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Align Podcast

Joe DeSena: Spartan Culture, Stoicism, Death Race | Ep. 145

Align Podcast

Aaron Alexander

Society & Culture, Philosophy

4.8923 Ratings

🗓️ 11 December 2017

⏱️ 39 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Joe De Sena Founder and CEO, Spartan Race Joe De Sena - the founder and CEO of Spartan Race, the world’s leading obstacle racing company – has demonstrated his entrepreneurial drive since his pre-teens. From selling fireworks at age eight, to building a multimillion-dollar pool business in college, to creating a Wall Street trading firm, and now the world’s fastest growing sports movement, De Sena is a living definition of the word entrepreneur. Following a successful career on Wall Street, De Sena moved his family to Pittsfield, Vermont to operate an organic farm, a bed and breakfast, and a general store for hikers. It was here his passion grew for ultramarathons, adventure races, and endurance events; and thus the idea for the Spartan Race was born. With more than 200 events in 30+ countries planned for 2017, Spartan Race has more than 1 million global participants offering open heats for all fitness levels and ages, as well as competitive and elite heats. The company has more than 5 million passionate social media followers, health and wellness products, and two popular NBC television series, making obstacle racing one of the fastest growing sports—and lifestyles— in the world. As a leader in the sport, Spartan Race is the first obstacle racing company to feature timing and global rankings. Joe’s message of inspiration and personal transformation, combined with his status as a two-time New York Times Best Selling Author of “Spartan Up” and “Spartan Fit.”, makes him a popular keynote speaker and public figure. Throughout his lifetime, Joe has competed in any extreme sports adventure he could find, testing his mental and physical endurance against nature. Joe turned an interest in endurance racing into a passion. His racing resume is the stuff of legend – over 50 ultra-events overall and 14 Ironman events in one year alone. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0

I said empty your mind, be formless, shapeless, like water.

0:08.0

It's about how hard you hit.

0:10.0

It's about how hard you can get it and keep moving forward.

0:13.6

How much you can take and keep moving forward?

0:16.4

Join Movement Expert Aaron Alexander

0:19.4

as he dives into the minds of the foremost innovative health care thinkers and movement masters on their

0:25.4

approach to optimal health and wellness.

0:29.6

A Line Podcast. Welcome back to the Line Podcast.

0:31.6

My name is Aaron Alexander. In today's beautiful episode I got to have my, I think

0:37.3

Joe DeSana is my friend. We got along quite well. I had Joe from these, the co-founder of Spartan Race, Death Race, host of Spartan Up

0:47.3

Podcast, writer of Spartan Up the book.

0:50.8

Originally they wanted to be Spartan the F up.

0:53.2

F U.C.K. I think I can swear on here. I swear on here all the time.

0:56.0

I don't know why I spelled that. In this conversation, really great. We get into stoicism, we get

1:01.7

into his upbringing and kind of like a mafioso meets new age hippie type dualistic

1:10.5

environment really interesting and get into Spartan times, get into generally

1:16.2

how to make our lives a little bit harder in order to make our lives better.

1:21.6

Really interesting stuff. I hope you guys enjoy here is a little clip from the show.

1:26.4

Well, so we grew up in a neighborhood

1:28.0

that was all organized crime.

1:29.0

It was where Goodfellas was filmed

1:31.6

and what it was based on. So you could imagine the craziness. It was the

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