If you’ve ever thought, “If I would have known then, what I know now, I’d shift gears in a heartbeat”  — or — If you’ve ever wanted to shift gears and blaze a new path, but quickly stepped on the excitement by saying,” It’s just too late now, I’ve got too many responsibilities” — or — if you’ve ever wanted to make a radical shift in your business, but were afraid of what others might think — you’re going to flat out love Rich Roll, and I hope this conversation.

Rich set out to figure out his place in the world, and ultra-endurance sport was a way for him to do just that.

A graduate of Stanford University and Cornell Law School, Rich is a 47-year old, accomplished vegan ultra-endurance athlete and former entertainment attorney turned full-time wellness & plant-based nutrition advocate, motivational speaker, husband, father of 4 and inspiration to people worldwide, as a transformative example of courageous and healthy living.

Rich has been a top finisher at the 2008 and 2009 Ultraman World Championships in Hawaii. Considered by many to be one of world’s most daunting and grueling endurance races on the planet, Ultraman is a 3-day / 320 mile double-ironman distance triathlon that circumnavigates the entire Big Island.  Limited to only 35 carefully selected invitation-only participants from all over the world, Day 1 involves a 6.2 mile ocean swim immediately followed by a 90 mile cross-country cycling race.  Day 2 is a 170 mile cycling race.  And the event culminates on Day 3 with a 52 mile double marathon run on the searing hot lava fields of the Kona coast.

But what makes Rich truly remarkable is that less than two years prior to his first Ultraman, he didn’t even own a bike, let alone race one.

In May 2010, Rich and his ultra-colleague Jason Lester accomplished an unprecedented feat of staggering endurance many said was not possible. Something they call the EPIC5 CHALLENGE – a odyssey that entailed completing 5 ironman-distance triathlons on 5 islands of Hawaii in under a week.

In 2012, Rich became a #1 bestselling author with the publication of his inspirational memoir, Finding Ultra: Rejecting Middle Age, Becoming One of the World’s Fittest Men, and Discovering Myself.

Taking up where the book leaves off, in 2013, Rich launched the wildly popular Rich Roll Podcast, which persistently sits atop the iTunes top-10 lists.

Along with his wife and four children, Rich resides in Malibu Canyon outside of Los Angeles.

When he isn’t writing, podcasting or spending time with his family, you can find him lost on the remote trails of the Santa Monica Mountains.

“When I was in enough pain from being a lawyer and living this life that I didn’t want to live, I had the courage to make a change.”

In This Episode:

• Using sport as a means to discover true purpose
• How work ethic helped bridge the talent gap
• The effect of growing up in an achievement oriented household
• Coping with social awkwardness and low self-esteem
• Fighting an addiction to alcohol & drugs
• Living a double life
• Becoming vulnerable
• Quitting a corporate job and listening to the voices inside
• Pushing boundaries
• Righteousness and its relation to mastery
• Finding one’s authentic self
• Being in touch with one’s character defects
• Seeing a journey through