This week’s Warrior of the Week is none other than the greatest Ninja Warrior, before the U.S. bought it and slowly ruined it. Makoto Nagano was known as the “world’s strongest fisherman” and became one of the “All-Stars” of the classic Ninja Warrior or “Sasuke” competition. Nagano was a professional commercial fisherman who was the captain of multiple ships throughout his professional career. He became a TV star through his great runs in the Ninja Warrior competitions over the years. Nagano reached the final stage three times in competitions 11, 12, and 13 only to run out of time before reaching the top of Mount Midoriyama. On his fourth try to reach the top, Nagano finally beat the true competition and became only the second man to achieve total victory in Sasuke. He got to the final stage one more time in his career, but failed to achieve total victory again putting him at a career record of 1-4 against the final stage. Nagano currently holds the speed records for the first and second stages of Ninja Warrior, but retired from competition after Ninja Warrior 32. Nagano went on to capitalize on his fame and release an album in 2011 like a lot of celebrities do.

We can all take away a lot from Makoto Nagano’s life in the Sasuke competition as well as his professional life. Nagano competed in over twenty competitions and put in the work to achieve total victory in 2006. He fought through all of the falls into the water and found away to beat those obstacles as well as ones no one else had figured out to that point. Each and every time out, Nagano gave it his all and with that was able to get to the final stage more than anyone else ever! The greats know that persistence pays off and Makoto is probably Ninja Warrior’s Jerry Rice or Michael Jordan, the best to ever do it. Nagano clearly practiced what he preached with his success over multiple subjects outside of just Ninja Warrior. He put forth his best effort in being a fisherman to the point he became a captain as well as producing an album in his native language that did pretty well. Be like Nagano, warriors.

As always I’ll see you Bad Asses next week.

Love,

Your friendly neighborhood Gare Bear