Book Club: 30 Days Living with a SEAL - Jesse Itzler

For the last two weeks I’ve been working through “The Way of Zen” by the great Alan Wats and “Evidence Based Technical Analysis” by David Aronson.  Needless to say, I was desperate for a quick and easy read.  “Living With a SEAL” is was just what I needed to take a reflective look at my motivational thought patterns.

Jesse Itzler is an interesting character with a most colorful entrepreneurial resume.  He was a white rapper in the 90s, and ultimately went on to build and sell a private jet company for an undisclosed (read freaking massive) sum of money.   Itzler is also a huge distance runner, and general fitness nut.  Somewhere over the last few years he felt that he had hit a comfortable routine in business, fitness and life in general.  This is where SEAL comes in.

SEAL is just that, and ex Navy SEAL/psychopath that Itzler met during a relay endurance race.  The  relay races are usually done with groups of 5-6, and you take turns running a race for 24 hours, 48 hours etc.   SEAL was on a team of one.   Yeah you get the idea.

Itzler then goes on to describe his 30 completely insane days spent training and living with SEAL (he hired him and had him move in with his wife and family).  Intermixed with dialogues between the two are well written anecdotes about Itzler’s business endeavors that give you even further insight into how the man operates.

The significance about this story is in the huge mindshift change that Jesse underwent while being pushed beyond his physical limits day in and day out.  He does a great job of describing what it feels like to go to that ‘next level’ of competition and motivation in your life.  I think anyone interested in improving their productivity or ‘grit’ for the difficult times in life would benefit from reading this short book.