The Go Farther Series #2: Go – One Crazy Idea

By Scott Sambucci | March 1, 2024

Every endeavor starts with an idea. Then hitting the “Go” button.

For me, it’s about finding and pursuing new frontiers to keep myself moving and motivated.  My wife tells me that this is how I express myself. 🙂 

Do it once and it becomes easier the next time, and the next, and the next.  Serial entrepreneurs are the case example. Find someone that’s built multiple successful businesses. Most likely their journey started with at least a few failures until they broke through. Once they broke through, the next one was a little easier because of what they learned from past experience.

Every attempt, every pursuit is learning for the next. But those learning opportunities only happen when you go and pursue that one crazy idea.

It’s about committing to that idea, then working backwards from there.  When I open a puzzle book and find a maze, it’s easier for me to start at the end of the maze and work backwards to the start.  Choosing and committing to one crazy idea is the same.

I chose to compete in Uberman – a multi-day ultra-triathlon that included a 21-mile swim across the Catalina Channel, a 400-mile bike from Los Angeles to Death Valley, and a 135-mile ultramarathon from Badwater to the Mount Whitney portal.  That was a crazy idea that started with the choice to give it a shot and then the commitment to the training and work it would take to get to the starting line.

Before I ran my first Tahoe 200 race in 2017, my longest ultra was a 50-miler less than a year before. I found out about it only six weeks before race day. It was a crazy idea that I committed to trying, then just going for it. I figured even if I didn’t finish the race, it’d give me a chance to see how far I could go. 

When I attempted a 200-mile Fastest Known Time (FKT) on the out-and-back Western States 100 course, no one had ever completed it. Only one person had documented even trying it. He got 130 miles in before calling off his attempt.

Now training Brazilian jiu-jitsu that started at age 47, the one crazy idea is “Black Belt by 60.”

It doesn’t matter to me if the frontiers are fabricated – I didn’t invent Uberman. I only thought about the FKT attempt because of someone else’s attempt. I didn’t organize the Tahoe 200. I’m not the first person to begin training jiu-jitsu in my late 40s with aspirations of a black belt.

Along the way is how I’ve seen rattlesnakes and bear tracks. Deer bounding across a meadow at daybreak. Boulders the size of buildings and bald eagles.

Every experience is learning for the next, and reaching the edge of the next frontier is where I find another mountain, ocean, or desert. 

Another opportunity. Another adventure. Another idea to Do More, Be Happy & Surprise Myself.  A chance to #GoFarther.