I'm going to show you how great I am.

This is our tiny tower.

I just want to say from the bottom of me heart, I'd like to take this chance to How to Take Over the World. This is Ben Wilson. Today we are talking about Steve Prefontein, one of the all-time great middle distance runners. If you haven't heard of Steve, he's famous for a few things. He was a great runner, held a number of American records, but he never actually won a gold medal at the Olympics.

So why study a runner who never ever won the gold?

Well, one thing is the way he was able to use his abilities as a runner to build his celebrity and become famous, despite, you know, maybe not being the best in the world.

But the biggest reason I wanted to do this episode

is his mindset. This is someone who is not the most naturally gifted runner in the world,

but achieved truly great things regardless through his mindset, his work ethic, his grit. And that is

worth studying. I mean, if I were to study a runner and the takeaways were, you know, be born with

elite lung capacity, leg strength, and cardiovascular efficiency, then there wouldn't be a lot to learn

from the episode.

I actually first got interested in Pree from a quote that I read.

I tried to find the providence of this quote, and I have to conclude that it's probably fake.

So keep that in mind.

This is not a real quote,

but it's a good encapsulation of the attitude of Steve Brifontaine. And here it is. Here's what the quote says. It says, no matter how hard you train, somebody will train harder. No matter how hard

you run, somebody will run harder. No matter how bad you want it, somebody will want it more.

I am that somebody. It's a great

quote, right? I wish it was real. But regardless, it does kind of capture who he was. He's one of the

most determined people I have ever read about. Everything about him was enthusiasm, passion,

obsession. He also happens to have been the first great Nike athlete. I think he was actually the

first Nike sponsored athlete and had a big part in the success of that now great company. It's a

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