MEN
REAL CONVERSATIONS
Men: Real Conversations
• What makes the Dalai Lama truly happy? • Why might an astronaut view himself as a failure? • What does vulnerability mean for a tough U.S. Navy SEAL? Men: Real Conversations asks 40 famous and renowned men to open their hearts and have honest conversations about the issues that are important to them. The men who have shared their deepest insights about life include the Dalai Lama, Navy SEALS, sporting superstars, UFC and Muay Thai fighters, Paralympic gold medalists, extreme athletes, astronauts, actors, rappers, poets, artists, and philosophers. In raw and revealing conversations, these men talk about topics they’ve never publicly spoken about before: the power of love, what makes them truly happy, the importance of the women in their lives, finding their life purpose, achieving success, overcoming challenges, mental health, depression, vulnerability, fatherhood and family. Their answers are unedited, unexpected and, most importantly, real.
A FEW INSIGHTS...
“Key challenges in my life have consisted purely of painful failure. In some instances, embarrassing failures. From crashing in my first Paralympics and breaking my spine for the third time, to breaking my femur or crashing in a completely inconsequential, unchallenging portion of a racecourse. Or even failing to find the funds to keep pursuing my dream. The one thing I did in all these situations that helped me to accomplish and to achieve victory was I faced the failure, I faced the challenge, and I faced the embarrassment. I learned from it and focused on being a better version of myself so I would never have to face that again, or if I did, I would know how to handle it.”
Andrew Kurka
Paralympic Gold Medalist and World Champion Alpine Skier
“I came to this accidentally – I broke my life, man. We either break our lives and figure out how to fix it or we figure out how to tape it together and leave it broken. For me, a lot of it went through my childhood, being in foster care and craziness, and then running through a decent place in life. I played in the NFL, I met my father, I got to a good tier.
I’d gone through a lot of headaches in the foster care system, lots of abuse, beatings and different stuff, and growing up in an all-white family. So, identity has always been that thing that I’ve been navigating. I got to this point where everything was great, being in the NFL, having a kid, life’s good… then all of a sudden it broke. I lost my career in football to an injury so I lost that part of my identity, had two more kids with my high school sweetheart, and when I got done with football I tried to find this thing that made me ‘me’ again like I felt in the NFL.”
Anthony Trucks
NFL Player, Buccaneers, Redskins and Steelers
“You have to have strength to keep your emotions in check, you have to have strength to keep your ego in check, you have to have the strength not to behave in extreme ways when you may feel that. It takes strength to maintain discipline on a day-to-day basis.
There’s physical strength, which is being actually strong; having the strength of character to persevere through problem areas; and then moral strength to stand up when something’s going on that you don’t think is right.”
Jocko Willink
Former U.S. Navy SEAL and Author
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