Book of the Week: Living with a SEAL

20 Jan 2016

Living with a SEAL is a book about a rich entrepreneur getting an ultra endurance athlete Navy SEAL to live with and train him for a month. The book started out as a him blogging about the experience. This continues the trend of blog to book like The Effective Engineer, Venture Deals and When to Rob a Bank. The book is a quick and enjoyable read, especially if you’re a runner who admires the Navy SEALs. I like the Navy SEALSs so much that I created a website to follow their Navy SEAL training plan. Jesse Itzler Jesse started out his life as a rapper, but when that didn’t work out he started a a private jet company, which was acquired by Berkshire Hathaway. He was also involved in partnering with ZICO coconut water before it got acquired by Coca-Cola (KO). Jesse is married Spanx founder, Sara Blakely, who he met at a charity event. They represent the typical jet-setting power couple running multiple businesses while flying between their multiple homes. He and his wife own a portion of the Atlanta Hawks basketball team. Living this life was not enough for Jesse, he wanted more. He got SEAL to live with him for a month to shake things up after seeing him at an ultramarathon they were competing in. Jesse was on a 6 person relay team and SEAL was doing the whole thing by himself. Navy SEAL

In looking back on it now. I’m not sure SEAL was wrong. He was taught that if you have a job to do, you do it with 120 percent effort. I have been operating under the assumption that if someone that works for me does something 80 percent of the way I would do it, that’s enough. SEAL is teaching me that we can all do so much more.

Throughout the book, Jesse keeps the Navy SEAL’s identity a secret, only referring to him as SEAL. His real name is David Goggins. The book is better not knowing his name. A Navy SEAL is the ultimate warrior in the United States military, trained for the most extreme situations. SEAL does endurance events to raise money for his fallen brothers. His life is about getting better everyday. Quotes These are some of the many quotes from SEAL that appear throughout the book. It helps bring person to life.

Nah bro, you can’t run without legs. It’s on. Who gives a fuck about your tiny nuts? When you think you’re done, you’re only at forty percent of what your body is capable of doing. That’s just the limit that we put on ourselves. You Googled them! You Googled them! Well, Google me, motherfucker! You can get through any workout because everything ends. Let’s stay away from Trump Tower today. Trump been in the news too much lately. I don’t celebrate victories, but I learn from failures. I don’t stop when I’m tired, I stop when I’m done. If you can see yourself doing something, you can do it. If you can’t see yourself doing something, usually you can’t achieve it. —SEAL

These are things that make SEAL a SEAL that have been etched into him by adversity. Workout

SEAL taught me that you only get one shot at life and you should find out what’s in your reserve tank.

This is the workout that Jesse did while SEAL lived with him. Before meeting SEAL, Jesse, ran 18 marathons, so your mileage my vary. I omitted anything that wasn’t in these 4 categories. Push-ups, pull-ups and sit-ups form the bread and butter of a Navy SEAL’s workout routine. Running and swimming comprise the cardio portion. The thing about these exercises is that you don’t need an expensive gym membership to do it. There should be no excuse for not being fit. Jesse did 1,000 push-ups in a day. I got up to 400 in a day following a Navy SEAL workout program I followed in school. There is also no excuse for not being able to do so many. You just need to keep at it. Day | Miles Run | Push-ups | Pull-ups | Sit-Ups
—|—|—|—|—
1 | 6 | 0 | 100 | 0
2 | 12 | 0 | 0 | 0
3 | 14 | 0 | 0 | 0
4 | 6 | 100 | 36 | 0
5 | 0 | 150 | 0 | 0
6 | 12 | 300 | 0 | 0
7 | 17 | 275 | 0 | 0
8 | 6 | 0 | 0 | 0
9 | 6 | 0 | 10 | 100
10 | 2 | 171 | 30 | 132
11 - 12 | 8 | 484 | 0 | 0
13 | 8 | 200 | 0 | 0
14 | 6 | 0 | 0 | 0
15 | 8 | 350 | 0 | 0
16 | 17 | 0 | 0 | 0
17 | 3 | 465 | 0 | 50
18 | 0 | 364 | 30 | 0
19 | 6 | 200 | 0 | 0
20 | 8 | 400 | 0 | 550
21 | 10 | 0 | 0 | 0
22 - 23 | 16 | 700 | 0 | 0
24 | 4 | 154 | 0 | 0
25 | 10 | 775 | 0 | 125
26 | 10 | 0 | 0 | 0
27 | 4 | 1000 | 0 | 0
28 | 9 | 300 | 0 | 0
29 | 11 | 100 | 30 | 0
30 | 6 | 0 | 0 | 0
Total | 222.5 | 6488 | 236 | 957
Purchase Living with a SEAL on Amazon.com or check it out from your local library.