I recently had the chance to chat with Joe De Sena, the Founder & CEO of Spartan Race. He’s a New York Times bestselling author several times over, and an astounding 1 million people annually around the world in 15 countries participate in a Spartan Race. I wanted to pick Joe’s brain to find out the most important lessons he’s learned while building his Spartan Race empire.

His advice can be boiled down to three things:

1. If you’re about to start a company, make sure you love what you’re about to do. Things will get really, really hard some days, and if you don’t love what you’re doing, you’re going to want to jump off a roof. There will be drudgery… lots of it. The majority of your day will be spent on mundane tasks. The responsibility of running a big group of people can be overwhelming. If you don’t love what you’re doing, you won’t make it.

2. Go in prepared to organize, store and access all your data. Data trumps everything. We live in a world where we have access to real-time analytics for every aspect of our business. Use it. Use it all. Dig into your analytics, whether it be Google, Facebook, or your business software. Find out what your customers are responding to. There is no excuse anymore to not be aligned with your customers’ needs. If you lack the organizational structure to utilize your data, make that shift fast, because I guarantee your competition is doing it, and you will get crushed.

3. Operate as if you’re broke. It forces you to not make mistakes. Be frugal. A lot of start-ups blow through their initial funding assuming they’re going to get more. Fancy offices, luxurious perks… they act like they’re already successful. Often times, when the money runs out, the investors look at the spending and pull the plug. You should be treating your money as if it’s the last money you have in your bank account. Spend conservatively. Agonize over every buying decision. Act as if it’s your money.

For Joe, Mental Toughness is an essential part of every aspect of life. According to Joe, “Mental Toughness comes in all sizes and shapes. It’s that person that has no quit. It’s a person who pushes through when it looks really bleak and there isn’t light at the end of the tunnel. It’s completely dark and it’s no longer fun, and there are people piling saying, ‘I told you so.’ You’re doubting yourself, but somehow you just don’t give in, and you push through. That to me encapsulates Mental Toughness.”

So how do we become Mentally Tough? The best, most long-lasting way, says Joe, is to test your limits every day. Constantly try to expand your comfort zone. See, fear lives in the place outside that barrier you’ve erected. If you expand that barrier by incorporating things that frighten you, your comfort zone expands until it’s so big, literally the only left to fear is fear itself!



