every single time, the novelty just never wore off. Every time it happened, I was like, "I can't believe that this is my life," much like I feel today. I can't believe I've done this. How are you making that?

Shaan Puri

Much money! That's just commissions. Or what goes into that? How do you jump from like $80,000 to $2,000,000? What happened?

Ken Rideout

Yeah, good question. So, I was brokering electricity trades, and electricity deregulation had just taken place. We were putting together trades for commodities, trading on monthly contracts. When Enron went bust, I got sent from New York to London and then back to New York because the business had dried up. But I was one of the biggest producers of commissions at the time. Again, I was so unqualified; I didn't know anything about the technicalities of what we were doing. I just knew how to find buyers and sellers. It could have been houses, it could have been baseball cards. I just had a knack for it. Is that like one of...

Shaan Puri

Networking... Is it cold calling? What were you doing to actually be great? What did it take to be great there?

Ken Rideout

yeah good good question I hate the word networking I feel like when you're trying to network you're already like us behind the curve like if you're trying to make friends people ask me frequently now like how are you friends with rich role and and andrew human I'm like I don't know I just I I must have something that they like and they have something I like we just find each other but I certainly didn't make a conscious effort ever to be friends with anyone it's just a natural process so to answer your question I just had I just had an ability to connect with people and I tried to have live a life of honesty and integrity and if I say I'm gonna do something I'll do it and I like to tell the people that I'm close with or when I have a close friend someone's like oh are you friends with that guy I'm like oh I helped that guy bury a dead body I like him so much like that's my guy you know and I think that people know people that are my friends know that that's the truth if you need me someone's coming to over to your house they wanna fight with you I'll come and help you like and I think like I said I think the people who are tight with me they know that that's a character trait that I have and I think it's what's helped me build the rapport with the people that I've built rapport with but to your question so I had this ability to connect with people so when enron went bust they sent me back to new york and again talking about reinventing yourself and run goes down I'm making a ton of money and these businesses like cantor fitzgerald investment banks etcetera they're ruthless so the minute shit went sideways with electricity trading they were like okay we'll send you back to new york and this was I lived in london during 9/11 and cantor was on the top floor of the world trade center so when we lost 3,000 people they sent me back to new york and said hey can you take over our credit derivatives business which happened to be the most lucrative business in the in the institution at the time now if I didn't know anything about electricity you can imagine how little I knew about credit derivatives I knew less than nothing I knew as much as a plumber would know but I knew people and I knew the lingo and I just I picked up the phone and just in hindsight I don't even know I had a I developed a relationship with a guy who's still one of my really good friends called colin stewart who worked at morgan stanley who happened to be a huge trader of these things and then market was so new credit derivatives and we just hit it off again just became friendly we went skiing a couple times and he started to just do a ton of business with me and at the time when a product is new the commissions tend to be big until people realize how much they're paying on an annual monthly or annual basis but I can remember one time for context and again I'm only sharing these numbers because of the for context of the podcast I get I don't wanna come across like hey look at how much money I'm making because

Sam Parr

hey our podcast is called it's called my first million

Shaan Puri

you're alright

Ken Rideout

Alright, so I'm on a trading desk. There's a group of credit derivative brokers, just generic credit derivatives. I was trading credit derivatives like correlation products—super sophisticated, high-end, bespoke one-off trades. The credit derivative desk has about 12 guys, and that was like the product du jour. Everyone wanted to be in credit derivatives; it was jammed. Think of credit derivatives basically as an option on a bond. So, we had a super busy day one day; everyone did. The kid who ran the CDS (Credit Default Swap) desk says to me, "Dude, we had a huge day! We made $250,000 in commissions between like 10 to 15 guys." So I said, "Hold on, let me see." I started tallying up other things and I go, "Oh dude, I was a one-man show! I did $262,000 in total commissions, and I think I was keeping like either 50 or 60% of that in one day."

Shaan Puri

Amazing! It was insane. So, how did you leave that? Why? How do you let that go? Or, you know, what happens? Take us, continue the story.

Ken Rideout

all right so when I went to london I was in charge of like a bunch of grown men and and I was like 27 years old but I was very immature like when I went to college I've said in previous interviews like I I wasn't prepared for adulthood I I just I grew up around junkies and degenerates and like it it was a very hectic childhood and my brother was in and out my brother never went to school past the 9th grade he's only 11 months younger than me so it was just total chaos where I was and I just knew I had to get out of this so I applied to college like I literally went to the school I went to because on the application you could like fill in the little dots with the pencil next to the letters and it was like like path of least resistance in terms of applications and I could work at and I had a job offer to work as a guard in the prison full time in the summer and then a few days a week during the school year which I did through college I started at the prison like when I was 1 week out of high school so if you can imagine being in a men's maximum security prison I mean I was 18 but I probably looked like I was 15 but I also knew prison is very segregated right blacks and whites don't necessarily mingle with each other freely it's not like it's it's it's like a different world but I knew most of the white guys because I grew up in like white irish catholic almost like not in housing projects my whole life but in that in that sphere so when I got there I knew some of those guys so I wasn't as scared as I might be if I didn't know anyone going in there which I know sounds crazy in hindsight now what people know me I'm like you knew people in prison I'm like the difference between guards and inmates is like the inmates have been caught the guards are just as bad it's like that was that was a big part of my motivation to get out of college it's like looking at what my prospects of life looked like if I didn't go to college and working at that prison I was like I'd rather be dead it was the worst worst to this day it's the worst experience of my life just in the thought of having to do that every day for 20 years so I'm I'm working there paying through college I I go to london I'm now in charge of basically in in on a broker's desk whoever makes the most commissions they're the manager regardless of having management skills so I guess the what I was saying in a long winded way of saying like I had no experience or no I didn't have the maturity to be a manager so I really didn't know what I was doing but I knew I was good at brokering trades and I was suffering massively like from a fraud complex imposter syndrome and I had a minor surgery on my ankle and I was introduced to percocet and the minute I took those percocets and the opioids I was like oh I have all the confidence in the world no one can stop me and thus began like a 10 year odyssey of being high 20 47 save for like a week or 2 here a month here and there like I'd get sober on my own just white knuckle it like go through the physical withdrawals of you know basically opioids just like heroin I was I was a mess I like in hindsight I I tell people now when I speak to like junkies at like na meetings or aa meetings or I speak at at prisons I say like I was a good drug addict I could get away with it I had resources I was resourceful I could find drugs anywhere I could get people to give me prescriptions all over the country I just I'm embarrassed to say I was really good at it and I was a functioning addict for a good 10 years and I'm sure people that worked with me during those during that.

Ken Rideout

Just think, I was *fucking crazy*. Not necessarily whacked on drugs, but it is what it is. It's *embarrassing*. Like, I get choked up thinking about it.

Shaan Puri

it because I I

Ken Rideout

I just can't believe I behaved like such a loser, but I did it. Once I finally got sober and started having children with my wife, I have an adopted daughter who's 12 years old. We adopted her from Ethiopia as a newborn. Right before we adopted her, I went through an outpatient detox, got clean, and have been sober since. I mean, I haven't been without slip-ups over the last several years. I might slip up here and there, but for the most part, I've been sober longer than I've ever been in my life. Of all the things I've ever done, it's one of the things that I'm most proud of—the fact that I was able to, I don't say "get over" because it's a constant struggle to stay sober when you've been addicted to those kinds of drugs that are so physically and mentally addictive. Nevertheless, that's kind of my journey.

Sam Parr

Where'd the transition go from just being a normal guy to this kind of, I don't know, personality or whatever you want to call what you are now?

Ken Rideout

Yep, that's what I was going to get to. So, in 2010, when I got sober, I started doing triathlons. I did the Ironman in Hawaii three times.

Sam Parr

and which was your first time or what was what what time what time did you finish in your first triathlon

Ken Rideout

probably 11 hours and then my

Sam Parr

best broke 12 hours your first time

Ken Rideout

yeah yeah yeah but that's like that's again that goes back to mentality like oh my god 12 hours by

Sam Parr

the way sean that that that's like pretty good I mean 12 hour

Shaan Puri

sounds like a very long time somebody who never did that

Sam Parr

No breaking 12 hours for your first time? That's a great accomplishment, right?

Ken Rideout

Pretty good! In like three years, I got down to a 9:36, basically without even knowing how to swim. I went to Hawaii three times, but again, part of that journey was learning about myself, figuring out how to suffer, and learning that quitting is much harder than suffering. The first time I went to Hawaii, to me, it was like I had made it to the Olympics. I was so happy just to be there. When I got off the bike, you know, it's a 2.5-mile swim in the ocean, a 112-mile bike ride in the Hawaii sun, in the heat, and you start a marathon around 1 o'clock in the afternoon, which would be crazy even to do as a training run. The run got hard, and I just quit. I just stopped. I was like, "Oh, I'm dying. This isn't my day." I told myself every story that I needed to justify quitting. It had been a long year of training, and I made it here—that's the big thing. As I walked back to transition, I was literally crying to myself, like real tears. It was so shameful because I knew I didn’t have to quit. I had a lot more to give. Even if I walked, I went back the next year and finished in like 9 hours and 39 minutes. I don’t know where I finished overall, but I was very satisfied with that. So, I used endurance sports to deal with my addiction, and through endurance sports, I discovered my ability to suffer through adversity. I also learned the pain of quitting and the emptiness I felt when I didn’t give 100% to something I had committed to. That really began the journey. That was like in 2012 or 2013 when I decided, "You know what? I'm done being mediocre at anything in life. Whatever I do, I'm going to do with 100% conviction, including work." If you'd like, I am happy to come back to my career and how it transitioned into what it was and what it is because this is all part of the same story.

Shaan Puri

Well, let's stay with the mind shift. Sure, I want to talk about two of them. So, you had said, "We adopted my daughter, and I decided to get sober." What was the thought behind that? Because, you know, after 10 years...

Sam Parr

Of addiction, I can't imagine that. That's the worst addiction. Yeah, opioids. I mean, they're the worst.

Shaan Puri

And so, I can't imagine that it was just as simple as saying, "Okay, okay, well now this time I'm gonna do it." So, what was the thought? Can you take us back to that moment where you kind of realized, "Okay, I'm gonna do this"? Or were there many false starts before it finally happened? Yeah, how did it happen?

Ken Rideout

Yeah, no, that's excellent. There were many false starts. No one who's suffering with addiction wants to continue to wallow in that. They call those medications Percocet, like painkillers, but they're really joy killers. So what happens is you initially take them, you feel great, and you can maybe do that for like a week. Every single time you take a dose, you get a euphoric feeling. Maybe the first time it lasts for an hour or two. By the end of the first week, it might be a half an hour. By the time you're in the throes of addiction, you're only taking them so you're not sick. Anyone who knows anything about withdrawals from opioids knows what I'm talking about. Imagine having the worst flu of your life for seven freaking days. It can stop whenever you're ready to start taking them again, or are you strong enough to get through this week to ten days? Just like quitting anything, you're sick. Oh, something came up—any justification where you're like, "I can't afford to show up here in the throes of withdrawals." I can't go two feet from the toilet because I might have to use the bathroom. I'm sweating, then I'm freezing cold. Everything hurts. I'm an emotional mess; I could cry at the drop of a dime. There had been many times I had gotten sober for weeks, months at a time, and then, you know, found excuses to go back to using. But when we were adopting my children, I was like, "I cannot live like this with children. I have to be in my right mind." And yeah, it wasn't as... so to your...

Ken Rideout

It's not just like I flipped a switch. But I will say, in terms of being hard, finding someone who has been able to get sober from opioids is like finding someone with a story from "The Biggest Loser." You see someone who weighs like 350 or 400 pounds, and then the next time you see them, they're ripped to shreds and living an athletic lifestyle. That's how rare it is to find someone who was heavily addicted to opioids and is now living a clean and emotionally prosperous life. Only other junkies who've been through this can recognize the struggle that went into it and the strength it took to get out of it. Like I said, I've not always been perfect, but I'm so grateful and thankful to be where I am versus where I was with regards to the addiction. But yeah, it was not easy. I know I'm different. When it comes to mindset, I know that I have some mental strength that other people don't have. I say that with humility, but it's the truth. I just decided I'd rather die than live like this, and I don't want to die.

Shaan Puri

I can't find this client info

Ken Rideout

have you

Hubspot

Heard of HubSpot? HubSpot is a CRM platform that shares its data across every application. Every team can stay aligned—no out-of-sync spreadsheets or dueling databases. HubSpot: Grow better. You have an interesting perspective because you grew up with a bunch of people who are now in prison. You worked in a prison, then you worked in New York on Wall Street. But now, you know a lot of these celebrity fitness folks. So, you've had the opportunity to meet a variety of interesting people. You also work with Teddy Atlas, which I imagine has allowed you to meet Tyson. It looks like you have Dustin Poirier in a picture behind your shoulder. So, you've met a lot of traditionally tough people, or at least people who, from an outsider's perspective—my perspective—seem like these tough guys. Who are some of the toughest people that you've met and admire? When you think about how they would behave in a situation when you're struggling physically or mentally, what comes to mind?

Ken Rideout

I would think one of the toughest people I know I don't wanna get emotional one of the toughest people I know is my wife the fact that she was able to like stick with me through all this bullshit for the for the sake of my children has been incredible it's easy to be physically tough because like I said I mean he catching a beat and he's like okay I got beat up like okay not the end of the world we've all been in fallen down bike crash car accident or whatever like physical pain is just momentary emotional pain lasts forever someone that's able to withstand emotional pain and show toughness and perseverance through emotional pain is a special person because like I said with like using addiction as an example there's a lot of ways to escape emotional pain drugs alcohol ultimately they're all shortcuts and you know like a finger in the dike of the problem like the only way through it the only way to deal with adversity is to go through it and go through the fire you know like the expression when you're going through hell keep going or you're in a hole stop digging so to that extent in terms of emotional toughness my wife showed incredible conviction and perseverance to stick with me when I was just of a mediocre finance clown addicted to drugs behaving like an asshole worrying about materialistic possessions and worrying about keeping up with the joneses versus worry about just living for myself and trying to be the best person that I could be which in my heart is like who I really am and so to that extent my wife is tough but you know in terms of traditional toughness I'd say any of the fighters we've had on the podcast that's dustin over one shoulder and regis over the regis progray who's 140 pound world champ those are 2 incredibly tough guys but anyone who has the courage to get into to the ring or the octagon and have a fist fight for money in front of other people I can you imagine anything physically tougher than that I just I have such admiration

Sam Parr

Those guys, how do they describe that? I mean, like this weekend, I don't know how many people bought the Jon Jones fight, but I imagine he had millions of eyeballs on him. He's like, "Well, I'm gonna get in my underwear. I'm basically naked, and I'm gonna fight to the death in front of all these people."

Ken Rideout

that's right

Sam Parr

I have read some stories about Chael Sonnen and Cowboy Cerrone. They're tough guys, and backstage, you see them at the weigh-ins puffing their chests and flexing their muscles, saying, "I'm gonna effing kill you," and all that. But then, once they're retired, they tell different stories. They mention how they had to throw up backstage before a fight because they were so afraid. At the beginning of every fight, it's like a race. They experience feelings of, "What am I doing? I don't want to do this. Why do I keep doing this? This is the worst feeling." So, they're kind of human. What do you think? What have some of those fighters said right before they're about to enter the arena and fight to the death? What do they go through?

Ken Rideout

you just hit the nail on the head I've had some fights myself boxing matches and it's whether you're in the ufc or fighting in a a vfw or a a con of a convention hall every single person that I've ever met and spoken to and I've been in the locker room of fighters before fights many world champions ufc boxers teddy and I trained the light heavyweight champion of the world I was basically teddy's assistant teddy trained him but we were in the locker room for a pay per view main event fight and I can tell you every single person feels the same things that you and I would feel or that average person would feel they're not different they're not special they're not unique the coward and the hero as teddy alice would say they feel the same exact thing the only thing that they do differently is how they behave some people let that fear overwrought overwhelm them and they cower and the like I I I I compare it to like surfing the waves are crashing down and there's that like break zone where you either have to get out of the water or get through the break and the coward either gets washed out the sea or goes back to the shore and the hero goes through the break and knows that on the other side is calm waters and is the place where you wanna be with other heroes so I think to answer your question is they don't feel any different everyone feels the same thing they're not immune to the fact that there's millions of people watching no one is it's just exactly as you would imagine the only difference is how they behave and you just forget that the what that's the reason they train you train as hard as you do what they do is because at the end of the day you've got to block out all the bullshit because all that fear that we've just described is all noise and the the the amount of things and again this is all knowledge I have gleaned from working with teddy atlas all of the scenarios and potential nightmares that could happen teddy calls them like the ninjas of your mind the ninjas that coming over the wall as you're getting ready to go into the ring or the octagon and all of the possible scenario there's endless scenarios of things that could go horribly wrong you could die you could get knocked out you could get your arm broken but at the end of the day what are the odds of any of those things happening because you know you've trained like a dog you've been in fires with these kind of sparring sessions you've done the running you've done the training and at the end of the day you have to block out the fact that everyone's watching this is now simply a more aggressive sparring session and you're just going to focus on the task at hand and once at least in my own experience whether it's a fight or a race once the gun goes off or the bell rings and you start jabbing or running you have to get your mind into that place of like hey I've been here before I know what's coming I know what to do even if it's not going right I know how I'm supposed to behave and teddy would say you know the difference what makes a fighter a fighter or what makes a fight a fight is when there's something to overcome you're not really a fighter if you're just in there beating the brakes out of shit competition you become a fighter when there's something to overcome when you dealt some cards that you weren't expecting when you get punched in the most in a shot that you didn't see coming and now you tested that's when you see who's really a fighter who can come back who can get off the canvas we measure a man much more by how they get off the canvas versus how many times they knock someone else to the canvas so when you have losses and setbacks and you've experienced that feeling of having quit or not given a 100% that's when you find out who you really are and that's at least that's what's worked for me and again a lot of reality the the reality of situation isn't nearly as important as the narrative that you have in your head because the narrative in your head is gonna control how you behave and control your mindset and that's something that's well within your control and you can learn how to harness that ability over time and through practice and that's why we train the way we do

Shaan Puri

So, I wanted to ask you about that exact thing. You run these crazy marathons and achieve incredible times. I think you've just been getting faster and faster every year since you were 35 years old, which is kind of amazing. I'm not going to run; I'm not a runner. It's not something that's of interest to me. But everybody hits adversity, and I think this is probably the most important thing that I want to learn from you. When you're in a fight or a race and adversity strikes, what is the self-talk that you have developed to get you through that? You mentioned that the difference between a coward and a hero is the behavior. I would guess that this behavior comes from a conversation that happens in your head, deciding which way to go. Are we going to walk off the field, or are we going to continue on? So, what is that self-talk, and how do you train that?

Ken Rideout

yeah that's a great. And I think that at the end of the day we all know what the answer is like try to use a professional analogy like a business analogy if you're a research analyst right and you're covering a particular stock and you know that there's like let's say realistically 15 other guys covering that stock is like who's gonna go the extra mile to get it done right we've all just like at the start of race everyone shows up everyone there is good everyone there is fit who's the healthiest that's a big difference who's done all the little things so if you're doing research have you uncovered every every stone have you turned over every stone like warren buffett talks about that he would pour through company reports I don't even think he uses a computer he's just old school he's just reading re reading company reports reading balance sheets and I think that we all know whether it whatever our profession is we all know what we could do better and I think when you sit with yourself and you ask yourself have I done everything think about how much free how much time we waste in the day and and if you need an an example every single time you open your phone and look at it for anything instagram twitter I do it myself it pisses me off because it's such a waste of time I've like contemplated getting rid of social media every day for like the last 2 years but it's it it it I would be lying if I didn't say it's been helpful me to me in terms of getting my message out there and kinda sharing some of the knowledge I have in terms of what I've been able to do with running but I would say that to simplify is like we all know what needs to be done you just have to do the little extra things that you know that other people aren't is someone else leaving early to go have drinks with their friend the people who are great that's their priority and again back to the concept of all in if you're all in on one thing and you decide this one thing that no one's gonna beat me at no one has to tell you what you need to do you know everyone you know spend more time doing the thing that you love doing if you do something more than anyone else I'm pretty sure you'll become the best in the world and if you wanna be the best piano player there's gonna be people that are just virtuosos so let's take out the outliers but if you wanna be a piano player and and and there's 20 other people in your class I promise you that if you train more than them and practice more than them you'll be the best and I unfortunately the only example I have for that for me is running I've just run more than other people and I've been able to stay healthy which is you know I get maybe part of it is luck I just have the physiology that absorbs the miles but I do a lot of other things to maintain my overall health in addition to running

Sam Parr

You keep saying that you're like this. You're like, "I'm a humble guy," you know? And it feels crazy. Well, you don't say, "I'm humble." I think you said, "I don't want to be a narcissist and talk about this and that." But you're kind of this alpha, cocky guy—in a good way. That's a compliment. I read the story, and you're a funny guy. You're like the real-life version of a Mark Wahlberg character in a movie because you say these funny wisecracks. I read a story that's like 10 years old. Apparently, Lance Armstrong was hosting a man camp or some type of tough guy camp. I think the story is that you were kind of chirping at him. You told the reporter, "I came this close to beating Lance Armstrong in the first race. I attacked him like a rabid dog. I had a gap on him." Then, on the ride, apparently a rock hit Lance or something from someone's tires, and you said, "I hurt Lance Armstrong. I broke him. I made him bleed." Then you actually got close to beating him, or maybe even you did beat him. You said, "I'm the winner of man camp, Lance! I need you to clean my bike and hose it off for me."

Ken Rideout

Yes, the initial quote is slightly out of context because it sounds a bit dorky. I would never say, "I came this close to beating him." I just would never talk like that. There was more to the quote where I was, and I did beat him in a couple of those clients. But he probably hadn't ridden a bike in like six months before we did this together, so there's a lot of context that's missing there. Lance is a good friend of mine. A rock did bounce up and hit his finger, and I said, "Yep, I made you bleed. Now clean all the bikes. We kicked your ass." And then I probably said to him, "Make sure that no one gets a blood sample of that. Make sure no one gets a drop of that blood and runs a sample on it. I don't want to find out that you're still doing any kind of performance enhancers." But it was obviously said in jest.

Sam Parr

But you're chirping at him in a fun way. Even though you had the confidence to chirp at him a little bit, I think it's hilarious and awesome.

Ken Rideout

Why wouldn't I? He's a bike rider. Have you ever met a bike rider that was going to physically do anything to anyone? I was like, I think at some point I said to him, "You're used to dealing with like 115-pound European cyclists. Now you're dealing with real men." Like, this is... we're peers. There's no, like, you know what I mean? I can't imagine a less intimidating group of guys than professional cyclists.

Shaan Puri

sounds like you better took lance to band camp actually instead of him hosting

Sam Parr

yeah yeah class is in session that day

Ken Rideout

That's the thing. If someone heard all the conversations out of context, number one, they wouldn't be fit to be published. They were very much like a locker room. But Lance is my buddy, and all of that said stuff was just said in jest, teasing each other. That probably wouldn't all be for public consumption. But you know, anytime you see quotes where it's like, "I came this close to beating Lance," it makes me sound like a dork. I wouldn't talk like that. I would have said, "I'm gonna kick your ass, and when we get out there tomorrow, I'm gonna do this and I'm gonna do that." But again, I would say that too. I'd tell Dustin Poirier the same thing if we were gonna have a sparring session. That's all. I don't want to sound... I don't at all feel cocky or arrogant whatsoever. I know that there are some things I'm good at, and I know that there are a lot more things that I'm bad at. So if I've come across as cocky, I apologize. It's certainly not the message I want to send. I think I try to be as humble as I can and know that there are a lot of things that I'm not good at. But suffering is one thing that I know how to do.

Sam Parr

Are you making most of your income right now from your... May I think you have like a small advisory, right? Are you making most of your income now from that? Or are you going to try and make a full transition to become like this... I don't know what the right word is, but we call these "Goggins." But whatever that is, a personality that sounds lamer than it actually is. But you know what I mean, yeah?

Ken Rideout

I know this is a great question so I've made the most of my income through finance and what I've done so so in 2015 I left new york and went to california with a fintech startup called electronify we were brokering trades between institutions for corporate bonds so right now when you trade a corporate bond you have to call like goldman morgan stanley and you have to find they they you tell them I wanna sell these bonds they find a buyer sometimes they'll they'll buy them from you which was the old traditional investment bank model right they'd hey I got 2020,000,000 of these bonds to go okay we'll take them there and then they try to sell them at a slight markup now they're basically just matching buyers and sellers for all intents and purposes so we created a new an electronic marketplace that could let these like fidelity and pimco trade directly with each other so I went out to new I went out to la to cover the west coast knowing that there was a good chance that this start up wasn't going to work it didn't we sold it to a competitor but I my by moving to la I basically forced myself into an uncomfortable position because there aren't sales and trading jobs in la like there are in new york so I knew I'd have to figure something else out and you know that expression of like hey if you're waiting for everything to be perfect to make a move it ain't ever gonna happen you have to make the move and make it perfect and long story short I was riding my bike out everything that good in my life that's happened has been through endurance sports I was riding my bike with a guy in my neighborhood and we were he ran an asset management firm called the palisades group and they had maybe 2,000,000,000 in assets under management they were running money for all big household managers like all the household names like apollo for instance and and they had separately managed accounts so the fees weren't huge like a traditional hedge fund or asset manager and I said to him he didn't have any business development he wasn't actively out there trying to raise more capital which is what he would need to do to really grow his business so I said let me run business development for you and and he said you know accurately you don't have any experience and we're friends I don't wanna put you in a losing position and I said okay I'll work for free for 3 months just to see if it works and again every time I've been willing to take a bet on myself it's worked out in that in that brokerage commission role that we discussed earlier I was paid just straight commission so when I was making all that money if I didn't do any trades I don't make any money but because I was willing to do that I got to keep more of the commissions so anytime I've bet on myself it's worked thankfully so he gave me an opportunity and I came in and in 2 years we grew that from 2,000,000,000 to 5,000,000,000 I raised 2 discretionary funds which is basically like raising a hedge fund first time manager managing discretionary capital we couldn't even hire banks to help us raise the money they basically laughed us out of the room and I said they said to me you think why do you think and I they said why do you think you can raise this fund like it doesn't seem like you'll be able to just based on the track record experienced asset class and I said why do you think you can't like until someone beats me at the new york marathon like I'll convince myself that I can win this whole race and long story short we raised the money we raised a $35,000,000 fund and a $150,000,000 fund and once I did that and kind of started to believe in myself that I could raise money my boss at the time who's like one of my best friends jack mcdowell who's like

Sam Parr

so like just go off and go off and do this on your own

Ken Rideout

He said, "Dude, you're wasting your time. Go do your own thing." The first mandate that I worked on was with David Sinclair at Life Biosciences. I helped them raise **$50,000,000** at one point. David and I were raising capital in New York, and we had dinner with Wendy Murdoch, Tony Blair, and Bennett Miller at Wendy's New York City triplex apartment on 5th Avenue. It was literally like I was watching someone else's life unfold as I was sitting there having a conversation with Tony Blair over dinner. Once I had raised money for a few different independent private placement mandates, I just started doing that full-time. Since then, I have worked on a bunch of mandates in the health and wellness space. Now, I'm back raising, on a consultant basis, a third discretionary fund for the Palisades Group. That's kind of one way that I make money. I also have some investments; I've invested in a lot of these deals. I have some advisory roles and, for lack of better terms, some influencer deals with some big brands. I just feel so incredibly lucky that brands want to affiliate with me. It's like a dream come true. Additionally, I also have a TV project I'm working on.

Sam Parr

what's the next like 5 years gonna be how's this transition gonna look like and what do you want it to look like

Ken Rideout

Well, in a perfect world, I just filmed a pilot with a big production company for a network that's confidential right now. But if the network likes what we recorded—and I think they will; it's unbelievable—I think a lot of people will like it. It's a non-scripted kind of show where I'm the main host. In a perfect world, the network will like the show, pick it up, and I will do that and see where that takes me. I like the idea that I always tell people: when you work for someone else, when you're employed, you're kind of a slave. They own you. You can't just do whatever you want to do. You get to have a couple of days off a week; they provide a little bit of safety for you. In turn, you give them a certain amount of your time. But the main thing that you miss out on by being an employee is the opportunity to pursue interesting opportunities when they are presented. Like this media project I'm working on—if I had a job, there’s no way I’d be able to do it. They were like, "Hey, we're going to record for a week and, you know, out of town." I would never have been able to do this. But because I was willing to bet on myself and take the risk of having to get my own health insurance, not being sure if, you know, something happens to me and people don’t want to be affiliated with me anymore, I get injured, I can't run—like, okay, now what do I do? I guess I could always fall back on a finance gig, but I don’t want to do that. You know, I wasn't happy doing that.

Ken Rideout

I've said this before and I think it's relevant for this podcast is that I I've said to people look like money doesn't make you happy and people are always like oh bullshit you have money and I'm like no I've had money and lost money multiple times when anyone went bust you know when you're making a lot of money you spend a lot of money and when that ends abruptly you're very quickly out of money especially if you have a 10 $12,000 mortgage and now you get paid getting paid $10 a month which is what happened to me when enron went bust things can change quickly and the reason I say the example I give you is I was making a ton of money and I became a drug addict so it didn't make me happier it caused me different anxiety so money can alleviate a lot of stress but it can also add stress that you didn't know stressors that you didn't even know existed and yes it's easier to have money than to not have money but if your only goal in life is to make money I would say be careful what you wish for because I was making money and I could've convene I could've comfortably continued to do what I was doing but I'm so much happier now wearing the risk of not knowing where the next deal or paycheck is gonna come from but I've never been happier in my life and and and this didn't this transformation didn't happen until my late forties and when I finally like had the courage to bet on myself like all in in my late forties it's been the greatest gift I've ever given myself is to like bet on myself and and and and and live and die with my own results so in 5 years I hope that this media stuff becomes more of a reality and I can continue to kind of share my experiences and you know knowledge of you know knowing how to suffer and deal with adversity and I like I like sharing that message I've done some speaking recently that's also contributed to my financial well-being and that's something that I actually really enjoy which is crazy right because every time I do speak to people I go hey is anyone here getting nervous about speaking in front of an audience and every single person raises their hand and I go guess what I do too but I'm dealing with it and like I tell my kids it's okay to be scared like when they my youngest son's playing baseball he's like dad I get so nervous when I get up to bat he's 7 I said buddy everybody does but sometimes we just have to learn how to do things while we're scared once you get comfortable operating while you're scared you can't lose it's just it has to do with repetitions and experience

Sam Parr

How are you? I'm a former competitive runner. Now, I'm pretty into fitness, focusing on all types of well-rounded fitness activities. However, I tend to get hurt. You seem like you do not get hurt. I think part of that is just biology. Some people are built in a way that they can absorb miles, like you said. But what are you doing to stay healthy?

Ken Rideout

I try to sleep **8 hours a day**. I eat a very healthy diet and do a lot of strength training, which I think a lot of runners don't do. Recently, I hadn't done much stretching in the past, but lately, I've been doing a lot more stretching. I feel like, especially in the last **6 to 12 months**, I've focused on tons of preventative care. I use electrical muscle stimulation devices; I've got every device under the sun, including a Theragun, etc. I spend a lot of time trying to keep myself healthy, but it’s getting harder over the years.

Sam Parr

Do you think that running 70 to 80 miles a week is going to make you live a longer or healthier life? Or are you just happy with how it makes you feel? When I think about it, I did a half Ironman—nothing like what you did—and I didn't even do it fast. But I remember doing all those miles and thinking, "Man, I don't know if this is going to help me live to be 120." It might not. Maybe just lifting weights and going for walks might be a little bit better. How do you think about that?

Ken Rideout

I agree with you a 100 100% I always tell anyone who's interested I don't know that this is the answer for me but you're talking to someone who is living the life of a drug addict to me okay if it makes my life a little bit shorter but it's adding the quality of life that I'm experiencing right now that's a bet I'm willing to make yeah I don't know I like I wish I had an answer for you I don't know what's going to add to my overall longevity in terms of my mental and physical well-being but I know that right now this is the best way for me to live my life look at what it's given me has been it's been immeasurable but I think that there are a lot of things that contribute to longevity I mean obviously there's the famous longevity study out of harvard that suggests that the most important element to live in a healthy fruitful life is relationships and it's to that extent the one thing that this lifestyle and my kind of new found station in life has provided me is the quality of relationships when I worked in finance this doesn't apply to everyone in finance but a lot of the people I worked with were real assholes and I didn't like them and it was keeping up with the joneses and I if I if I never had to sit on a trading desk for the rest of my life I'd be perfectly fine with that again not everyone I've met some people there that I genuinely love but there's some also some people there that if I saw them I wouldn't mind giving them a smack in the malls there's been some real idiots I've worked with and I could go on forever but my life now when I if there's someone in my life that I don't appreciate or don't respect I can just cut them out and move on to the next thing I don't need the thing that I have that some billionaires don't have is enough I have enough I have everything I need and I'd love to have more money and I'd love to put in a pool and renovate my house and splurge on a lot of bullshit but at the end of the day I have the one thing that I need and that's enough and I have my family and so you know finding what you were finding something in life that you're passionate about and that you genuinely joy enjoy is the key and to me and people say all the time find something you love doing and you'll never work a day in your life there isn't a single week that goes by that I don't say to my wife can you believe I don't have an effing job am I the luckiest person we know and she always laughs and goes you're definitely the luckiest person I know but it's interesting that the harder I work the luckier I seem to get

Sam Parr

You're an interesting guy, and we appreciate you coming on. I've been following you now, I think since 2020, whenever you joined Teddy Atlas. Yeah, because I listen to that a ton. I don't know, Sean does too. We appreciate you coming on. You're different. You're built different. You're a different guy, and we appreciate that. We like those types of people.

Ken Rideout

Well, I want to say again thank you so much. I really hope that I didn't come across as too alpha or cocky. I just tried to be, more than anything, honest. It's like the world and the internet are so big. If you embellish or bullshit about something, there will be someone coming out of the bushes saying, "That didn't happen," or "This didn't happen." I know a lot of my stuff sounds sensational and crazy, but I think if anything, at times I'm downplaying some of the stuff because I know how crazy it sounds. But yeah, anyway, I do feel very humbled and honored to be here.

Shaan Puri

this is a place where cockiness and alphaness is actually appreciated so so if even

Ken Rideout

if you

Shaan Puri

did that would be you know right at home here we just like when people are the way they are

Ken Rideout

and not

Sam Parr

trying to marry you home because

Ken Rideout

we do

Sam Parr

by the way we don't get a lot of cock cockiness or alpha sean that's why we like it

Shaan Puri

Yeah, we enjoy it. It's a good change of pace. You know, we're a business podcast for the most part, focusing on entrepreneurship. We're a bunch of people with carpal tunnel syndrome. It's not typically a group of alpha males coming on the podcast. So, I think there was some good stuff here regarding mental strength, toughness, and adversity. But basically, what I think is the most important thing is managing that little voice in your head. That little voice is who you go through life with. I think you're a great example of what happens when you really work on that. So, thanks for coming on, Ken. I really appreciate it.

Ken Rideout

Say this before I leave: that voice in your head is not little. That voice in your head is all-powerful, the most powerful. It's the voice in my head that tells me to get high when I know I shouldn't. The voice in the head, the little voice, tells me to go run when it's pissing rain or freezing cold and snowing. So that voice in your head shouldn't be little; it should be big and it should be like screaming from a megaphone that you're the best and you can do anything you want to do. If you have a bunch of carpal tunnel guys here that might consider themselves nerds and intellects, good! Because the one thing that you can control is your physical actions. Anyone can do what I've done; I promise you I'm not special. I wish I had the intellect of some of these carpal tunnel guys because that's the one thing I don't have. That's where I'm trying to overcompensate by being so physical that maybe my intellectual shortcomings can be overcome through physical intimidation and alpha-ness. But anyway, I say that in jest. Honestly, everything that I have is available to anyone. I'm just literally the only thing I'm doing different than most people is physically trying harder.

Shaan Puri

Well, Sam, I don't know about you, but in 10 minutes, I'm going to do my workout. I think it's going to be a good one today. I feel like I got a little extra juice from...

Ken Rideout

what you're catching up you not think you know it is

Sam Parr

But you gotta follow him on Instagram. There are videos of him shadow boxing right before he's about to go running or right after he got done running.

Ken Rideout

I always feel foolish posting that shit I really do and then I'm like no

Sam Parr

I like it. I watch it because I like running a lot, but I don't want a runner's body. And you're cool because you don't have a runner's body.

Ken Rideout

that's the my mission in life is to not look like

Sam Parr

A runner, you're well-rounded. It didn't matter if you're 53 or you're 23; you look good. You know, I always joke that the goal of working out for me is to be able to kill or outrun everyone in a room. You want to be able to kill and eat them or outrun them. And we'll add a third thing, which is you also want to look good naked. So in your checklist, it's check, check, check. Alright, alright, I'll...

Ken Rideout

Be on it for yourself. Think about your spouse. So that's kind of my closing salvo. Alright, good.

Sam Parr

you're the man thank you very much we appreciate this

Ken Rideout

I appreciate you guys thank you for having me