Ep 441 | It's Supposed to Hurt Like Hell

Thank you for joining me today. It's Brian Gubernick, and welcome to the No Days Off podcast, where we believe that every single day brings a new opportunity to get better. It's supposed to hurt like hell. That's a quote that comes from a guy named Dean Karnazes. and I have recently become infatuated with all things Dean Karnazes. Dean is known as the Ultramarathon Man. I think his father actually coined that phrase, and it's the name of a book Dean wrote. I don't know, it's probably 15 years ago or so, maybe 20 years ago, almost 20 years ago, where Dean, early in the ultramarathon game, specifically the 100-mile race game, started running these things and made a name for himself. He's got a great backstory, and I'm not going to get into it today. But as I've been kind of studying this ultramarathon world and, and toying around with it a bit myself, I found out about Dean, read his Ultramarathon Man book, read another book he put out, and I love this guy, not just because of his performance in these ultramarathon races, But the way he thinks about life and the way he thinks about family and a lot of what he's doing in the ultra marathon world, or did in the ultra marathon world, how it relates to the journey that so many of us are on in the business world as entrepreneurs. When Dean was asked about the 100-mile race and people, you know, would always ask him like, hey, what's it like? And and why do you do it, and so on and so forth, Dean said, would, would answer, well, the race is supposed to hurt like hell. I mean, it's a 100-mile race. What do you expect? Do you expect it to be easy? That'd be silly. It's supposed to hurt like hell. And if it didn't hurt like hell, something is crazy wrong. Like, no matter what kind of shape you're in, it's going to hurt if you aspire to do that sort of distance. And, and when I first read an interview where he was telling someone, it's supposed to hurt like hell, because he said that a number of times whenever someone says like, well, what's it feel like? And he says, hell. The first time I read it, it just really got me thinking about the parallels between ultramarathons and the use of that quote and building a business and how that, that quote is so applicable there as well. See, both building a business and running a 100-mile race are endurance challenges, and these endurance challenges require grit and persistence and an acceptance of discomfort. In other words, if the race or the business, in terms of pursuing it or going, going through that process, if it's not this, if it doesn't have discomfort If it doesn't require grit and it doesn't need persistence, then the goal or the target or the business is just simply not big enough. The goal is just not a worthy one. There is an acceptance of discomfort when you're on that sort of journey. So, pain is part of the journey. Now, what's interesting is when you think about this quote, you got to reframe the pain as growth. See, pain and struggle are signs of growth, not failure. So in the running world, when, when you hit the wall in a, in a long-distance run— let's call it a marathon— at some point during that marathon, many will, will hit this proverbial wall where suddenly there's just massive discomfort. And then for a moment you think, gosh, I don't know if I'm going to be able to to, to break through this wall, to finish this race. Well, that pain and struggle is a sign of growth. Like, that's your mind having to overcome obstacles. That's not failure. Just like in business, when things are humming along, but then all of a sudden the market changes, you have a tough quarter or even a tough year, and you hit the, the wall in business. But you know, if you've been through this, there's pain and there's struggle, but these are things breaking through that wall. These are things that lead to growth, not failure. So pain is in essence growth. It's supposed to hurt like hell. Remember? Now I think that what Dean does so well with that quote is he shifts his mindset. In other words, he expects hardship. If you're going to take on a 100-mile journey, no matter what kind of shape you're in, you got to expect challenges. Like, why fear them? Why try to avoid them? If you've set— signed yourself up for this sort of thing, it's going to hurt. So rather than act surprised, why don't we expect the challenges and change how we approach them? In business, very much the same thing. If you're building this big business, don't act surprised when you're going through some sort of pain or challenge. People are going to leave you, right? You're, you're not going to retain everybody you hire. Every service or product that you, you share with the market, even if it hits initially is not always going to be accepted. What you're providing in the moment may not apply to another moment. You're going to have ups and downs in business. Like, these are things that are going to happen to any business no matter who you are. I don't— take the biggest companies in the world. Apple has had challenging times. Read about Steve Jobs, you could see all those challenging times. You know, SpaceX has had challenging times. I mean, hell, Elon went down to his last few dollars when he tore through his PayPal fortune, his last few dollars just to make payroll. If they didn't— that rocket at that time was— that mission wasn't successful, that company was done. We're gonna experience these things if we're trying hard enough. So, why not just shift our mindset now and expect the hardship? Since we know it's gonna hurt like hell, we should be training for these hard times. In ultra running, you're gonna train for pain, right? Like, you're gonna prepare yourself. As a matter of fact, if you're running like Dean is, you're gonna run at night, you're gonna run early in the morning, you're gonna run when you haven't eaten, you're gonna run when your mood's bad. You're gonna try to train for this pain. Well, as business leaders, we got to do the same. So how do you build mental and emotional endurance in business? What's that training look like? How do you practice resilience? How do you make sure that you're consistent? How do you, how do you assure yourself that you're focusing on long-term goals? And, and what's your support system look like? Like, we've got to train for these hard times. We might as well be prepared and build this endurance in business. Now, one way to keep doing that is to— and to endure and to be resilient is to understand your purpose. Just as ultra runners often are running for something bigger than themselves, successful business builders are driven by a mission or a vision. Purpose fuels endurance during tough times. Lack of purpose means you don't have the fuel for endurance. During those harder times. So, if you know it's going to hurt like hell, then you better define early on why you're doing what you're doing, because it's going to be during those times of pain where the purpose is going to fuel the endurance and get you through the tough times. Now, I think Dean would tell you that there's lots of lessons that you gain at the finish line. There's an emotional payoff of overcoming this pain. There's an emotional payoff to achieving big goals. There's pride and fulfillment and a sense of accomplishment. So the pain of growth— when you look at the lessons from the finish line, the pain of growth is really a temporary one, but the rewards, the rewards are lasting. And then lastly, kind of in, in wrapping up this conversation today, when I think about Dean's quote about It's supposed to hurt like hell. I think that there's just some, you know, in summary, these practical takeaways. We've got to accept that pain is going to be part of the process. We've got to train ourselves mentally and emotionally to endure these challenges. We've got to surround ourselves with people who support the journey. And we got to stay focused on that purpose, especially when the times are tough. So here's my call to action to you today. What's your version of the 100-mile race in your business or your life? What's your version of the 100-mile race? What do you have to endure? Where do you know you're going to have pain? You know it's going to hurt like hell. And how do you get better prepared for it today? How will you embrace the challenges that come with that version of a 100-mile race in your world? Some things to think about. That's all I have for you today, the No Days Off Podcast. Thank you so much for listening, and remember, every single day brings a new opportunity to get better. So let's get out there.