[00:00] Ruben Gonzalez: Pick up the sled and I’m still in my head like that. And then I hear somebody shouting, but it didn’t process, right? It just didn’t. Cause I was still thinking about my crack. I just hear something. And the next thing I, I feel I’m in the air and boom, as soon as I got up, my arm didn’t work, I mean, it was just straight, it was straight and it wouldn’t move and I knew, I knew.

[00:23] Jim Harshaw Jr.: Welcome to another episode of success for the athletic minded man. Real talk on harnessing your athletic drive for clarity. Focus and consistency in business and life. This is your host, Jim Harsha Jr. And today I bring you Ruben Gonzalez. We often hear the Olympians journey after the celebration, after the pomp and circumstance and after the awards and all that, we get to hear about the journey, the ups and downs and the happy ending.

[00:53] Jim Harshaw Jr.: Today, we get to hear the journey of an Olympian in the midst of the battle. This episode is exclusive access inside the brain of an Olympian while they are in the thick of it, facing the struggles, facing the setbacks and all the ups and downs. That you’re going to go through on your journey to success.

[01:15] Jim Harshaw Jr.: Um, if you’ve ever heard of something called the hero’s journey, if you Google it, you’ll find all kinds of information on it, every story that has ever been told. Has the hero’s journey, it follows this format and in every hero’s journey, whether it’s a movie or a book, you know, whether it’s a kid’s cartoon movie or drama or anything else, there’s always this all is lost moment or multiple all quote unquote, all is lost moments.

[01:46] Jim Harshaw Jr.: And Ruben shares one of those today. In his story, in his comeback as an Olympian. And I want you to think about your life, your career, your journey, and think about your, all is lost moment. Now you may be in the midst of it. Now, you may be just got over it. Maybe you are going to face it in the coming months or coming year, but we all have these moments where all is lost, right?

[02:12] Jim Harshaw Jr.: We think there’s no hope. There’s no way I’m going to get there. And sometimes. It’s this catastrophic thing. We get fired or divorce or some significant injury other times. It’s just this sort of subtle rejection or this slow settling for less. And that could be your all is lost moment. I want to show you how an Olympian handles.

[02:36] Jim Harshaw Jr.: And all is lost moment. So this is an opportunity for you to hear directly from a world class performer and how he handles adversity and setback. Now I’ve had Ruben on my podcast before he was on the success through failure podcast back in episode 388, uh, he’s got an incredible story. He recounts just a little bit of that story kind of gives us a summary of his backstory before we get into the real crux of it today.

[03:00] Jim Harshaw Jr.: So here we go. My interview with Ruben Gonzalez,

[03:05] Ruben Gonzalez: Ruben, welcome to the show. It’s great to be here. It’s uh, I’m honored that you’re having me again, even though this is a new show.

[03:13] Jim Harshaw Jr.: New show. We’ve had you on before. So some long time listeners of success through failure have heard your voice before they’ve heard your story before, but it’s worth sharing again.

[03:24] Jim Harshaw Jr.: Can you share with us a little bit about your story of becoming an Olympian?

[03:30] Ruben Gonzalez: Sure. I was born in Argentina. Our family moved to the States when I was six and I always read adventure books, 20, 000 Leagues Under the Sea, Around the World in 80 Days. So I was always looking for my adventure. And when I saw it when I was 10, I saw the Olympics for the first time and I was hooked and that, you know, I want to do that.

[03:48] Ruben Gonzalez: But the problem is I’m an unlikely Olympian because I’m not a great athlete. I’m not super fast, super strong. I’m just like your neighbor. And so I didn’t believe it was possible. And I just talked about it for a couple of years. My dad got me to read biographies. He said, uh, you will study the lives of great people.

[04:04] Ruben Gonzalez: You’ll figure out what works and what doesn’t work in life. Um, and I kept seeing, uh, uh, perseverance over and over. And so I thought, Hey, um, you know, it sounds like these people are a bunch of hardheads. And my mom always called me a hardhead. So I thought maybe I got a little bit of what it takes. And so I made a decision at 12 years old.

[04:20] Ruben Gonzalez: Reuben doesn’t quit anything anymore, right? Because I realized not quitting, perseverance is not a guarantee, but at least you still got a shot. You’re still in the game. But if you quit, it’s all over. By high school, my nickname was Bulldog because other kids started noticing that I was tenacious. And when I was 21, 21, I’m watching the Olympics.

[04:38] Ruben Gonzalez: I see Scott Hamilton win the gold medal in figure skating. He’s about a soaking wet. My image of like Arnold Schwarzenegger than that, right? And hug he just shattered my para he gave me hope. I thought can win, I can at least p I just got to find a sport at 21 and I picked the luge because I thought I need to find a sport that fits me, right?

[05:07] Ruben Gonzalez: My superpower was perseverance. I was a bulldog, so I thought I need a sport. It’s so tough. Sports got so many broken bones in it. There’ll be lots of quitters, only I won’t quit. That’s where it’ll stand out. And I went to Lake Placid, took up the luge. crammed 10 years of luge training into just two years.

[05:24] Ruben Gonzalez: I got hurt a lot, broke a bunch of bones, but I just kept coming back. And then the last two years started competing internationally to try to be one of the top 50 men that would get to compete in the Olympics. And I became the first person to ever compete in four winter Olympics in four different decades.

[05:39] Ruben Gonzalez: First one’s at 88 Calgary, 92 Albertville, took a seven year break. Uh, then my coach talked me back into it, started training, and I made the Salt Lake City Olympics. I was 39 then, and then I took another six year break, and I started training again. Made the Vancouver Olympics. I was 47. By then, everybody thought I was a coach or coach’s dad or something.

[06:01] Ruben Gonzalez: And after another really long break now, it’s been over 10 years, I got the itch again. And I’ve got a new sled and it’s fast and it goes where it’s supposed to go. I didn’t even know my old sled was squirrely. I thought it was me and I’m mentally stronger. I’m older and wiser and things that I’m more coachable now.

[06:20] Ruben Gonzalez: When coach says something, I don’t take it as a suggestion. I take. Action right away and that set the, the, the improvement curve, you know, through the roof. And even though this next coming Olympics, the 2026 games in Milan, Milan Cortina, only 25 men are going to get to go. I need to be better than ever.

[06:39] Ruben Gonzalez: And coach says, look, it’s a long shot, but you got a shot because you’re improving and they’re not. Okay. So you need enough runs where you can catch these guys. And so that’s all I needed to hear. If he says I got a shot, that’s all I need to hear. And so we’re going for it. And trying to make number five in five decades and become the oldest winter Olympian in history.

[06:59] Ruben Gonzalez: A hundred year old record would be broken from that. I love

[07:03] Jim Harshaw Jr.: this. I love this. And so you and I have been friends for several years now. So I love that I’m getting an inside look at an Olympian’s mindset as he goes for it again. And so for the listener. I want to share two quick lessons that Ruben just talked about here.

[07:19] Jim Harshaw Jr.: Number one, find a way like you can, like whatever you’re trying to become or achieve or do, you can do it. I mean, if you believe you can do it, you’re going to find a way. If you can persevere, if you’re dedicated to figuring out a way over, under, around, through the obstacles. You can find a way. I mean, Ruben did, and now he’s a legend.

[07:41] Jim Harshaw Jr.: He’s a four time Olympian in four different decades. And second thing, uh, observation I want to make is you can talk to a guy like Ruben or look in the mirror, look at yourself and say, well, yeah, my, my day or time has passed me. Or you can say, I actually have unfair advantages now. And Ruben is taking the view that I have unfair advantages.

[08:00] Jim Harshaw Jr.: I’m older, I’m wiser. I listened to my coaches and I have this access to a mindset and this wisdom that I didn’t have in the past. So he’s taking this as an unfair advantage. And so listener, you have that unfair advantage. So you have to figure out what it is. And understand that. And so we’re hearing that directly from a guy who’s in the thick of it.

[08:22] Jim Harshaw Jr.: So I’ve been chatting with Ruben and we text back and forth now and then he kind of fills me in and sends me pictures of him on the track and, Hey, Jim, doing my first run, getting back on the, on the track. And before we get into sort of what’s been going on in your training here recently, Ruben, that I really want to talk about, let me ask you why, why did you decide to give it one more shot?

[08:42] Ruben Gonzalez: I’ve got this weird seven year itch where I just get very restless and I need a big, big goal. I need the challenge. And it’s like, uh, I can’t live without it. Right. And so five years, you know, I got the feeling, but it’s not strong enough. Six years and then seven is like, okay, I’m going to, it’s time it’s now or never.

[09:02] Ruben Gonzalez: Right. It’s been more than seven years. And I got a shot to do something. You know when I think that when I make the oldest Olympian for the oldest Olympian is from 1924 Olympics. It’s the first Winter Olympics ever. There was only 352 athletes back then from 16 countries. There’s 3000 athletes now. It’s getting started.

[09:20] Ruben Gonzalez: And there was this curler from Sweden and he was 57. Well, I’ll be 63 in Milan, so, so it’s a hundred year old record. But I think what’s gonna happen, other old athletes are gonna start. Coming out of the woodwork and I don’t think my record will stand, but the one of having five winter Olympics each in a different decade, I think that one might last forever because that’s big.

[09:46] Jim Harshaw Jr.: Yeah. Not too many people out there crazy enough or that have the perseverance that you have, Ruben. So pretty exciting opportunity here for you. Quick interruption. Hey, if you like what you’re hearing, be sure to get the notes, quotes, and links in the action plan from this episode. Just go to Jim Herschel, jr.

[10:03] Jim Harshaw Jr.: com slash action. That’s Jim Herschel, jr. com slash action to get your free copy of the action plan. Now back to the show. So recently you shared with me a setback that you had, and this is really the crux of what may trigger me to say, I’ve got to have Ruben back on the show because we so often from the outside, looking in, we see the lives of Olympians and successful people like yourself.

[10:30] Jim Harshaw Jr.: And we go, Oh, things are just easy for them. Or, you know, when they go through hard things, you know, they just overcome it. And it’s not really a big deal for them. But you’re in the thick of it. And so can you share with us what happened one morning on the track?

[10:46] Ruben Gonzalez: So, uh, about, uh, two months ago, Italy announced they’re not going to build the track for the Olympics.

[10:51] Ruben Gonzalez: And the closest track is in Eagles, Austria, which is like a suburb of Innsbruck. It’s just in the Alps there. And it’s a track that’s been around since the sixties. So everybody knows it. It’s not even a. Particularly, uh, hard track to get down. It’s hard to get down fast and we all love the location cause it’s in, you know, in the middle of the Alps and it’s gorgeous.

[11:13] Ruben Gonzalez: So I was there training. And so there’s going to be for qualification right before the Olympics, like the two months before the Olympics or three months before there’s going to be seven races, seven world cup races. And. And so I want to, uh, to train at all these different tracks to start getting good there.

[11:33] Ruben Gonzalez: And so, I went through Eagles, and I was sliding well. This year, with this new sled, I’ve had a breakthrough where I’m able to control it a lot better. A clean run means that you didn’t even brush any wall. And I’ve never had more than four clean runs in a, in a row till earlier this year. I was training in Park City, Utah earlier this year, January and February.

[11:55] Ruben Gonzalez: And I think I got seven in a row. Man, that’s awesome. And I was up at Eagles, and I had eight, right? New record. And so, right past the finish line on the eighth run, it’s the exit of curve 14, and it starts being uphill now at this part of the track. It’s starting to slow you down. I crossed the finish line, and I hit a rut where bobsleds break, and it threw me into the wall.

[12:19] Ruben Gonzalez: And threw me off the sled, but that was okay. I’m not banged up my hand, my chest a little bit, but mainly bruised ego. And the sled went on ahead to the 15th curve and hit a patch of snow or just stops. And so whenever there’s a wreck, right, a crash at any track in the world. The announcer, right? Because it’s like an air traffic controller.

[12:39] Ruben Gonzalez: He’s got cameras where he sees what’s going on and he says, hold on track because Jim, you’re up at the top. Are you going to go after me? So you’re sitting on your sled and you know, okay, in about two minutes, I got to be ready to go. And the worst thing that can happen is the guy in front of you crashes, right?

[12:52] Ruben Gonzalez: Cause now that messes up your whole pregame and you’re sticking to staying out there longer in the cold. Your face mask might fog when you’re going down, it just throws everything up. So up at the top is a Grayson Laffer, a kid from Australia. So I crashed and I walk up to 15 to pick up my sled. Cause I can’t just walk off the track and leave the sled for somebody else to hit it.

[13:14] Ruben Gonzalez: That’d be crazy. So I pick up the sled and I’m carrying it and I’m about 20 yards away from the exit of the track, the exit we take. And I hear this, uh, look out, look out, look out. And then next thing I know I’m flying through the air. So instead of saying, hold on track, they said, track is clear for Grayson Laffer, doom, and he just, you know, he came right into me and he hit me.

[13:39] Ruben Gonzalez: And. He was going fast. I mean, at that point, he’s probably going 60 and it was a miracle that we’re both alive. What actually happened in, uh, I was carrying the sled like bag, like luggage, old style without the wheels, right? Just hanging. And as he came up, he lifted his legs. And he put his body back down because he was already breaking, put his body back down to try to go under me, but he lifted his legs and his sled hit the back of my sled and it’s 50 pounds.

[14:10] Ruben Gonzalez: Okay. And it flew off like a frisbee. And the impulse of him throwing me just made me spin around where his sled went right under mine, didn’t even touch my feet, because he would have just clipped my foot off. There wasn’t even an ambulance there, so if something like that had happened, probably would have bled to death before hanging out.

[14:27] Ruben Gonzalez: And then my sled that’s flying over him, he somehow slid right under it and it didn’t hit him. So that was like, we had guardian angels. But when I fell, I landed badly on my elbow and dislocated my arm, and I’ve never done that before. I would have much rather have broken my arm. It would have hurt more, but it would have gotten well faster.

[14:50] Ruben Gonzalez: Dislocation, you know, tendons and ligaments, they take longer to cure. So that’s it. You know, I’m, I’m, I’m done. And it was all negligence on part of the track. I mean, it’s ridiculous. That track has a bad reputation for being fairly easy. To do, but after the finish line, all bets are off. It’s really stupid.

[15:08] Ruben Gonzalez: So coach said, don’t take your first flight back to, to the States, stick around and then a few extra days, you got to grieve this, you have to let yourself go through all the different stages and take advantage of it. Okay. What can we take advantage of right now? Well, you can be at the track next to the different coaches and listening to what they’re telling the different athletes and in between.

[15:29] Ruben Gonzalez: You can ask questions and learn more about that part of the sport. And so I did. And, um, and now at this point, I’ve got a cast and I don’t know if I’m going to need surgery or not. In fact, I just found out today more than a month later, uh, almost six weeks later that I won’t need surgery, thank God, because I would have really set things back.

[15:47] Ruben Gonzalez: And so it pretty much robbed me of a month of training, which I need dearly to reach a level where I’ve never been before. I mean, the best I’ve ever been. About 45 in the world. I need to be 25 in the world to make it, but coach says I got a shot, so I’m not going to listen to my doubts. I’m going to listen to his knowledge and I’m going to submit to his leadership because he’s got fruit on the trees.

[16:10] Ruben Gonzalez: He’s done it. And so you, he says, Hey, I got a shot. Fine. What do we got to do? And came back and went from a cast to this big clunky brace. And then the brace came off and then starting to do exercises, you know, to get my range of motion because I could barely move my arm like this. It was stuck. And every morning when I woke up, even, even if I had been doing lots of stretching, it was back to 0.

[16:34] Ruben Gonzalez: 1, which is very disconcerting. Right. And, and the, the doctor said, it’s going to be like that for several months. Okay. Or you or it’s. pretty stiff in the morning. But every day I’m getting more and more range of motion and I’m doing different types of exercises and upping the weights and building it up.

[16:51] Ruben Gonzalez: And it’s, it’s atrophied incredibly. I mean, I got one Popeye arm and one wimpy arm now, but you know, it’s a matter of time. I’ve got to Popeye ize that other arm now, right? And we got a game plan. And in fact, today is about a week before. Christmas and uh, on my list of things to do is I gotta, I gotta get some track time in Park City, Utah, and I gotta get some track time in Lake Placid for January and for February.

[17:18] Ruben Gonzalez: And maybe I’ll go back, you know, there’s an East German track, old East German track, which is probably going to be one of the seven tracks in qualification, and I’ve never been there, so I need to go. down there and learn this track as well. So everything’s a challenge. And once in a while, you know, wrench gets thrown into the works and then you have to re regroup, right?

[17:37] Ruben Gonzalez: And the goal doesn’t change, right? You don’t move the goal. The goal stands, right? You just change the play. If the last play didn’t work. And you come up with a different game plan, but quitting is not

[17:47] Jim Harshaw Jr.: an option for the listener. I want you to understand this about your own life. You will face obstacles.

[17:53] Jim Harshaw Jr.: You will face setbacks, whether you’re trying to get the promotion or trying to start the side hustle or, you know, trying to run your first marathon, whatever it is. You’re going to have the same setbacks and same struggles. And if you’re, you know, an athletic minded man, you were an athlete at some point in your life or you’re a weekend warrior.

[18:09] Jim Harshaw Jr.: Now it’s the same in your athletic life. And it’s the same in your business life and your career and your health and wellness and your relationship. And Ruben, you sent me this video of you doing your arm rehab and you were saying this mantra over and over. And I was like, my goodness, Ruben’s so positive and it’s so great.

[18:27] Jim Harshaw Jr.: And then I thought to myself, wait a second. At the end of that run, like tell us about the emotion that you felt after that run after the accident when you’re waiting for your MRI results and you’re in the MRI and the pain you were going through, like, tell us about the lows and then I want you to talk about what mindset tactics and techniques you use or have used.

[18:52] Jim Harshaw Jr.: To get you out of that low to a place where you can actually move forward and start putting one foot in front of the other. I don’t know. Maybe you’re a little sort of naturally wired like this and it just came naturally to you, but I don’t think that’s the case. I think there’s techniques and actual things that you put in place to get you from the low point of anger, frustration, doubt, uncertainty to.

[19:18] Jim Harshaw Jr.: Okay. This thing’s still happening.

[19:20] Ruben Gonzalez: I had the crash and the crash, if I hit a rut at the right past the finish line and it threw me off the sled and the sled goes up ahead of me. And at that point, and it was my mistake, actually, I just missed a steer. I just need to touch my shoulder down just a little bit, the right shoulder.

[19:36] Ruben Gonzalez: And that would have kept me from hitting that wall, but I didn’t.

[19:39] Jim Harshaw Jr.: So, so you own that. Okay. So you said my mistake, you’re not fully blaming here. You’re taking some ownership.

[19:43] Ruben Gonzalez: If I hadn’t missed that steer, none of this would have happened anyways. So I’m mad at myself because I’m banged up. I’m not hurt, but I’m banged up and I’m just mad at myself and I’m kind of yelling at myself.

[19:55] Ruben Gonzalez: I’m talking right. Bad stuff. As I walk up to try to get up to the sled, I pick up the sled and I’m still in my head like that. And. Then I hear somebody shouting, but it didn’t process, right? It just didn’t, because I was still thinking about my crash. I just hear something and the next thing I I feel I’m in the air and boom, as soon as I got up, my arm didn’t work.

[20:15] Ruben Gonzalez: I mean, it was just straight. It was straight and it wouldn’t move. And I knew, I knew, okay, I either broke it or, or dislocated it. And, uh, I’ve never dislocated anything before, so I didn’t know how that scenario popped up, but I thought, okay, it doesn’t hurt like it usually does, but I can’t move it. And at that point you see me in the video.

[20:34] Ruben Gonzalez: You know, damn, believe this, you know, now it’s anger at them, right? Because they didn’t do their job as an air traffic controller. I was probably texting his girlfriend or something. We had, I had to wait for about 20 minutes till another coach was able to pick me up and take me to the hospital in Innsbruck.

[20:49] Ruben Gonzalez: And then his, the GPS was giving him wrong directions. We, it took us a long time and seems like every bump you really feel. And then we finally go to the hospital and I’m sitting in the waiting room and everybody must have thought I was. I was some kind of a spaceman my, my speed suit, right? And my booties, I mean, I’m dressed like a luge guy and they just, I’m just sitting there, everybody’s dressed normal and they’re all looking at me.

[21:12] Ruben Gonzalez: I realized that, but then it went away cause I’m, it’s starting to hurt now. And then I don’t know how long it was. And then they take me in and then they had to reset it, which was scary. Cause I heard that that is hurts more than anything. The lady gave me a shot. No, she gave me some like a serum, right?

[21:27] Ruben Gonzalez: Intravenous. Figure out how much I weigh. Uh, figure out what will kill me and just back it off a bit. Okay. Cause I don’t want to, I was terrified and then they gave me some shots on top of that, and then they hung it up like this and they’re pulling and they’re putting like a five pound weight down and they’re pulling this way and I’m just inching my body because, you know, cause it hurts right now, the two other people started pushing me that way.

[21:53] Ruben Gonzalez: And finally it went in, it went like a, it made a little sound like a, like a suction thing, like, And the pain went away. It was amazing, right? I couldn’t move it, but at least it didn’t hurt. And then they put a cast on and off I went and I knew that I have to rehab this thing. And I’ve always believed that.

[22:15] Ruben Gonzalez: If you cheat on the rehab, then you’re really cheating yourself longterm. And I’ve always mouthed that to everybody that gets hurt, you know, do whatever, whatever the therapist tell you, do it. Okay. Don’t skip anything. Otherwise you’ll be, but now I was on the receiving end of the advice. Right. And so I had to put in place some things to make sure that I did my rehab.

[22:36] Ruben Gonzalez: Right. Which kind of goes back to what you were asking. And so, for example, one of the things, finally, after a while, I had a bungee and I was able to start working it like this, right? To, to try to, to strengthen the triceps because the triceps holds the elbow together, a lot of it. And so I got to strengthen that tricep.

[22:56] Ruben Gonzalez: And with every motion, I would say to myself, trust the process, trust the process, trust the process. That was just like trying to Hypnotize myself to become a robot that’s going to do the process, right? If in doubt, he’s going to do the process. And I did that for about two weeks. And after about two weeks, I didn’t have to say it anymore.

[23:16] Ruben Gonzalez: Cause I was already, I hung all my bungees close to where I would walk by them many times during the day. So, you know, out of sight, out of mind. So I had it every time I went by, I would do a few. And then I would watch videos too. I thought, okay, well, maybe the, this therapist, he’s not a sports therapist, right?

[23:31] Ruben Gonzalez: I, I need to look for some advanced fast stuff. And so I found some extra exercises that I could do. And the idea was, the main thing is I got to get my arm to where it will completely extend so I can lay down in the sled and in January, you know, I’m not going to have the strength to do a full pool.

[23:48] Ruben Gonzalez: Because it could, it could dislocate again. I mean, everything has to be, you know, uh, strengthened, right? Everything that holds it together has to be strengthened. But, you know, you do what you can with what you have. No excuses. So in January, hey, if you guys have to lay me down, put me on the sled and shove me, at least I can practice driving, right?

[24:06] Ruben Gonzalez: That was the attitude. I just got to get back on the sled and back on the horse, right? Back on the sled. And then at the end, I, I, I didn’t even think I knew, well, how am I going to break? Cause you’re supposed to sit up on the sled and you hold on the front and you. Lift it up. And that was all things that I thought that I wouldn’t be able to do.

[24:21] Ruben Gonzalez: Well, we’ll figure it out. We’ll figure that solution out later, but I got to get on the sled. And so yesterday and every day I’m getting a little bit closer to where I need to be. It’s funny when I go shower, you know, and I’m washing my hair, it’s like this hand is starting to wash parts of my head that it couldn’t wash before.

[24:38] Ruben Gonzalez: Right. And, and that means, well, Hey, I got more mobility. This is awesome. And yesterday I laid on the sled. And I fit right. I finally first time that I fit, but it hurt because it was, it’s not really straight yet. And so it was putting pressure on and it hurt, but I am improving every day. So I have no doubt that I’ll get past that point.

[25:00] Ruben Gonzalez: And maybe in a week, maybe in 2 weeks, I’ll be. Back to where I can lay down. So I’m very impatient when you’re the one that got hurt, especially as an athlete, you want to be well right now, not next week, but I, so I constantly have to tell myself, look, you’re getting better every single day. You’re, you’re doing things you couldn’t do yesterday.

[25:22] Ruben Gonzalez: So, so don’t whine about that. Just trust the process, trust the process.

[25:26] Jim Harshaw Jr.: And so you shared a few things I want to point out to the listener. First of all. Whenever you couldn’t train your coach said, just watch, I do what you can do. I used to always tell wrestlers when I was coaching wrestling, you know, if you’re injured, become a coach, walk around the room, went during practice and watch your teammates, evaluate them.

[25:42] Jim Harshaw Jr.: And what would you say if you were their coach, you know, watch film, do all the things that you can do. If you can’t do the thing because you’re injured or laid up or otherwise can’t participate. Do what you can do. And there are some other benefits to doing those things because you’re not maybe doing those as much when you’re full go.

[26:00] Jim Harshaw Jr.: And you said, trust your coach, right? You trust your coach. So for the listener, like, who are you trusting? Like, who is outside of you helping you see your blind spots? You know, you’re in on the inside of the jar, trying to read the label. Like who’s on the outside of the jar for you, helping you, guiding you, telling you what to do.

[26:14] Jim Harshaw Jr.: And then Ruben, you mentioned you put the bands where you can see them. And when you’re doing the bands. You have a mantra. You’re saying these things over and over. So these are for the listener. Can you put the book, that sales book or that course that you’re taking, or you want to take, you want to sign up for to get that new certification or boost your game and your career, whatever it is.

[26:32] Jim Harshaw Jr.: Like, can you put those things in front of you? Ruben puts his bands where you can’t, he can’t miss them. He walks by them all the time. And he’s saying his mantra. So for the listener, like what words are you saying to yourself? Are you saying the words that you need to hear? You know, the words that you need to hear.

[26:46] Jim Harshaw Jr.: And to be honest, our default, usually in our head is not the right words. It’s saying this hurts. This is no good. This is a setback. I, you know, I’m losing track time or whatever that version is for you and your head for the listener. You have to correct those and say verbally out loud, the right words.

[27:03] Jim Harshaw Jr.: Now, Ruben, you also have a couple of other things. You show you held up a magnet. Tell the listeners about a magnet. You owed me a few minutes before the

[27:10] Ruben Gonzalez: recording. Yeah, so I got a, I got a floor owner and so I made a couple of magnets, right? It was a big old man, cost me, I think, 25 bucks. All right. And so now I got racing stripes, right?

[27:21] Ruben Gonzalez: I got a racing number 55. That’s my number five Olympics in five decades. And I’m from Argentina. That’s my flag Cortina. That’s where the track would have been if they had built the track. I’m actually might go out and, and, and redo this sort of where it says, uh, Milan, because Milan’s the main, and I got two of them.

[27:37] Ruben Gonzalez: This is on the side of the door. So the driver’s side. So every time I enter the car, I see it, right? I mean, it’s another imprint and I see it in front. Cause it’s, I got another one in front, you know, on the. So I do things like that. I’m a big reader, just like, like Jim. And so I make these bookmarks, right?

[27:55] Ruben Gonzalez: Total commitment. No regret. I love that. Right? You give it your all. You’re not going to have any regrets. Right? Then whether you make it or not is out of my control, but I can control how much I can commit. And so, if I make it, great. If I don’t make it, at least I can still look at the guy in the mirror when I’m brushing my teeth, right?

[28:12] Ruben Gonzalez: Instead of looking at my shoes. I got another one that says, oldest winter Olympian. On the back, it’s got a picture of me sliding. I got a bunch of them with different, these are my favorite ones. When I first Called as a 21 year old, I called Lake Placid to ask them, you know, if they would help me to luge, right?

[28:28] Ruben Gonzalez: Actually, right before I called them, I wrote Sports Illustrated. I asked them, where do you go learn how to luge? I didn’t even know that. They wrote me back and they sent me this picture of a guy in a luge. This is a copy of it. The original is right in front of me. Uh, in my office, I put it on the frame right in front of my bed.

[28:45] Ruben Gonzalez: First person I saw in the morning was the luge man, right? So he reminded me, Hey, I’m going for the Olympic, got to eat, right? Got to work out. Got to read good books, right? For the mental side. And at night before I shut off the lights, you know, it’s the last person I saw, the luge man. So that’s what I dreamt about.

[28:58] Ruben Gonzalez: I keep it. That’s all I think about. Jim’s been my house and it’s like an Olympic museum around here. I’m bombarding my brain. Where I want to go. If I daydream, I daydream Olympic. And I’ve had people, you know, small minded people, whiners and complainers say, You’re just a fanatic. When somebody like that calls you a fanatic, you know what that means?

[29:19] Ruben Gonzalez: It just means you’re a little focused, that’s it, because they don’t understand focus. I guarantee you, your coaches are not going to say you’re a fanatic. They’re going to say, That’s right, keep doing that stuff, baby. Don’t think about anything else, just think about Milan, 2026, five and five. So when I’m walking into the opening ceremonies, unless, if they give me the flag, great.

[29:35] Ruben Gonzalez: But if not, you’re going to see me doing this. Five and five, five and five. I put a five on my palms. I didn’t have to get myself excited, okay? But it built up. It just built up naturally, because, you know, this excitement. For

[29:52] Jim Harshaw Jr.: the listener who’s tuned in right now and loves what you’re saying. First of all, for the listener, I hope you follow Ruben’s story now.

[29:59] Jim Harshaw Jr.: It’s absolutely incredible. And we’ll have Ruben’s social media links and how you can find them, follow them, et cetera, in the, at the action plan. But Ruben, for the listener who’s saying, I love, like, this is awesome, but I’m not shooting for the Olympics. I’m shooting for. The vice president’s role or the CEO, you know, becoming a CEO, I’m shooting for my first million or my hundredth million or whatever it is in their life.

[30:24] Jim Harshaw Jr.: What advice do you have for them to take what you’re talking about here in sport and apply it to their life?

[30:32] Ruben Gonzalez: It all applies. I mean, it all applies. I used to tell my kids when they were growing up, we homeschooled our kids I didn’t want them to have all this pressure because of what dad had done, right?

[30:45] Ruben Gonzalez: And so i’ve told them a million times look don’t you ever think you need to be an olympian to please me Okay, you got to figure out what your dream is and i’ll hook you up with the right persons It doesn’t even have to do anything with sports All right I mean you could be a gold medal teacher or you could be a gold medal entrepreneur or a gold medal Engineer and so you just figure out what?

[31:07] Ruben Gonzalez: Where you want to win your gold medal and I’ll hook you up with the right people. And you’ve been one of the right people. I mean, you helped Grayson. Our son did started wrestling as a freshman in high school. And he made it to state because Jim would, would help him out with, you know, through, through online coaching.

[31:25] Ruben Gonzalez: I mean, how cool is that? So it applies, you know, you figure out who’s already done what you want to do. Who’s become that president, right. Or who’s made that 1 million or whatever it is. Yeah. Find that person, take them out to coffee, right? And just pick their brain. And successful people, they like to talk about success.

[31:43] Ruben Gonzalez: They just do. And they’ll be glad, you know, I guarantee you, Elon Musk, he was probably the black sheep in his family because everybody thought he was weird because he was so out there. And nobody ever understood him. And he just felt like, uh, he was a misfit, right? Most high achievers are. And now, Somebody calls them up that wants to be just like them.

[32:03] Ruben Gonzalez: You think you’re going to take that call? Yeah. Yeah. Finally, somebody understands me. Heck yeah. But don’t call them if you just want to learn. Okay. Cause the way you impress successful people is action, action, action. And when you reach your goal, you just going to make them feel like a million bucks. You just might make a best friend too.

[32:21] Jim Harshaw Jr.: For the listener. We’re talking to a guy who walks the walk. He’s not just accomplished all this in sport, but go to his website, ruben gonzalez. com and you’re going to see that he has testimonials from. People like Lou Holtz and Stephen Covey and Zig Ziglar and the biggest names out there. You know, Ruben’s recognized in those circles as an elite performer, not just in sport, but as a speaker and as an author.

[32:52] Jim Harshaw Jr.: Ruben, your most recent book is The Shortcut. Absolutely incredible book for the listener. I encourage you to check out the book because a lot of Ruben’s so called quote unquote shortcuts here are in the book. You want to learn from the best? Buy the book. Ruben, where can they find you, follow you, buy your books, etc.

[33:10] Ruben Gonzalez: Uh, Amazon, best place to get the books. I haven’t gotten around to recording it in Audible yet. So you’re gonna have to read it, but it’s a quick read and it’s packed with tons of tips. So Amazon for that. If you want to watch my speaking videos. Or if you’d like to, uh, you know, inspire your team to, you know, to, to reach the next level, just Reuben, R U B E N Gonzalez with a Z at the end.

[33:32] Ruben Gonzalez: Just remember Zorro, no S’s in my house. com. And, you know, when I speak to a group, my background was copier sales. So I do lots of sales kickoffs amongst other things, but my goal is to do for my audience what Scott Hamilton did for me. Take the excuses away and put me in a place where I’m ready to face those fears that we’re holding them.

[33:54] Ruben Gonzalez: And when you face your fear, you know, when you do what you fear nine times out of 10, it was just a smokescreen where you realize, Oh my gosh, that was easy. Well, now you’re a new level. Ruben,

[34:03] Jim Harshaw Jr.: thanks for sharing your wisdom once again. Thanks for coming on the show. Great seeing you. Same here. Take

[34:06] Ruben Gonzalez: care, man.

[34:07] Ruben Gonzalez: Thanks for having me.

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