Listen in to hear Ruben Gonzalez, a 4-time Olympian over 4 decades, as he highlights key concepts emphasizing the importance of self-awareness and commitment in achieving success and significance. Ruben mentions the importance of recognizing his own strengths and weaknesses and how he applied this knowledge to pursuit of his goals. He also dives into the importance of taking action with a high level of commitment and having passion, as well as giving back and developing others. The speaker also mentions his book, "The Shortcut Book." This is a FANTASTIC episode for all those leaders and coaches to share with team members who they are helping to develop.

Episode Links:

https://ruben-gonzalez.com/product/the-shortcut-book/

https://ruben-gonzalez.com/

https://www.linkedin.com/in/ruben-gonzalez-olympian/

Mentioned in this episode:

1on1 App Information

https://www.thinkmovethrive.com/1on1-app/

Hey everybody, we're talking to Ruben Gonzalez today.

What an amazing guy.

He's a four-time Olympian, has some incredible stories of life

on the ice at 80 miles an hour.

He's a great new friend of mine.

You don't wanna miss this incredible conversation.

Welcome, welcome, welcome to the last 10%.

I am Dallas Burnett, sitting in my 1905 Koch brothers

barber chair in Thrive Studios.

But more importantly, today we have an amazing guest.

He has completed not only four Olympics, but four Olympics in four decades, climbs

mountains, jumps, side of planes, runs with the bulls, a man of many talents.

Welcome to the show, Ruben.

Hey Dallas.

Great to be here, man.

You got some energy.

I love it.

Well, there's one

be all that iced tea, all that southern ice tea.

That's right.

That's right.

Well, there's one thing we like doing on the last 10%

and that's having a good time.

So we gonna learn, we're gonna grow, but we gonna do it and have a good time.

First of all, I need to congratulate you because our episode with Warwick Bashford,

the, the professional tennis coach, he wanted to hear you on the last 10%.

You're the first guest in our history that has been on the show of someone.

Now we're gonna be getting more, but you are the first one that's been

on the show, that's been recognized.

So I've gotta give you like an award or something for that.

yeah, gimme a tennis racket or something since this Warwick

is a, I got a tennis racket story too, so

Oh, that's good.

We'll have to come back to that.

So, let's talk about your story because, you have an amazing story,

I would love for you to tell your listeners you're a four-time Olympian,

you kind of had this epiphany.

So tell everybody how do you become a four-time Olympian out of Houston, Texas?

I was born in Argentina.

my dad was a chemical engineer with Exxon.

We moved to the States when I was six years old.

We were up in Queens, New York for a couple years in Houston most of my life,

oil brat, Venezuela, back to Houston.

And when I was 10 years old and I was re love to read adventure books, right?

And I was always looking for the adventure.

And, when I was 10, I see the Olympics on TV for the first time, and I was hooked.

I thought, that's my adventure, that's what I want to do.

And the funny thing, or the strange thing is that, what drew me to

the athletes, it wasn't their athleticism, it was their spirit.

cause right away I realized, wow, this is a group of people that

are willing to train for so long.

and, and some of 'em actually make it.

You gotta be so strong to put yourself through that.

I, I.

I wanna be like them.

I put 'em up on a pedestal and I wanna be like them.

For me, throughout my whole career, it wasn't about the medals, it was

just, I wanna be one of these guys.

Okay.

. And but I'm an unlikely Olympian cuz I'm not a great athlete.

Okay?

I got a lot of heart, but no body.

kinda like Rudy.

and oh, it was the last kid picked for pe It was terrible.

And so I didn't believe it was possible.

If you don't believe it's possible, why even try?

And so I talked about it cause I was fascinated.

But my dad finally got fed up and he said, why don't you like to read books.

Why don't you read some biographies?

if you'll study the lives of great people, you'll figure out what

works with doesn't work in life.

Maybe you can figure out how to make that dream come true.

And what I kept seeing, and by the way, biographies, I like them right away

cause they're true life adventures.

And it's always the same story.

It's always somebody had a dream

Mm

had a struggle and then they had a victory.

It's always dream, struggle, victory.

Can't get around that struggle.

And, What I keep seeing over and over is, they're a bunch of hardhead.

they're persevere.

They refuse to quit, right?

, they get to that.

That 10, 10 yard line like you like to say, right?

they get, keep going.

And so as a 12 year old, after reading a few of these biographies,

I made a decision to change my life.

I, I said to myself, if quitting is the end of your dream and

and tenacity or perseverance, at least you've still got a shot.

No guarantees, but at least you're still in the game.

No brainer from today on Ruben doesn't quit anything.

I I just made one of those quality decisions right by high school.

My nickname was Bulldog.

Other kids realized that, hey, this guy's pretty tenacious.

And when I was 21, I'm watching the Olympics again.

This is 11 years later, right?

and started reading biographies that got me into personal development.

And I started learning principles of success from that.

And at 21, I'm watching the Olympics, 84 Sarajevo games, and I see Scott Hamilton

win the gold medal in figure skating.

And that guy's about five feet tall, a hundred pounds.

He gave me hope.

everything changed in my head.

I thought That little guy can win.

I can at least play.

I'm gonna be in next Olympics.

It's a done deal.

I just gotta find a sport.

you don't, you don't even have a sport.

You're not, you're not, you don't even have a sport at this point.

I watched that same, I watched that same Olympics.

I remember Scott Hamilton, I was a little kid.

Absolutely.

But I, I did not have a sport either.

I was probably, I don't know what I was in 84, I was probably

six or something like that.

But I do remember him cutting a back flip on the ice, you know, and that was a,

it was like an amazing, memory for me.

I just never seen anything like that before.

So I

could

I loved it.

Yeah.

So how do

know what else I liked about him?

I guess what got me to start watching him, he did this interview and his

thing was, I don't wear sequins.

Okay.

I'm like, Ooh, I like this guy I can relate to this

That's so

anyway, so he gave me hope and I thought, I'm ready.

I played soccer all my life.

Little Argentine boys we're thinking we're gonna play World Cup soccer, right?

I'm pretty good with a soccer ball, but I'm a slow poke.

The other guy gets to the ball first all the time.

I'm still in the bench.

And so I went to the library and now I got a goal, right?

And it's a goal with a deadline and four years, I'm either in or I'm not in.

So that gives you urgency, right?

There's no time to waste.

I got this big book about the Olympics, looked at the summer sports, took me

five minutes to realized, man, you gotta be Superman to do any of these things.

There's no way.

Yeah.

And then I'm looking at the.

Winter sports and the analytical side of my brain woke up and I thought,

Hey, I'm about to put together a plan for the next four years.

Probably makes sense.

The base of the plan on my strengths, right?

My strength's not athleticism, my strength's, perseverance.

I'm bulldog, right?

And so I thought, I need to find a sport that's so tough.

A sport's got so many broken bones in it.

There'll be a lot of quitters, right?

And I just won't quit.

I'll ride the attrition rate all the way to the top.

I love that.

That is so good.

Find something with broken bones and ride the attrition

on my only chance.

And so there's gonna be ski jump, bobsled or luge.

I figured those look like a lot of right.

I live in Houston, forget it, I never skied before.

that would've been suicide.

That one's out.

Bobsled.

You gonna find three other nuts in Houston, one of the bobsled, and

you gotta go to Jamaica for that.

And so luge, you can do by yourself.

I'd never seen it on TV if I had.

I know I wouldn't have done it.

I just had a little picture of a guy on a luge.

I thought, that looks pretty tough.

That's the one for me.

I didn't even know where the track was.

I wrote Sports Illustrated a letter.

I asked them, where are you gonna learn how to luge?

They actually wrote back and they sent me a picture of a guy on a

luge and I put it on a frame, stuck it right in front of my bedroom.

It's, I'm looking at it right now.

Sitting in my office now.

They're under the Olympic rings.

That's my picture.

Okay?

The guy sent me, all right, so I wake up in the morning, first

person I see is a luge man, right?

So he reminded me, Hey, I got, I'm going for the Olympics.

Gotta eat right.

Gotta work out.

Gotta read good books, right?

Hang around with winners, right?

Mental toughness.

Last person I saw at night, luge man.

what do you think I dreamt about at night?

. Luge.

See, that was my goal upsetting system.

Just that kept the goal in front of me all

the time.

tell me this though, like you're in Houston, Texas, you write Sports

Illustrated, you decide, you've just made this like literal commitment to go

from, I've never seen the luge to this is what I'm doing for the next four years.

Did you at that time say, I'm gonna try it, or did you say, I'm, I'm in it

like, I'm going, I'm, I'm full tilt.

I'm gonna win.

no.

I never even, no.

That t word, that's a bad word.

And I'm not gonna say it, but, and it's levels of commitment.

Okay?

It's levels of commitment.

All right?

Think about when you were, when you moved outta.

Folks' house, right?

And you got your first apartment, you start calling your buddies

to help you move, right?

And you're gonna have pizza and beer afterwards.

Right, right.

Now, the one, I guarantee you, the ones that said, I'm gonna

try to be there, they didn't show up.

Cuz that's a really low level of commitment.

All right?

I'm gonna do my best.

That's almost as bad as, uh, I'm gonna try, right?

I'm gonna do my best leisure way, a big door on the back end, which

says, if anything turns out to be inconvenient, I'm not gonna do it right.

And I'll be there.

Alright?

Or it's a done deal.

It's a done deal means, I'm gonna lose faith and I don't show up.

And so who's gonna be, it's also always gonna be a done deal for me.

And so I call Lake Placid.

And I said, I'm an athlete here in Houston.

I learn how to luge.

I'm in the Olympics in four years, will you help me?

And the guy goes, how old are you?

And I said, 21.

And he starts laughing.

Forget it man.

You're too old.

We start him off when they're eight years old.

But now you have 10 years experience.

There's no way.

No way.

All I didn't know what to do.

I thought they were gonna welcome me with open arms to hear this

guy's laughing at my dream.

Yeah,

Only thing I knew was hanging up.

That's not an option.

That'd been the end of everything.

So I just kept talking through him, Talking to him.

I and I happened to tell him I was born in Argentina and he gets all excited.

All of a sudden he goes, Argentina, if you'll go for Argentina, we'll train you.

I said, why I'm here.

You're gonna train me at all.

I, it was wrong in Argentina,

Right.

And he goes, the sport of luge is this close from

getting kicked outta the Olympics.

Cause we're not global enough.

Okay.

It's the US, Canada, and a few European countries.

We're recruiting cause there's always other sports trying to take our place.

my goodness.

If you'll go for Argentina, you'll travel with us.

You'll come under our umbrella, you'll train, we'll even lend

you a sled the first year.

Eventually you gotta get your own stuff.

We're gonna have to cram 10 years of lose training into just two years.

Okay?

You can get hurt a lot, but we gotta do that because the last two years you

gotta race in the international against the best in the World Cup circuit.

Cause you're getting points just like nascar, right?

You're getting points for all your races.

And right before the Olympics, they tally up the last two seasons, top

50, get to go 51 watched it on tv.

so you go Argentina, I said, man, I'll go for Pakistan.

I don't care for the Olympic man.

What's amazing though is that you just kind of put it out

there and, you know, I think so many people, when they go for something,

they pick up the phone and maybe they, they're like, yeah, I'm in.

They pick up the phone.

It's like, you said, I can't hang up because then the dream dies.

And I think so many people just go, oh, you're not taking anything.

Oh, okay.

And they hang up.

And I think that you're, like you said, is tenacity.

It's that persistence.

You're like, all right, so the first goal is picking up the phone.

Second goal.

He says, no.

Okay.

Obstacles the way, let me see.

I gotta get him talking.

You know?

And through that conversation, he goes from, you literally moved this guy

from laughing at you to, to assisting you in giving you your own sled

That's

Oh, it's

That's

yeah.

but like you said, when you put yourself out there and before I hung up and reel me

back to, to, to what we were saying Okay.

About not hanging up.

Cuz I am still a d I'll go on tangents.

Off my tangents.

All right.

, I, before I hang up.

He said, before you come to Lake Placid you need to know two things.

Number one, you wanna do it at your age.

You wanna do it in just 4 years.

It's brutal.

Nine outta 10 people quit.

When he said that, I started smiling.

I thought this was right into my plan.

It was awesome.

Thank you guys.

what's the second thing?

He goes, expect to break some bones.

And I said, great.

And he got real quiet and comes back, goes, what's wrong with you man?

I thought you gonna break some bones?

Are you nuts or something?

I told him, look, I hope it's 10 times harder.

What you're telling me, I hope it's a hundred times harder cuz the harder it is.

Easier.

It's for me.

Cause I'm not a quitter.

I'm Bulldog.

Okay.

I was praying that it would be so hard that some of these

East Germans would quit.

Okay.

Cuz they win all the time.

But I didn't pray hard enough.

They show up, they raise, pick up their medals.

They ain't even smile.

It's poor am.

I'm gonna put this one,

Oh man.

but here's what I, what?

When you said about, on, on the phone, you gotta make a call and

everything, but here's something.

really important, really.

this guy, they could have hired him yesterday.

Okay?

Think about this.

They hired him yesterday.

They're taking him around through, orientation.

They take him to the track and he, and they says, see, those are the,

those see those little kids, eight year olds, nine, 10 year olds.

That's how we get 'em started, right?

And, so he saw it and this is where we get you started.

You're gonna be answering phones here the first month.

Now this guy, he's confidently ignorant, right?

He doesn't know, but he thinks he knows cuz he just heard it,

he saw it with his own eyes.

He's confident and there's a lot of confidently ignorant people out there

to tell, and but he's a new hire.

He doesn't have any decision making power, okay?

He only has the power to say no.

He doesn't have the power to say yes.

Okay?

So that's why you always go to the top.

I was in sales.

You go to the top right to, I'm a professional speaker.

I speak, I do lots of sales kickoffs all over the world.

I do more sales kickoffs than anything else.

I call the VP of sales.

That's who I'm want to talk to, right?

Because that guy's got an unlimited budget and he's got power to say yes.

Everybody else just has power to say no.

That's so remember that

I love that.

That's a, that's a great word for the listeners out there.

We're looking if you, you know, if you wanted to live in the last 10%

and, and, and be able to grind it.

The, the work is fine, but that attitude and the mindset that you have

sometimes, no one lives on an island.

We all need, we all need people.

We have to do the work, but we need people that come beside us to add to that dream.

You know?

And sometimes it's like, we gotta get to the person that can open the door.

Cuz there's a lot of people that can close it, but there's not this,

it's like you said, there's a lot of people that have the power to say no.

But if you're getting those nos, it's not like you get the first No.

And hang up and be done.

It's like, all right, let's, let's get some more so I can get to the Yes.

And I think that's a, I think that's a powerful, yeah, I think

that's a totally powerful, idea.

I love that.

So essentially, you move forward and you say, okay, I've gotten to this guy.

I'm in Houston, but he's opened the door.

I can now go and they're gonna hook me up.

If I do these things with Argentina, I can now go compete.

So what happens next?

Like, what's the transition?

so he said, we got a camp coming up in a couple

of weeks and it's the springtime.

Okay.

It's a couple of months after I saw Scott Hamilton.

I'm already heading to Lake Placid.

Okay.

Because there's

no time.

insane.

That's incredible.

boy, you got, yeah, but

So you gotta do it.

You don't only have four years.

You gotta go.

You gotta

otherwise be going for the Olympics eight years from now.

And if you think you got, here's another thing.

One of my coaches used to say, Ruben, you know what, it's so good that you took

action when you were excited, because most people, they start overthinking it.

And the, and the excitement goes down and they quit even before they begin.

And so you gotta take action.

When you get excited, you jump and the net will appear.

And if you fall on your face, at least now, okay, don't jump

there, jump somewhere else.

You'll always learn from something.

you're further ahead if you screwed up.

But if you didn't do anything, you're still in the same place.

And so I go up there and it's a springtime and we're going from a half

mile point of the old bobsled track.

It's, there's no ice on the track.

We're going on wheeled sleds, 50, 55 miles an hour.

All we're wearing is tennis shoes, shorts, and a t-shirt, , and a helmet,

but that's just for decoration.

Make the lawyers happy.

It doesn't help if you're crashing.

So they put me in this class with 15 beginners and we're

going, and we're training with the US junior national team.

Okay.

All these, 13 year olds, 11 year olds, and I'm was the tallest one there.

But it's funny, we get there, we take our first run.

I still remember my first runner.

I remember sitting on that stand thinging thinking, oh my gosh, here we go.

Here we go.

You we're beginning and finish my run.

We get to the bottom and the US team, the junior national team, they hop

on the truck, they take 'em back to the top of the hill, us, they hand

us the sled, you gotta walk up.

And right there, a couple of guys quit cuz it was beneath them to have to walk up.

What

Yeah.

I guess they didn't want it

they didn't wanna walk up the hill.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Some of 'em quick said, had a bruise.

Oh, let me backtrack.

That guy told, when I hung up the phone, right when I was talking

to a guy from Lake Placid, he told me, you're gonna break some bones.

That the reality of hit.

I thought, whoa, this is gonna be harder than I thought.

He didn't say I might.

Break some bones.

He says, you will break some bones, right?

So I thought, okay, so how am I gonna handle it when I break a bone?

Because you prepare for the worst.

You hope for the best, but you gotta be prepared for the worst.

I thought, I've broken bones before , you wear a cast for

six weeks, take off the cast.

It's healed up and stronger.

And before.

So when you really think about it, it's just a temporary inconvenience, right?

And so I reframed it in my mind and so I knew how I was gonna handle it.

So I go over there and these guys are quitting cuz they

got a little bruise, right?

Yeah.

I'll never forget, I'm walking up, I'm floating up that track, after my

first run and there's a few tourists watching this train and there was this

old man, old white hair and he, he just, I guess he's just seen me zip by.

And as I walked past him, I locked the eyes on him, right?

Cause I'm so pumped up.

After my first run, I said, I'm gonna be in the Olympics in four years.

He looks at me and he pauses and he goes, son, I think you're gonna make it.

I can see the passion in your eyes.

So can people see the passion in your eyes when you tell 'em

about your goals and your dreams?

Because that's how they know that you believe,

Oh, I love

that

has this little gauge right in their mind and if somebody

believes or if they're just blowing smoke.

And so don't be afraid to get excited to show your excitement cause that

sets you apart, that makes you real.

Don't try to be Mr.

Cool,

Yeah, man, that's so good.

But you know, that is, when you're committed, when you're a full in,

you know, you talked earlier about levels of commitment and that I'll

try or, you know, I'll do my best.

And how that just doesn't work.

you know, when you're, when you're fully committed and you're like, I'm

doing this, it was like you said it, you can't help but say it like, I'm going

to be in the Olympics in four years.

And, and it's palpable people.

And not only that, if you wanna rally, and I think this is something, if you

own a business or if you lead a team, it is so infectious When you truly believe

something, we talk about mission, vision, values, purpose, and all these things.

Start with the why.

And if, if it's just something that you say, because it's a poster on the.

Then people know that they can feel it or they lack that, you know?

But if you come in and you own it and you are it like you are, that you

ex just exude that whatever that is, whether it's a vision or a mission

or value, man, it people want to be a part of something like that.

They want to follow that.

They want to believe too.

They're looking for you if you're leading that team to just it,

just share some of that, you know?

And it's infectious.

So I think like, I think that's so, I love how you said, man, I can, I

mean, you know, you were so passionate that man said I could see it in

Yeah.

Yeah.

my first job in high school was Chick-fil-A.

All right.

I worked in Chick-fil-A, number 85.

All right.

People didn't even know what a Chick-fil-A was.

They walked up, they said, ah, let me get a chick flick, or a Chick-fil-A like, call

it like, I said, we're training people on what a chicken sandwich is, right?

Cause nobody knew.

We're on the second floor, on the corner of this low, small

mall in Houston, zero traffic.

And, but our manager, he was Steve.

Steve Mason was awesome.

he just made it fun.

He figured first we're gonna get the managers of all the stores, and then the

manager's gonna bring in the employees and then they're gonna bring everybody else.

And so we'd go, we'd get all the managers a free sandwich or

a quarter of a free sandwich.

And then he had to sing songs in the front of the store and

we'd do all these crazy things.

And it was so much fun.

for three years we had almost zero turnover.

Okay.

And this is 45 years ago and or 40 years ago.

And, we still keep in touch.

I was just emailing Steve yesterday, right?

He's still, he's one of my friends and after three years, chick-fil-A,

and we were always in a top 10, even though it had a lousy location.

Nobody knew what we were doing.

We were always in the top 10 in sales and Atlanta, right?

Where they're based, they figured out this guy's too good to be running a store.

They brought him in, made him VP of training, right?

And then they replaced him with this other guy who was really lame.

And within six months we all quit.

Cause it wasn't fun anymore.

It wasn't challenging.

And so seeing Steve as the leader, this goes to what you were saying.

As a leader, you have the opportunity to create an

atmosphere, create a culture, right?

And and things are gonna be done that way.

But it's up to you.

Cause it's not gonna happen by itself.

Not gonna happen.

No, that's a great, I love that.

I love that story.

So now you're going up the hill.

You've met the old man who has, has, has forecasted your destiny

and, you're, you're headed back up.

You've already left some quitters, so you've already moved above some

quitters at the bottom of the hill and you've finished your first run.

So how does that training process go and how does that, how does

that kind of form, form you?

And you've got four years of it, or at least two years of before you start

competing, did you see this massive jump, or, or did you, you know,

was it a grind at the bottom for a while before you got the hang of it?

on wheels, it's more dangerous on wheels because if you

crash and you hit that concrete, even though it's not as fast, you're,

it's straight of the hospital.

they call it the weeding out process in the sport of luge but you're

learning the basics of steering.

And you got a lot of traction.

So the sled pretty much goes where you wanted to go.

But then the, that was in the spring, and then as soon as the first cold

front hit Houston, that was time to, you know, head to the luge track

around October, around Halloween time, that's when they opened up.

and I went, that was the first time on ice.

Right?

Most tracks have

so let me get this straight.

You're practicing in the summer on concrete, and it's like a concrete

tube that you're going down on, like something like roller skates on

under your back.

I mean, it's just

Yeah.

It's a luz track with no ice.

So it's Cause it's melted.

Yeah.

So you're going fast, anyways, and we're not wearing leathers

like these street luge guys.

No.

We're wearing nothing.

And anyways, then we.

Go in the winter and on ice.

It's ridiculous.

I mean, that sled is just all over the place.

It's exactly the difference between walking and skating.

exactly the same thing.

and so they put you usually on curve.

Let's say you, you curve 12, for example.

You're only going 20, 30 miles an hour and you crash, crash, crash, crash, right?

And then you finally figure it out.

Your brain figures it out, right?

riding a bike.

After a while you, it just figures it out.

So coach you up a couple of curves, now you're going 35.

Oh my gosh, too fast.

No time to think, crash, crash, crash, crash.

You know, figure it out, move up.

You literally crash your way to the top.

that's how you learn.

And then you go to different tracks and you learn different things and different

tracks and how to put 'em together.

And, it, it's the first two years I was crashing four out

of five times, alright, right?

I mean that hurt first two years were brutal.

broke my foot twice.

My knee, my elbow, my hand, my thumb, couple ribs.

My neck's a chiropractor's dream.

Cause you're pulling six G's on some of those cursor heads hanging off the back.

And I didn't know I'd take care of my neck or anything back then.

So I was doing anything wrong.

And so, but I kept coming back and then start competing internationally

and that was even worse.

Okay.

The first two years, physical challenge.

But now, next two years, imagine Dallas, you just got your driver's permit.

You're 16 years old, you still can't make that, that right turn without

the back wheel hitting the curve.

That's that level driver you are.

Okay.

That's about the level of luger I was at that point.

After two years, I'm barely getting up, getting down from the top.

And now they put you in this room and on the other side of that wall

is the Indianapolis 500 Speedway.

And you start looking around the room, it's wait a minute, that's a J Foyt.

Hey wait, that's al, that's Mario Andrei.

What am I doing here?

I don't belong here.

I just learned, I just got my driver's permit.

imposter syndrome to the max.

That's exactly how I felt.

I'm surrounded by Olympic champions who have been sliding for 15, 20

years, and I would go to the, I couldn't even look 'em in the eyes.

I would go to the darkest corner and that's of the start house.

And that's where I would get ready.

And I just put on the blinders.

I it's gotta keep doing 'em.

One more run.

I gotta get these World Cup points.

I just gotta keep doing it.

Keep, meanwhile, the Germans, they're, they won't even gimme the time of day.

Okay.

I might be walking down the track and I see a bunch of Germans walk working on

a sled and say, Hey Hans, how you doing?

Nothing.

I'm invisible.

Yeah.

That even that confirmed that I didn't belong.

I felt like an, but I just kept going.

I just kept going and, I make the Calgary Olympics.

Okay.

Squeaked into the first 1, 19 88 Calgary, winter

So that means that you're in, you said earlier that you were, that

was the, you would compete in, in the, in the world, and then they would take

the top 50 and number 51 on watches it.

So you literally had moved up.

I guess that's 88.

In four years you did it.

You got to the top 50 in the world.

yeah.

And now the way the numbers actually work is each country can send a maximum of

three men, three women, two doubles teams.

Okay?

So you got three Germans, three Austrians, three Italians, three Americans, three.

And it goes up.

So you got a bunch of threes of the big, the strong nations, right?

Then you got a few countries that got the twos right?

They only got two that could qualify.

And then you got about 10, that are ones, one per country that are scratching

and claw to try to be in that one, And so it wasn't, so I made Calgary.

Awesome, incredible.

But it wasn't until two years later.

Two years later, I'm walking down the track and one of the Germans,

he goes, Gonzalez, Speedy Gonzalez.

Hey, how are you?

And I got pissed,

I bet you did.

I said, what's up with you guys?

I've been nice to you guys for four years now.

And now I'm Speedy Gonzalez.

And he goes, come, we must talk to you.

And they gave me this, the talk, right?

the whole team, all the athletes, the coaches, they just sit all around me

and say, look, we have four tracks in a country the size of Texas, all right?

Back then, salt Lake City, I back when I got started, lake Platon was

the only track in North America.

You only build them when there's an Olympics right now.

and so we have four, we have all these luge clubs and we, some of us

started when we were five years old.

and after a few years, we're the best in our town, and then

we're the best in our region.

Then we made the national team, okay?

10 men, 10 women get to be on the national team.

Then we made the Olympic team three and three.

But there's so many great losers in our country be behind coming in behind us.

We'll be lucky to do too.

, but you know what we're gonna do afterwards?

We're gonna coach because we respect the sport and we want to continue this

legacy of being the, they've won 80% of the races in the last 50 years.

Okay?

You think the Patriots have a dynasty?

They got nothing.

And and they said, and we are sick and tired of seeing

people from other countries.

They come, they do one Olympics, they then they disappear.

You know what we call them?

I said, no, what?

Olympic tourist.

Always with a little camera, right?

But this is two years after your first Olympics.

Obviously you're trying to make the Albertville Olympics in 1992.

France, Albertville, France, whether you make it or not, doesn't matter to us.

Only thing that matters to us is you are respecting the sport.

So you've earned our respect.

wow.

Did that shift?

commitment.

Yeah.

Did that

I got

perspective?

Oh, you got goosebump.

got 'em everywhere now.

I tell that's my gold medal man.

Earning those guys.

Well, cuz when you started you

said you, yeah.

You start, you started, you said, I want to be one of these people.

Like, I want to be one

Yeah, I

And that's like, that's like the greatest trophy ever.

Those people come and say, Hey, just wanna let you know you're one of us.

Ah, that's so good.

So

Yeah.

I never even thought of it that way, but it's absolutely, and that's

probably why I got all those goosebumps.

Every time I tell that story, it's, that's my medal.

Yeah.

And even making it to the Olympics was kissing your sister a little bit,

because I made it, but I still wasn't in, and it wasn't until two years later.

And so I, then I made albertville and then I quit.

missed seven Christmases in a row.

I was just, I just wanna do something different.

I was pretty burnt out at that point, and I quit for six years or so, and

then my coach, I had this big Austrian.

. He's it's like having Michael Jordan teaching you how to do hoops, right?

I that kind of thing.

And, super high standards.

it hurts him to smile.

Cause he's never used those muscles before.

I he got like a drill Sergeant and he calls me out of the blue, right?

Five years before the Salt Lake City Olympus.

He goes, Ruben, and you must come back.

Luge needs Argentina.

I said, forget it coach.

I got a family, now I'm done with the Olympic thing.

Thanks, but no thanks.

Hang up on him.

Felt so good to hang up on him, but he's a winner.

He won't take no for an answer, right?

He calls back, he goes, US Olympic Spirit, salt Lake City, you'll be the be the best.

You regret it if you don't go, thanks, but no thanks.

Ah, but that's time it hurts.

I don't wanna regret anything.

I don't have any tattoos.

But if I had one, it wouldn't be the Olympic rings.

It would be no regrets.

don't wanna have any regrets.

And so then he calls back.

. He goes, I got a deal for you.

totally lost his accent.

He was saving it for this moment, He goes, I got a deal for you.

You get yourself to Calgary.

I got a camp coming up in Calgary, two week camp.

I'll take care of room, board, track fees.

Every time we take a run, it's 50 bucks.

Okay?

40, 50 bucks.

it's expensive.

Take about six runs a day.

And so this guy, he's not only the meanest guy I know, he's

also the cheapest guy I know.

He made me all these years, he knew me, never even bought me a beer.

I how can you be an Austria and not buyer?

Sell me a beer.

And so I ain't like beer, but just the thought of it, the principle thing.

so here he's offered me all these thousands of dollars of free training.

I thought, man, they must really need Argentina, right?

Because it's a pendulum, right?

Some years they got too many countries and they won't gimme the time of day.

Then they need Argentina.

And so I told 'em, okay, I'll go on one condition.

I got a brother.

, he's seen me to go to two Olympics, and I seen him to look in his eyes.

If that deal goes for him too, hey, we got five years, maybe he can learn the sport.

Maybe he can crack it to the top 50.

Maybe he can make it to the Olympics.

how old is he?

He's 30 years old.

30 years old.

Are you crazy?

Oh, you gotta see this guy coach you.

An incredible athlete.

He's not, he is an architect.

Okay.

I mean, he's really good with Legos, but, you know, but I

knew he was mentally tough.

That's why I knew he could do it.

He goes, all right, bring him along.

Hangs up on me.

Right?

So order has been re, you know, brought back, because now he's hanging up on me.

I'll go to Marcello, my, my younger brother, and he goes,

look, worst case scenario, you got a free two week vacation.

He goes, yeah, I could die on this vacation and yours, right?

And he goes, yeah, you.

, but best case scenario, you could be an Olympian.

Okay?

You could be the Olympic architect now.

And he starts smiling.

He goes, Hey, that's got a nice ring to it, the Olympic architect.

And he was in, right?

He goes, he catches the dream.

he breaks a few bones, right?

And when he caught the dream, he got committed.

Okay?

He started eating right.

He got ripped, okay?

He went from a, I had a overweight architect.

He got ripped, all right?

He broke a few bones.

Cause everybody does.

He kept coming back.

Cause we're all bulldogs.

No chihuahuas in our house, all right?

And so with one race to go, I was already in, I had enough World Cup points, I'm in.

Hey, he didn't look like he had it.

I, he, it wasn't gonna happen.

And on the last race, he pulls one out of the bag.

It's all these World cup points.

Bumps him up the 49th in the world, he made it.

Okay?

my goodness.

You made it with your brother.

yeah, we made Olympic history.

First time two brothers compete against each other in a men's luge.

for the record, I won.

All But.

Yeah,

That's

I so think about it guys.

You're listening to this.

If a 30 year old outta shape architect, I'm gonna get to

the Olympics and they'll luge.

Imagine what you can do.

All right.

Stay.

I hope that makes you awake tonight.

I hope you're cursing me tonight.

Okay.

Cuz you can't sleep cause you're thinking

I If you can't sleep tonight, you can totally

blame Ruben, heal, sleep like a baby knowing you can't sleep if you

catch the dream and say, look, I didn't know that this was possible.

If you believe at that level, and if you commit at that level, unbe,

unbelievable things can happen.

It.

That is an unbelievable story.

I I love that.

I love that.

So you, you and your brother compete the, he turns into an architect

Olympian and you are competing another in a, in another decade, at

that Salt Lake, and that's when that little kid, this a

little kid in my neighborhood, right before the Salt Lake City Olympics

2002, almost 21 years ago, I was a copier salesman in downtown Houston at.

, and I've had a lot of jobs.

Okay?

I'm highly unemployable.

I'm very, uh, independent , so don't be calling me for job offers, but if you

need to inspire, motivate your people.

I'm your guy.

But anyways, this kid, a little fifth grader goes, Hey, Ruben, when you get

back from the Olympics, we'll, you my show and tell project in school.

And I said, sure, why not?

And I pictured show and tell day.

Everybody gotta show something off.

It's probably five minutes per kid, at least five minutes from me.

I took the sled, the helmet, the Olympic torch, no prisoners, right?

I'm gonna finally get my Olympic medal, even if it's beating

a bunch of, I'm competitive.

Okay?

And so I go, the principal takes me to this room.

There's 200 kids sitting, and he says, you got 45 minutes.

They need to turn it into an assembly.

But he didn't tell me.

Oh,

That door looked so inviting.

I almost just ran out.

And I said a little prayer.

I really did.

God, what do I do now?

And what I felt I needed to do is just tell 'em your story, give

'em some pointers, how they can make the their dream come true.

, and that's where it started.

afterwards, principal went nuts.

You got a gift that you need to do for a living.

I said, what you get paid for?

Show and tell?

And he goes, no, man, it's speaking profession.

I don't you know, anything.

And he goes, so my face that I thought about it and I thought, you

know what, that was a lot of fun.

Maybe I can inspire some people to go for their dream, And sure

beat's, knocking on doors in downtown Houston, trying to sell a copier.

And three days later, I'll quit my job.

I figured if I can sell a copier, I sell a Ruben too.

And I just started calling all the schools massive action,

calling, following up faxes.

and that's where it all started.

And, now it's, I've spoken for a hundred Fortune 500 companies all over the world.

I that kid changed my life.

So you don't know.

You have no clue what could possibly lay in front of you.

I'm a shy guy.

Nobody believes me when I say that.

But my, I'm an introvert.

, you get me talking about personal development or Olympics.

It's like Clark cant turns the Superman, but I'm an introvert.

I'd run behind, behind a book and, but I'm a key, I'm a keynote speaker.

All right.

10, sometimes, 5,000 people.

I shared the stage with zig zeigler 25 times over the years, big

arenas, and I made C's in English.

Okay.

Heck, my parents celebrated my brought home a C anything

Yeah.

and I've written six books.

They've been translated to 10 languages, and they sold over 300,000 copies.

Okay?

I'm not an Amazon bestseller, I'm a real bestseller, okay?

But I can barely spell.

All right?

Think about that.

I hope this keeps you up all night.

I'm a lousy athlete, okay?

It's not false modesty.

I'm a slow poke.

I got heart.

Okay?

I'm just like Rudy.

In fact, about 10 days, I'm speaking a big real estate event in Connecticut.

Rudy Rueger and me, we're gonna, try to take those guys' excuses away, right?

We, and

you ever spoken with

guess I'm a of the

Have you ever showed,

have

a movie yet.

yeah.

Have you ever showed, have you ever shared the stage with him before?

Have you ever met him?

Yeah, we met a couple times.

I haven't seen him about 10 years since.

Be fun catching

that?

And, but I,

Tell me this, I would love to know like, where were your parents

at and what were they thinking , your dad gave you some great advice early on

when he says, go read some biographies.

You took that advice and, and it really helped catapult and solidify your mindset.

You come back at 21, you say, Hey, mom, dad, I just wanna let you know,

I can only imagine, hey, yo, I'm just gonna let y'all know I'm gonna

be in the Olympics in four years.

I'm going to do the, what is their, like how did they respond to that?

That's a great question.

on the one hand, I was blessed that my parents always supported me.

No matter what hair-brained idea I had, my dad would always try to find the

source of knowledge to, to help me out.

Right?

It was never who you think you are.

the stuff that you see in Rudy's movie, it wasn't like that at all.

It was the opposite.

Okay, you can do it, you can do it, you can do it.

If you work hard enough, you can do it, but you gotta follow

those success principles.

My dad also knew he was a, I was such a hardhead.

That I probably wouldn't listen to anything he told me directly.

That's why he just led me to the trough of knowledge, the books.

And let them work their magic.

And my mom, typical mom, they, she didn't, now she's afraid Ruby's gonna get hurt.

Her baby's gonna get hurt.

She didn't want me to do it.

They never saw me luge live.

They would wait till I brought the VCR could tape afterwards.

Cuz they're afraid to see their baby, get

They couldn't watch you do it live.

They just

No, it couldn't.

Oh, that's amazing.

I mean, I understand mean

see that sign?

This is a shameless plug,

No,

the shortcut book.com.

So I just did my, the shortcut book.com.

Okay.

We'll turn it back over here again.

So I just did my first in March.

March of last year, right?

Cuz we haven't gotten to March yet.

March of last year.

I did my first TED Talk.

It's called The Power of Following the Leader, right?

Because I'm a big believer that and success, it, it's very simple.

Okay?

It's not easy.

It is, know, it's gonna take everything you got.

But if it's in your heart, I believe that you got what it takes.

You just gotta dig deep, okay?

And I did this, whatever you wanna do, just find somebody that's done it.

Find somebody that's done it and call 'em up and ask 'em for advice.

Ask them.

And I always get pushback.

Oh, but I don't wanna impose those people are so busy.

you know what, as, as long as your intention is, I'm gonna do

whatever they say right away.

I'm gonna take massive action.

I'm gonna make 'em look good cause I won't succeed.

, you owe it to them to call 'em.

Okay?

Because see, everybody thinks that success is the gold medal, but it's not.

Success is the silver medal.

The gold medal is called significance.

That means you help somebody else succeed.

That makes you feel good inside, that feels that significance fills

that little hole in your heart, okay?

And so they got success.

They're looking for significance.

So if you make your dream come true, cuz they showed you how you get the

silver medal, they get the goal and you just might make a best friend.

See?

And so that, that talk that I did, the power of following the leader, I got man,

it's already gotten over a million views and I was getting so many nice things.

People, emails and stuff like that.

I thought, man, maybe there's an idea whose time has come, right?

Maybe there's a lot of hard headss like me cause I resisted my coach.

See that, that, that bulldog tenacity that I had, that helped me get through

that those rough years at the beginning also made me resist my coach's advice.

I learned everything the hard.

the hard way.

In fact, one of my first coaches says, Ruben, you weren't Bulldog.

You were half bulldog and half mule.

If you'd have been, if you wouldn't have been so hardheaded, you learned hard.

You shouldn't have gotten hurt much as you did, man, but thank God that you were such

a champ that you just kept coming back.

but it didn't have to be that hard.

And so I wrote this book, call The Shortcut, right?

And the shortcut, the success is find a leader.

Follow a leader, and then you can be the leader, right?

Because you learned it, you applied it.

Now you're the leader.

Then what?

then find another leader higher and higher.

And you keep, you do that for the rest of your life.

And this book is just, everybody loves it right Now, if you're an old guy like

me, and you like paper books, just go to Amazon or you go to the shortcut book.com.

You can buy it there.

It's 20 bucks.

If you're one of those Kindle guys, I got it for a dollar right now on Kindle.

Okay?

So it doesn't get any better than

That's We will put the link, we'll put the link of the

shortcut book in the, in the show notes.

So you guys check out the shortcut book.com and if you like it

on Kendall, he is got a deal.

So we, we'll add those, we'll add those links to the, show notes to this.

That's awesome.

And I love, I love what you, what the premise of the book and, and I would

love to dive in just, real quickly, to a couple things that, that relate to

that idea, cuz I love how you talk about following the leader, to be the leader.

And there, there is a certain level of humility that comes with that and a

certain level of humility that it takes to be coached, you know what I mean?

To allow that process to take place.

Talk about that, your perspective on, your coach and what how that kind

of interaction was with your coach.

And what you had to do to kind of come under him, you know, what does

it take to follow a leader in your opinion, and, and to do that well?

You said it.

Humility, right?

Trust.

You have to let go.

You have to let go.

and letting go is scary, right?

Because everybody wants to be in control and being outta control is scary.

But that's, you can only improve if you're outta control, okay?

, if you're doing something that's pushing you outside of

that, you know of the limits.

And so you have to let go and trust.

And for the first three Olympics, I would resist.

And on my fourth Olympics, they changed the rules.

It's could be top 40 now, not top 50.

Alright?

Now I was always around top 45 when they did that.

I thought, this is gonna be tough.

I'm older than anybody.

back in Salt Lake, I was 39.

Back then, everybody thought I was a coach.

they look at me.

So what are you coaching?

no, I'm an athlete.

I get this dude, look at me up and down.

He goes, no, come on.

What are you coaching?

. It's like a Rodney Dangerfield, the Olympics man.

And So in, in, in Vancouver, I was 47.

Okay.

Now, by then, all the other coaches are cheering for me.

They're going do it for the old guys, and And but I realized

number one, I'm the oldest.

Number two, I'm gonna have to be better than I've ever been

before I got my back to the wall.

And that's what it took for me to say, okay.

I, I was always good at seeking out the mentor, but I wasn't good at following

right, following their advice right away.

And so I would always wait and then do it the hard way.

And I just said, I'm just gonna let go.

I'm gonna do it.

And I started improving faster than I ever had before.

Okay.

And then at 55 I was sliding better than ever.

Next week I got a brand new sled, okay?

brand new German sled.

Next week, Tuesday, I'm driving to park.

I'm gonna, test drive the old sled and the new sled and the old body and see,

how, and coach said, look, it's gonna be, it's gonna feel different, okay?

Than your old sled.

Okay?

This is, this is souped up, okay?

So we want you going from junior start, 40, 50 miles an hour.

Don't worry, don't, your goal is not to get the men start, because if you rush

it, you're just gonna pick up a bunch of bad habits and then we will work three

times as hard to try to break them.

Your goal is to feel okay and to feel what that sled is doing and try different

things and try going early into a curve on purpose, or try going a little bit late

and see what it does, and develop the feel so you can, you can ride that bull, right?

And and then,

on the last day, I'll go to Lady Start and it's 75 miles an hour, right?

And then I'm coming back in, in February and doing some more.

And if that goes well, then next year I'll be going to several tracks.

And then if that goes well, start competing again, right?

The last two years are the ones that count.

You get more training run, you get more runs per week.

If you're just training and there's no pressure, you can just focus on learning.

And the last two years, and who knows, maybe, maybe Milan

in 2026, only be 60, 63.

You are.

So you're saying, you're saying that you're doing that

now you're taking that out.

You're not, I thought in, I thought you were talking about your last

Olympics.

You're actually saying that, you're actually going into training

right now to com to to see if you can make the next Olympics.

Yeah.

is

Mentally I'm tougher than ever.

That's

Mentally.

I'm tougher than ever.

Okay.

And so here's something my mentors used to tell me years ago.

They ask.

Successful people ask different questions than average people, okay?

And they do different things and they read different books, and they actually

invest more in their books and on, on how big their big screen TV is.

All little things like that.

. And they don't watch the news, okay?

Cuz the news, let me tell you guys, the news is so negative.

It is gonna steal your dreams.

And the media makes money two ways.

Number one, make you mad.

Number two, make you scared.

That's good for ratings, but it's bad for business.

All right?

I agree with that.

Yeah.

A hundred percent.

so they would always ask questions like, why not now?

Why not me?

Why not?

Why not Now, why not ask yourself those questions?

Why not me?

Why can't I compete in five Olympics in five different decades?

Why can't I become the oldest person to ever.

in the Winter Olympics ever.

Why not?

Why can't I get my, the cover on Arps magazine?

right?

Why can't I get sponsors?

depends.

Diapers and ol and Timex, cuz it keeps, takes a looking and keeps on ticking.

Why not?

So those, but those questions I'm just goofing around now, but

those questions, they get your mind thinking about possibilities.

They open up your mind and that's a good thing.

Man, I'm supercharged.

I'm supercharged hearing you talk about it, man.

We are going to be cheering for you, and, and cheering for your,

training and I have no doubt.

I have no doubt that that is absolutely achievable, especially with your mindset.

A hundred percent.

No doubt.

I know you don't have any doubts.

Okay, we're gonna shift here from, the shortcut book.com

to this little picture over here that is the official, poster from

the, Oslo Olympics back in 1952.

Okay.

Osso Norway.

See you.

The Norwegian flag.

All right.

Why do I have that and why do I have a Norwegian flag over there?

And why do I have another Norwegian flag around the corner

my by my espresso machine where I have my coffee in the morning?

Why?

I'm from Argentina.

That doesn't make sense.

I'll tell you why.

I'm training for the Vancouver Olympics.

Only top 40 are gonna make it best I've ever done was top 45 at the end

of the training, of the qualification period, which is December 31st.

The Olympics are in February, December 31st.

That's a cutoff point.

I'm 42 in the world.

I missed it.

I didn't qualify.

Hmm.

So what do you do?

You gonna.

No, Vancouver's the fastest track in the world.

So Park City's the second fastest track in the world.

So all of January, I went to Park City to just take runs to work on speed, right?

Keep my man prepared, be prepared in case you get the opportunity right?

Cuz you never know.

At the, at the Calgary Olympics, my first one in 88, the guy that was

gonna take it all was Norbert Huber.

He was, an Italian, but they're all Italians from northern,

northern Italy, right?

They all speak German.

I they're Germans, really.

And so he was winning everything that year, two weeks before the Olympics, he

gets appendicitis, misses the Olympics.

He never made it back.

Can you believe that?

Bad luck.

Bad luck.

I, and okay, so I'm number 42 in the world.

I'm gonna prepare myself just.

I just need one guy to get appendicitis, one guy to break his leg and the

other guy to break his arm and I'm in.

But you gotta be prepared.

If it happens, if it doesn't happen, but at least you gotta be prepared.

So that's a mindset, right?

Whatever it takes for as long as it takes, that's a good recipe to success.

Whatever it takes for that doesn't mean I step on people and make enemies and cheat.

no.

You long-term thinking, okay, you don't screw up relationships,

you just do whatever it takes.

Okay?

And so get comfortable with being uncomfortable , right?

Yeah.

And three weeks before the Olympics, I'm speaking Minneapolis

to all these salespeople.

They have this big banner that says, believe and Achieve,

and they don't get happy.

Reuben like you guys are getting, okay?

This is, they're getting, Reuben is in the trenches, willing to kill

somebody to get in the Olympics.

I mean, they got a little more, you know, and I see that banner believe in Achieve.

I thought, man, that's a bunch of bull

Mm-hmm.

. Mm-hmm.

the sales manager goes, right.

I says, look, don't tell me what you believe.

All right?

What you do shows me what you believe.

Okay?

and you know what?

You know what I did up in my, I believe this is three,

three weeks to the Olympics.

I'm still number 42 in the world, but I believe I'll be in the Olympics.

You know what I did up in my hotel room before I came to talk to you guys?

I bought four non-refundable tickets to Vancouver on purpose, non-refundable

for myself, my wife, our kids.

Cuz if you believe something's gonna happen, you jump and the net will appear.

And I didn't buy it.

They didn't buy, they didn't believe themselves enough to

believe in what I was saying, right?

So I got a little golf clap back that day.

I didn't care.

I already had the check . So I finished my talk.

Go back to my room, open my laptop.

There's a message that says you made it Norway.

This is why I'll have all these Norwegian foot, Norway.

They had three guys in the top 40.

But Norway goes to win.

Norway's won more gold medals, more medals in the Winter Olympics

than any other country, even though they only have 5 million people.

Right?

Why?

Why?

Why does, why do they eat something special?

Do they drink something?

No, because they decided.

Just like the Germans, they decided we're gonna rule luge and we're gonna,

put our money where our mouth is.

We're wanna build four tracks, if that's what it takes, whatever

it takes for as long as they make the successes a decision.

All right?

And so they had three guys in the top 40, but they weren't in the top 20.

They were only send you in the top 20.

So I'm sorry for you from Norway.

So those three guys didn't get to go.

That bumped me up to 39.

I got to go at the opening ceremonies, man.

I wanna carry the Norwegian flag.

Not the old, not the Argentinian flag.

The Norwegian help me more than anybody . And that's why I have 'em everywhere

They

I don't want to get a fad head cuz I'm a four-time Olympian.

Thanks to my Norwegian friends, friends.

No, but you know what I love because you're, that's inspiring on

several different levels and if you're listening to this, I, I hope that you

caught the nuance of what he just said.

What he said is that really your action shows what you believe.

If you're 42 and you gotta be, 39, then if you believe that you're gonna

go, you will live as if you are going.

And what you did was you bought tickets, you bought tickets, you

went ahead and bought tickets to go cuz you believed you were gonna go.

And, and, and at the end of the day, if norway had not had those three, that had

backed out, , and you didn't make the cut.

You still were living as you did, you were preparing for that opportunity.

So when the opportunity came, you could capitalize on it in a major way.

And I think that's just, that's incredible because if you don't do anything and

then you just say, well, I hope I get there, and then they canceled.

Well, then you're not in a good space.

Even though you made it, you, you really didn't make it.

All you did was, make it hard on yourself, you know?

But the, but how you went about it, I just, you kept preparing, you kept going

to the tracks, you kept doing the runs, and then you bought tickets because

you just said, I'm going, I'm going.

And I

No.

Well, yeah, no regrets.

It goes back to no regrets, right?

I mean, I wanna be able to, Hey, it's not up to me.

Okay?

All I can do is all I can do, but, it may not be enough that year.

Okay?

but I wanna be able to look at that guy in the morning when I'm brushing my teeth.

cause, cause, I won almost be seeing him every morning the rest of my life.

And so you gotta go for it.

No regrets

And I had guys, the first one, my feeling was, I gotta make it.

I gotta make it, I want, but the feeling changed for all the other ones.

The feeling was, you know what, I'm gonna do whatever it takes.

But you never know where the chip's gonna lay at the end.

But it's, but either way, I win.

Okay.

Why?

Because you gotta protect your attitude.

All right?

Winners protect their attitude.

Cause as soon as your attitude goes south, man, you're toast.

All right?

So my attitude is, and this is not a, this is ex, I believe this, okay?

This is not just some weird thing that you say that no, this, I believe

what I'm gonna tell you right now.

You win either way.

If I make the fifth one, awesome.

If I don't make the fifth one, I will have had to dig so deep inside, right?

To even have a possibility, right?

I'm have to dig deeper than ever before.

Cause I'm older that I'm gonna discover God-given a little gifts that I

didn't even know I had, and now I've got those for the rest of my life.

and it's not about winning the medal or making it okay?

No.

It's about the person you become.

It really is okay, because you become better.

You become better for the future.

you do that, you can't lose.

So it's like, why, why think any other way?

Because if you go into it with that attitude and that perspective,

that mindset, then either way you win, truly, you truly win.

You come away.

You come away a better person either way.

And so, man, I

the pressure off,

I love

takes the pressure off, but you still gotta do whatever you can.

Otherwise, you're gonna have that regret,

Yeah.

Yeah.

It doesn't,

you gotta be able, if you don't make it, at least you gotta be

able to look at the guy in the mirror.

All

Yeah, that's right, That's right.

So you've dropped so many things on everybody today.

I'm gonna sum it up and then we're gonna, we're gonna let you,

you know, kind of take us out.

You've talked about having, you had amazing self-awareness early on.

You knew your strengths and weaknesses.

You said, I'm not the fastest guy, but I got tenacity, I got perseverance.

And you took that knowledge and you applied it in a way

that fit, a goal that fits you.

You said, I'm not going to the Summer Olympics.

Gonna do the Winter Olympics.

And that came from a sense of awareness that you had about yourself.

So I think that was huge.

You talked about levels of commitment.

Don't say try, don't say do your best.

Say I'm gonna be there, I'm gonna do this, I'm gonna do it.

And have that level of commitment.

When you do that and you take action cuz you're excited, you have that

energy, that's passion that people can see and they're gonna jump on board.

Just like the old man said, Hey look, I can see it in your eyes.

I think you got this.

And so, I just love it.

You've also said one thing, I'm not gonna share it exactly, but you've said one

thing in between here and there that we've gonna have in the book when it comes out.

We got a book coming out.

We, we dropped the hint, the title in back in December.

Lift is gonna be hitting soon.

And you spoke to one of the four concepts in Lift.

I'm not gonna say it, but guys, this is a big hint.

He's talking about, you'll have to get the book later and do it, and read it.

You talked about success is a silver medal, but people that

have success, that want that gold medal, they want significance.

And that's giving back.

And I think that if you have had success, if you're listening to the

last 10%, even if you've had in your mind a, a success that's not, you

know, you're not a billionaire, but you're leading a team, that's success

then, then what do you wanna do?

You don't wanna hold that to yourself.

You want to grow and develop the people around you.

So that they can, they can be better and they can lead others too.

So pass that along and I think that's great.

You talked about how to follow find a leader, follow a leader,

and be called, be a leader.

and you know, why not me?

You talked about that.

And whatever it takes for as long as it takes, how action shows our beliefs,

all these things you've wrapped up.

You talked about your book, the shortcut book.com.

It's unbelievable, unbelievable stuff.

Today, I hope the listeners have just had a pen and paper and writing

this all down, cuz as far as mindset goes, man, you are living the last

10%, the last 1% of the last 10%.

This is awesome conversation.

So I wanna wrap up by asking you, we always ask our guests, who they'd

like to hear on the last 10%.

So who, who would you like to see or hear on the last 10%?

Sure.

you asked me earlier about the coaches and I went off on a tangent on you.

My first coach in Lake Plaster was, was this Ukrainian guy and he was

like a youth leader in a church.

he makes it fun so the kids will come back next week and so he made it fun, right?

Youth, he's teaching the, the juniors and I was getting hurt so

much that he, I don't think I'd have made it without him, right?

So he, he had that fun, right?

He that got me through the first Olympics.

Then the International Luge Federation got smart and they decided,

Hey, we need a development team.

Bring in more countries.

We gotta get serious about this thing.

So they brought in this top, top Austrian coach who was a three time world champion,

and I was with him for eight years.

but he wasn't fun.

He was, I mean on the right, but he was the best.

But he was, it's, he was, it was a little bit like, salesman of the month.

it gets moved up to sales manager and he doesn't know how to

manage, It's two different skills.

He doesn't, didn't really have that skill.

Right?

But I didn't know any better.

Then the person, your guest, you want to have next, his name's

Jonathan Edwards, and he competed in a luge for the United States.

And, little Hammer, he got fourth place in the doubles.

So he was really close to getting the medals and, back when us

wasn't winning any medals.

And, Jonathan, what sets him apart is he can get in my head, he's

read all the self-development books and he's, he can help me, if I

have a, a block that's keeping me from performing at a higher level.

He asked me one or two questions that he can, pull it outta me

and then we can fix it, right?

So he's getting here and success is here.

And Jonathan Edwards, that's what you want

all right.

That's, that's who we want.

So we'll go reach out to Jonathan, see if he, we can get him on the last 10%.

Ruben, this has been an absolute pleasure.

It's been so fun talking to you.

I feel energized, I feel like going and like hanging up and getting

off the show and just running through the wall right there.

I am pumped.

I am ready.

This is awesome.

I just love spending time with you.

Thank you for being on the last 10%.

Ah, thanks.

Thanks.

I had a lot of fun.

I just made a new friend.

Let me know if you're ever in Colorado Springs.

Okay.

50 miles south of Denver and we will, get together and then next time I

go down south or North Carolina and speak near Charlotte or something,

we gotta have a little party.

You and work and

we'll do it.

We'll do it.

Thank you again, Ruben.

Take care.