Michael James: I Lost Everything, So I Bought a One Way Ticket

In 2008 I lost my marriage, my business, my house, and my truck. My kids were five and three. The only thing that brought me any peace at the time was getting on my bicycle and riding.I wasn't training for anything. I was just riding. But what I didn't realize was that I was getting good at it. I ended up racing on weekends, and a coach told me to go race Nationals and see what happened. I finished 12th in the nation. And on the drive home from Madison I remember thinking, I'm still a broken person. Nothing about my life is fixed.So I got home, went online, and bought a one way ticket to San Francisco. That was the burning of the ships for me. I had no choice now but to ride my bike across the United States.Forty two days. Thirty two flat tires. A hundred and fifteen degrees across Nevada. I set my own tent on fire in a stranger's front yard. I got run off the road in Colorado, broke a couple of ribs, and woke up face up in a creek with a rock on either side of my head. And before I ever left, my coach told me I was going to want to quit five times. She was dead on. It was exactly five.In this conversation with Zack I walk through all five of them, what I did each time, and the one thing that kept me from taking the excuse when a car handed me a perfect one.We also get into the part that matters more to me now. How I took every lesson off that bike and put it into building a company. The belief I had to give up, which was that grind alone would get me there. Why I still pay for three coaches even though I know how to hold myself accountable. And why the biggest risk in anybody's life isn't failure, it's autopilot.Thanks to Zack Clayton for having me on. Go check out Prestige Access.Michael James is the founder of Michael James Remodeling, a luxury home remodeling company in Georgia, and the host of The Michael James Way. His book on the ride is in editing now.