20. Cycling the Elevation of Mount Everest, Completing Teach for America, and Structuring Goals with Matthias Wuest
"Efficiency was born out of necessity and privilege." This week's guest is Matthias Wuest, a gifted math teacher and endurance athlete. After graduating from Northwestern University with a mathematics major, Matthias went on to work for Teach for America and completed a 70-mile triathlon. Now, he lives in Rwanda and teaches for a company that aims to empower students to apply to universities and create opportunities through global education. Recently, Matthias has accomplished a feat known as Evest-ing, in which he cycled for over 15 hours until he reached the cumulative elevation of Mount Everest. That is a 29,000 ft vertical elevation climb over 165 miles. We discuss how he prepared for such a challenging task, as well as his powerful motivation for embarking on this journey. This episode shows that if your "why" is big enough, anything is possible. We also dive into the importance of structuring non-negotiables, setting supplementary goals, and balancing different types of focus.