Ken Rideout

I didn't want to get tackled at some point though, in high school, while I was playing football, I was getting creamed on every, on every tackle and drill we would do when I was running the ball.

And the coach finally said to me, Hey, numb nuts, are you just going to take hits on everything?

Or are you going to run like you mean it?

And whatever clicked to me the next time I ran the ball, like I'm going to run this guy over.

And when I felt what that did for my confidence, yeah, I'd heard all those things.

But like I would tell him, if you're going to get hit in football, it's going to hurt anyway.

Why not deliver the hit and control the fear and harness it for yourself?

I know it's not going to be easy.

I know a lot of the things that I'm saying are easier said than done, but they have been done and I did them.

But to your question, I was scared all the time as a kid.

I talk about in the book, going to the Somerville Boxing Club, which by the way, isn't like the local Thai bowl class and box aerobics.

The heavyweight champion of the world was training in there.

It was a boxing gym in its rawest, purest form.

Intimidating.

No one was like, oh, buddy, come on in.

It's 20 bucks a month.

They were like, can you afford to pay?

Because if you couldn't afford to pay, it was free.

And I went in there, scared shitless, and just kept going every day, sparring, getting better.

and the fear never went away but what i did is like i said earlier i just got comfortable with like okay i'm i'm fighting this guy there's no sense being scared i'm gonna get punched in the face no matter what you're in a fight you're gonna get hit and in life you're gonna get hit you're gonna get kicked in the ass i was just telling you all of the things that i've accomplished and by the way when you're rattling off the things i've done like