Where do you come up with all the extra time to do all these extra things? [Improving the performance of Ferrari’s, learning Judo and Brazilian jiu-jitsu, building a rocket company on the side etc..] I like to tell people you need to get enough sleep. If I don’t get 8 hours of sleep I start falling down. But there is a lot of hours left in the week after getting 8 hours of sleep.
What John learned from wrestling when he was younger: The wrestler ethos is embrace the grind. I was always obsessed but if I had more discipline when I was younger I would have been better off.
How John started learning Judo and Brazilian jiu-jitsu in his 30s: I went to a Judo gym and trained with a Cuban Olympian. It was a much more serious training environment. I did what I always do on something. I studied. I got the instructionals and the tapes and started working my way through them. I got pretty good at it. Then my wife got me a year of private lessons with Carlos Machado. That certainly took me up several levels.
There is value in finding where your limits are: A lot of people don’t understand how a technical, brainy person would appreciate practicing Judo. There is a value to getting people to feel the physicality of it. It is valuable for people to push as hard as they can and still can’t get through. It is valuable to find the extent of what you can and can’t do. To find the limits of what your body can do. I think that is good for everybody to understand at some level.
Difficulty makes you stronger: Sometimes you are the hammer and sometimes you are the nail. A lot of people go through their life without ever really internalizing that. Sometimes you get your assed kicked. You can come back stronger after that.
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