A downtrodden young black man with a bleak future reinvents himself as a Navy Seal and as an accomplished ultra-runner by becoming obsessed with facing his fears, admitting his shortcomings and developing techniques to cultivate a “callous mindset” that allows him to overcome a slew of physical and mental hurdles. While it’s a supposedly true account of transformation, Goggin’s story is told with such over-the-top intensity and recounts such an enormity of hard-to-imagine feats of physical endurance, that it’s easy to dismiss his claims as exaggerated or untrue. I believe him. Goggin’s outsized ego is only matched by the massive chip on his shoulder about growing up with an abusive father, coming from a broken home and bearing the burden of being a person of color. His bravado knows no bounds and he’s constantly dropping in Cliff’s notes of his resume. He brags equally about incredible accomplishments (running 101 miles in less than 24 hours) and the stupidity he exhibits while attempting the accomplishment (not training to do the 100 miles). There are innumerable examples in the book that use this incredible/incredibly stupid pairing. And his discipline and commitment are both admirable and repulsive – his daughter appears to be an afterthought in his life and his two ex-wives merely assistants to help him on race days. It’s clear by the end of the book that Goggins lives a myopic, sad existence that fully revolves around physically accomplishing what others can’t – and everything else in life be damned.