Episode 207 The Blind, Deaf War Hero Who Ran 135 Miles | Aaron Hale on Resilience, Inertia, and Living a Life of Meaning

What’s Your Excuse — Really?

You’re tired. Business is hard. Life feels heavy. The goals feel far away. You hit the wall and you’re not sure you have what it takes to push through. Those feelings are real — and they’re valid. But what if the person sitting across from you had lost both his eyesight and his hearing in combat, rebuilt his entire life from scratch, then lost his balance and went deaf from bacterial meningitis, and then ran 135 miles through Death Valley in 120-degree heat — blind and deaf — just to prove it could be done?

What does resilience actually look like when it’s been tested at the absolute outer edge of human experience? And what can a blind, deaf war hero teach the rest of us about showing up for our businesses, our families, and our lives — even when everything inside us says stop?

In this episode, host Andrew Biggs sits down with Aaron Hale — EOD bomb technician, combat veteran, ultramarathoner, speaker, real estate investor, and podcast host — for one of the most powerful and humbling conversations in the history of the Better Than Rich Show. Aaron is the first blind and deaf person to complete the Badwater 135 ultramarathon — widely regarded as the toughest foot race on Earth. He lost his eyesight to an IED in Afghanistan, later lost his hearing and sense of balance to bacterial meningitis, and has spent every day since building a life of extraordinary meaning, adventure, and impact. His message is simple and undefeatable: there are no excuses — only reasons, and what you do with them.

🎯 Key Takeaways:

• Build inertia now — before you need it
• Replace excuses with reasons
• Choose your hard — deliberately
• Your best is always one step beyond the wall
• Your best is always one step beyond the wall

Chapters:

00:00:00 – Newton’s First Law of Kicking Ass: Why Inertia Is Your Greatest Asset
00:00:45 – Meet Aaron Hale: Soldier, Survivor, Ultramarathoner, and Real Estate Investor
00:01:56 – From All-American Slacker to Navy Cook to EOD Bomb Tech
00:03:26 – Deployed in Two Wars: How Aaron Found His True Calling
00:05:00 – The IED That Changed Everything: The Moment the Lights Went Out
00:07:43 – Stumbling on the Battlefield: What Aaron Did Next Will Stun You
00:08:20 – Walter Reed and the Verdict: Blind for Life
00:09:26 – From Victim to Victor: Building Bulletproof Resilience
00:10:44 – The EOD Mindset: Initial Success or Total Failure
00:11:30 – Leave the Tools Behind — But Never Quit the Mission
00:13:07 – Excuses vs. Reasons: The Culture That Separates Winners from Everyone Else
00:15:00 – Choose Your Hard — Because Life Is Going to Be Hard Either Way
00:18:35 – Newton’s First Law of Kicking Ass: Why Staying in Motion Changes Everything
00:20:00 – Bacterial Meningitis and Total Deafness: Rock Bottom, Round Two
00:21:59 – Badwater 135: The World’s Toughest Foot Race — Blind and Deaf
00:23:41 – Training in a Florida Garage Hotbox for Death Valley Heat
00:25:00 – The Last-Minute Curveball That Accidentally Gave Aaron an Advantage
00:26:49 – Hitting the Wall at Father Crawley: What to Tell Yourself When You Want to Quit
00:29:58 – The Hero’s Journey: Why Aaron Shares His Story With the World
00:31:07 – What the World Needs Most Right Now
00:32:39 – The Books Behind the Mindset
00:34:21 – What It Really Means to Be Better Than Rich

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