Book Review: Can’t Hurt Me

On a recent flight, I read a book by the infamous David Goggins of YouTube fame. At least, that is where I first heard of him. I saw him mentioned on Joe Rogan’s show, and he would pop up when I was looking for motivational videos to watch.
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Honestly, at the time, he just seemed like a super motivated motivational speaker who was a little over the top. This turned out to be not far from the truth. However, most guru types you come across are all-talk frauds. Their stories are full of carefully crafted allegories to win people over. Not this guy. At least not from what I could tell. His story is horrible, fantastic, and motivating all at once. This blog will give my thoughts on his fascinating and insanely motivating book, Can’t Hurt Me.

One idea that struck me as I read the book was the concept of the six degrees of Kevin Bacon. For those of you who don’t know, the idea is that if you knew a guy who knew a guy who knew a guy, six times, that sixth person would know Kevin Bacon. A pretty bad explanation, but hopefully, everyone understands.

​You are probably wondering where I am going with this. Well, this dude crossed paths with so many recognizable names. For starters, as a child, he was forced to work at a roller disco that OJ Simpson and Rick James went to regularly. He also went to BUDs (Navy SEAL training) with the guys from Lone Survivor (Marcus Luttrell and Mike Murphy) and American Sniper (Chris Kyle). He was on the Today show and many other news outlets for charities he supported. He also competitively ran against some big names. Basically, David Goggins knew some culturally legendary people. It might just be me, but I thought this was cool.

That was just topping on the cake. This guy was indeed insane and downright fascinating. But you know what they say, there are no interesting people who haven’t had a tumultuous past. This man has had one of the most challenging lives I have ever heard of, definitely at the top. It seems that no matter what he did, some reality check would come and side-swipe his life.

Let me recap a few of these for you. Spoiler Alert!!!

• His Dad was abusive
• He watched a kid get crushed by a bus
• His “adoptive” father was gunned down
• He was turned down by recruiter after recruiter for the airforce
• He was pretty much illiterate until his senior year in high school
• He went through BUDs 3 times
• He had a hole in his heart
• His body started shutting down after becoming a champion ultra-athlete

Through sheer willpower, the man went from an at-risk youth to a Navy SEAL/Ultra Athlete. All I can say is wow. Any person who can do that, I want to know their story.

David Goggins’ book is well-written and riveting. The book was so engaging; I almost finished it on a single trans-American flight. That is saying something because I usually need a little nap.

Another idea that stood out in the book is that Goggins is painted as a real guy. Sure, he is portrayed as a commanding, well-put-together motivational speaker in social media, but he wasn’t always like that. Life kicked him in the teeth like the rest of us, and he struggled throughout his life. He is a normal person who has decided to do extraordinary things. I can get behind those types of influencers any day over the wrapped-in-plastic, unrealistic types.

Honestly, the book motivated me to go back to all my side-projects and give them everything I have. I mean, if this guy could face all that adversity, indeed, I have no excuse. It kinda sucked that I was flying on vacation and couldn’t get started immediately. But day one, back and here I am TheCU, dropping another blog.
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If you like biographies and don’t mind a military backdrop to a story, you will probably love this book. I definitely give it 5 stars and will be putting it on my yearly re-read rotation.

I sincerely hope that you enjoy the book as much as I did.

Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐