Review: The Spartan Way by Joe De Sana

I guess it’s inevitable: You write your first book about how to get people off the couch to get fit, you write the second book about how that fitness can better people’s lives, then your third book has to be about being “mentally fit”.

That’s the progression Joe De Sana takes in The Spartan Way, which is very reminiscent of the career arc of Martin Rooney (who started out coaching MMA fighters and is now giving tips on making presentations). He provides guidelines for living your life to its best, with chapters on concepts like Integrity, Grit, and Finding Your True North (in other systems, like Mark Divine’s, who is quoted a few times in this book, called Finding Your Why).

This is most likely going to sound like a negative review here, so I want to make sure to put this in its context: This is overall a good read. The concepts make sense, and you could definitely pick up some tips – for example, I had never heard of the Eisenhower Matrix before, and since I always have a problem delegating work I’m going to try to implement it in my job. I also think that if you followed all of the tips and did all of the assignments contained wherein you could live that much better – especially if you currently find yourself in a tough situation. If nothing else, you could be more like Joe De Sana.

And that’s one of the problems: do you really want to be more like Joe De Sana? There’s no doubt Joe is successful, and started something that not only brings millions (like me) happiness but also (like me) identity – but how far do you want to go? Joe starts out the book praising the mobsters in his childhood neighborhood for instilling him with a work ethic. He also mentions several times how he likes to move his family overseas every year with little notice or preparation, just because it will bring them adversity. In one of the strangest admissions in the book, he noted that when his wife was in labor for the first time he purposely parked a mile from the hospital and made her climb the stairs, just to demonstrate grit (um, Joe, she’s giving birth). Is that the kind of person you want to take advice from? As I just read in a piece from Dan Harris, life is all about overcoming challenges and obstacles, but don’t you also want to enjoy the ride?

On the other end of the spectrum, when you drill down, nothing here is new – nothing here is anything that you wouldn’t hear from Mark Divine, Tim Ferriss, Martin Rooney, etc. All these “I made it, so can you!” have systems for living that pretty much boil down to the same things. They also raise the question of if they are successful BECAUSE of their systems, or if they are people who followed those systems who became successful. Joe is a perfect example of this: he poured so much of himself into making Spartan successful, but does his Grit and Integrity matter that much if we don’t have an obstacle-course boom (during which Spartan was only the second- or third-most popular during the early period)? Did he really “want it more” than the people who started Battlefrog?

Again, I don’t want to totally knock this book – you can definitely learn a couple useful things, and if you’re currently in a hole this could definitely lift you up. But if you’re already pretty balanced it’s not going to be as life-changing as Joe seems to think it should be.

Kinda-sorta recommended: Six out of ten hot dogs