#881: Tales of Overcoming The Odds, and How to Turn Losses Into Wins — Tim McGraw, Terry Crews, Dax Shepard, and More

**Tim Ferriss** (0:00)
Hello, boys and girls, ladies and germs. This is Tim Ferriss. Welcome to another episode of The Tim Ferriss Show. This is a special compilation episode about overcoming mistakes and failure. How do you take what seem like big losses, maybe career ending pitfalls, and turn them into even bigger wins later? We have a compilation of highlights from a number of different guests, and there's a lesson to be taken from each of them. What do you do when your work is rejected? What do you do when the big bet fails? What do you do when the path ahead suddenly disappears? You can't make your way through the fog. There are answers and tips for all of these.
As you'll hear in this episode, setbacks can often present opportunities, huge opportunities if you know how to look for them. We're going to span the gamut from BJ Miller, a triple amputee on his years-long quest to ride a motorcycle all the way to A Lion Tracker, and in between we got Tim McGraw, Dax Shepard, Cathy Lanier, Janna Levin, and others. It is an all-star cast, so without further ado, please enjoy.

**SPEAKER_2** (1:05)
First up, Dr. BJ Miller. Dr. BJ Miller is a triple amputee, long-time palliative care physician, co-founder of virtual palliative care service, Mettle Health, and co-author of A Beginner's Guide to the End.

**Tim Ferriss** (1:23)
Now, I hate to focus on something maybe superficial, but you said riding your motorcycle. I apologize if this sounds like a weird question, but you have three limbs that have been damaged. How do you ride a motorcycle?

**BJ Miller** (1:40)
So this was a long dream that recently came true.

**Tim Ferriss** (1:43)
Congratulations. I mean, it's awesome. I'm just so curious about the logistics.

**BJ Miller** (1:47)
Thank you. Well, it's interesting you ask because right now, the man who helped make this dream come true, Randy. Randy, he ended up being my patient and our resident at Zen Hospice Project, not long after he converted my motorcycle. So there's a lot to this story, my friend. So cheers to Randy and his family and his wife and his mother, Eleni who we'll be seeing next week actually. So that's one piece of this story. But the other is, I love two wheels, I love gyroscopic lifestyle, I love the feeling of it. So I've always loved riding bicycles.
And then I'd always wanted to get on a motorcycle, but I kept going to shops and people would look at me and no one got into it. I could never find a mechanic who was willing to take it on and try to help make it happen.
A fellow named Mert Lawill, who's an old motorcycle racer champion, well, sort of legendary in that world. He happens to live around here, he lives in Timoron and he built a prosthetic component. I don't know what the story that inspired Mert to do this, but he's a machinist himself and a handy fellow, and in his retirement he got into this business of building this prosthetic component that lends itself very well to mounting an arm onto a bicycle or a motorcycle. So the first piece in this puzzle was discovering Mert's invention and getting a hold of it myself, which allowed me to get my prosthetic arm attached to a handlebar in a very functional way.

**Tim Ferriss** (3:10)
So you have throttle, rear brake, and then typically front brake on the left. How are those controls modified?

**BJ Miller** (3:17)
Okay, so Randy, what he figured out, so first was to get the arm piece, and then what Randy figured out was, well, then Aprilia, and I know Honda had made a version of this as well, but Aprilia makes a model, the Mana, M-A-N-A, that is clutchless. So that was a huge piece to get out of the way. So this is essentially an automatic transmission.
So that do away with the clutch and gear changes. So that's a huge piece of the puzzle out of the way.
And then Randy figured out a way to splice the brakes, front and rear, in a certain ratio, into a single lever. So I'm doing nothing with my prosthetic feet, except to hold onto the bike. I'm doing nothing with my prosthetic arm, except for holding onto the bike. So all the actions in my right hand, brakes into one lever, and Randy built this box and moved all the controls, the turn signals, horn, and all that stuff, over to the right side of the bike, and good distance for my thumb to reach them. So I have throttle, a brake lever, and then the turn signal box, all going with one hand.