The 7 Business Lessons I learned From the 4x4x48 Challenge

I’ve been on countless adventures, over the last several years especially; from shark diving to skydiving, from trekking the Sahara to biking Moab. The latest adventure? Doing David Goggin’s 4x4x48: running 4 miles every 4 hours for 48 hours. I’m not a runner, it wasn’t a race and I’m not training for something longer. I did it for two reasons: 

1. I don’t see much of a difference between the resilience putting in the long, consistent (and sometimes painful) work of growing a company and the resilience it takes to complete an endurance activity. Both require similar mental toughness and pushing the comfort zone. My Mom used to say, the tough get going when the going gets tough, and this was a chance to build that resilience inside myself. 

2. Day to day is a series of actions, many of which can be highly repetitive leaving us on a kind of autopilot. Doing, thinking and being a fairly consistent way, especially during the stay at home orders. There’s nothing wrong with that. But to break any status quo, personally or in business, requires some kind of disruption to the comfort zone. Running this challenge was a mechanism to break my own status quo that had settled in during the previous weeks. 

I saw a friend of mine post about the challenge and I was immediately interested. I had no idea if I would make it (or even could make it) and it certainly would challenge my resilience and break any patterns I had set up. So, I set about committing to it (one of the necessary conditions of any significant undertaking, that we can talk about later) and posted about it online. Lots of support and even a few people that wanted to join in! When the day came and I started in on running, here’s what I learned… 

1. Choose the obstacle. It sounds crazy right? Who would choose an obstacle? I started hitting some really tough moments around mile 10, I told you I’m not a runner. It was literally in the middle of the night (somewhere around 3:30am) and the obstacle I hit was pain. My stomach hurt, I was exhausted and my legs ached. I could have chosen to stop and go home. I also could have started to mentally fight the obstacle and wish the pain wasn’t there. I thought about both, but something interesting happened. When I let go of fighting the pain and decided instead to choose it and be grateful for how I was feeling, there was no longer some obstacle to overcome. It let me see and feel the pain, but without the mental resistance to it… I was left suddenly free to just put one foot in front of the other (vs. fighting to take each next step). When we choose our obstacles, it doesn’t make the obstacle disappear, but it leaves us free to continue on regardless of it. 

2. Challenge builds community. I had no idea if I would be able to run 50 miles. I ran a marathon about a decade ago and I’ve done some biking in recent years, but nothing remotely close to running half a century. I posted about it online and instantly had support. I heard from close friends, people that I haven’t talked to in years and even people I didn’t even know. Undertaking something that was personally challenging created something to rally around, to support and it lit inspiration in others. By authentically stretching ourselves and what we’re out to accomplish, it builds community and inspires others to take on challenges for themselves. It’s fun to see with a physical challenge… but the learning here is to take that into our businesses and our lives.

3. Do it for others. I was the guy running, but I wasn’t doing it for me alone. The countless messages of encouragement and support meant the world to me, especially as I was mostly delirious running after mile 20+ (again, I’m not a runner). And in the toughest moments I was no longer running for myself, I was running for them. It was about all the people messaging and cheering me on. Externalizing the purpose gave me the strength to keep going. As true in running as it is in anything else. 

4. Build resilience. Mile 30 I was really struggling; barely more than half-way and I knew what it took to get that far, how could I do all of that again? But taking the steps beyond mile 30 wasn’t about mile 30 at all. It was about when in 2004 I continued to apply to colleges even though I was rejected from early admission. It was about how in 2009 I got back up from the company I sold my business to going bankrupt after raising 550M. It was about when in 2010 I finished a marathon without training. Mile 30 wasn’t just this hard moment. It was the culmination of every hard moment. And how I addressed it. We can build inner resilience at any time that gives us strength down the line. 

5. Conditions give results. There are several things that I set into motion before the running itself that gave me a shot. I put myself on the line by announcing to everyone I would do this challenge (again, that accountability thing). I had the right running shoes and equipment to run in. I had a plan of what I was going to eat, when I was going to sleep and what routes I was going to take. I had a clear measure of progress up on the wall noting how far I had run and how far I had to go. Without some of those things the run would have been even more difficult if not impossible. Putting the right conditions in place to achieve something is more important than the thing itself. More on this later… 

6. State (as in mood) matters. I went through a lot of spaces on the run. Sometimes I was happy. Other times I was more than miserable. Everyone knows mindset matters and it became very clear that the thoughts in my head made it easier or harder to run, more than anything else. If I obsessed about how many more miles I had to go I felt defeated and I’d be ready to give up. I found that using external triggers to support my state made the mindset game that much easier. If I took time to appreciate the scenery, read some words of encouragement or listened to inspirational music, it lightened the load. Sometimes hard things are unavoidable, but by managing our state to support our mindset can help us get through anything. 

7. Mindset matters. I could probably write a whole article on the mindset around this whole challenge in and of itself. There were two pieces that I think were most important. First, that I saw it as something within the realm of possibility that I could accomplish. Sure, I didn’t know for sure, but I wasn’t already resigned from the possibility of success. This is the number one thing I see in businesses (especially legacy businesses). The resignation present in the room leaves little chance of success… how can we accomplish anything if nobody believes it is possible? Second was the idea of chunking; it made a meaningful difference, aiming towards the next mile and not thinking about all the miles I had left. That one easily translates into business making sure we have clear sub-goals that aren’t too far away. 

I’m definitely sore from the run and excited to have completed it all at the same time. I shook up my status quo and I can’t tell you how many ideas and decisions I arrived at throughout the course of the run (so many I could have Siri take notes for me on the way). Thank you again to everyone that sent emails, messages and notes along the way, it really truly kept me going. 

If you’re out there pushing your comfort zone (not just physically, but any way), I love you for it. That’s part of what makes this world a better place for all of us. Email me, message me or tag me in a post and I’ll support however I can. We’re all in this thing together. 

Now... what challenge to do next?!