119 | Jesse Iwuji | Side Hustling Your Way to Become a NASCAR Pro and Owner

Today I’m talking with Jesse Iwuji, the first and only active US Naval Officer to compete in NASCAR and the co-owner of NASCAR team Jesse Iwuji Motorsports, which he co-owns with HOF Former-NFL player Emmitt Smith. He's also a Keynote Speaker/Motivational Speaker and a NASCAR Driver Analyst for NBC Sports. After realizing his love for sports, particularly football, Jesse started setting goals for himself to be on the A team, get recruited, and play college football. Since he didn’t get to play Pee Wee and Pop Warner football, he had to put in extra effort to grow his talent, skills, strength, and ability. All his hard work paid off when he got recruited by the United States Naval Academy to play college football during his senior year. Jesse saw this as an opportunity to attend a great school, pursue his love for football, and have a career waiting for him as an officer in the US Navy when he graduates. He spent four years playing for the Naval Academy, went to four different bowl games, and had winning seasons all four years. He later became a Surface Warfare Officer (SWO), which developed his passion for cars and racing. His life changed when he finally decided to become a professional race car driver. Jesse explored every possibility, took the entrepreneur route, and started his own business on the sideline while still serving active duty. In this episode, you will learn about football, professional car racing, the importance of having a vision, what kept Jesse going in pursuing his dream, and some helpful tips on how to start living your dreams. Here are just some of the things we get into: What made Jesse loves sports and football. How Jesse realized his passion for car racing. What he did to fund his journey of learning car racing. How he worked his way up from Late Models to NASCAR K&N Pro Series. How his partnership with Emmitt Smith started. You can also stream it on: iTunes: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-greatness-machine/id1555334180 (https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-greatness-machine/id1555334180) Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/0Vbu3kqMBgfGnu3vMyW5pd?si=f46b738ce5fb4217 (https://open.spotify.com/show/0Vbu3kqMBgfGnu3vMyW5pd?si=f46b738ce5fb4217) Grab a copy of The Core Value Equation book here: https://therealdarius.com/book-order/ (https://therealdarius.com/book-order/) Learn how to leverage my proprietary and simple ScaleMAP Method Frameworks here: https://www.dariusclass.com/training-video (https://www.dariusclass.com/training-video) Enjoy the show, and don’t forget to spread greatness to the world! Peace, Darius This podcast uses the following third-party services for analysis: Chartable - https://chartable.com/privacy