I hate it when I hear people say that if you are born poor you will die poor. Or if you are born rich you will always be rich.
Sure, the starting line is different. Some people start life with lots of advantages, and some people start life with lots of disadvantages.
David Goggins started his life with lots of disadvantages. He was the son of an abusive father who used to beat him up on regular basis, and he’s black. As you know, in the United States, a country plagued with racism, to be black is a great disadvantage.
At a very early age, David’s mom had to run away from her relationship with David’s father due to domestic violence. They left with no money and David grew up in poverty.
David Goggins started doing the stereotypical things that are common for rebellious teenagers until one day he decided to take a look at what he called “The accountability mirror,” where he didn’t bullshit himself anymore and he started demanding more out of himself.
He stayed out of trouble, but his life was anything but inspiring. He was working as insect exterminator, going from one restaurant to the next killing rats and cockroaches until one day he had enough of living a small life and decided to quit.
He joined the Navy. He lost half of his body weight and became obsessed with physical performance.
David Goggins learned how to search deep inside of his mind and come out with nuggets of mental toughness. He came out with the theory that most people give up when they reach 40% of their physical and mental capacity and that most of us go through life without tapping on our full potential.
David Goggins proves himself to be one of the toughest recruits in the Navy Seals. Later on, he goes on to participate in many ultra-endurance races and he broke the world record for doing the most pull-ups in a 24 hour period.
During most of the book, David Goggins shares with us the mental dialog going on inside of his mind and how he convinces his own mind that they can achieve so much more.
David Goggins makes it sound cool to take your body to the limit, to the borderline where physical exertion can hurt you or even kill you.
While he succeeded in most of the physical challenges and some cognitive challenges, I didn’t consider his life as a successful life. Yes, he was a successful Navy Seal, and yes, he was an outstanding athlete, but he paid a huge price for that success, a price that we should consider to be a fools bargain.
David Goggins doesn’t speak much of his personal relationship. His first wife gets pregnant and he doesn’t even mention whether it was a boy or a girl. They got divorced. Then he divorced or separated from his second partner. The only real relationship David has is with his mother, and that’s cheating because most of our mothers will love us unconditionally.
Yes, David is an inspiration but only in one part of his life. Everything else, comes way too short.
Regular guys who run on weekends, and run one marathon per year, while holding their family together are more deserving of admiration.
Overall, the story is well told. It’s engaging and it allows us to see into David’s soul. Maybe David’s life is not something we should aspire to replicate, but it gives us great insights into the soul of another spectacular human being.
Over all, I give this book 4 stars. ⭐⭐⭐⭐
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