Dan Pollock

Humility is the key to attaining your goals; not greed or ego. David Goggins, a triathlete, ultramarathoner and retired Navy SEAL, is often nicknamed "the toughest man alive" or "the world's toughest man" for his extreme athletic feats. But behind closed doors, David revealed in his memoir, his father was a cruel tyrant who brutally beat his children and their mother on a regular basis. When David was 8 years old, his mother left her abuser and took David and his older brother to her parents' house in rural Indiana. But their new life in Brazil, Indiana, was a struggle. On top of the family's poverty, Goggins experienced academic and social problems in school. He was bullied and admitted cheating his way through his classes. Then, in another tragic milestone of his young life, his mother's new love interest -- a kind man who could have been a stable, loving stepfather to David -- was shot and killed in front of his home. While still in high school, he later took the Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery (ASVAB) and failed, earning only a 20. “From then on, I brainwashed myself into craving discomfort. ... As a result, I became tougher. And being tough and resilient helped me meet my goals," he wrote in his memoir. Goggins was finally accepted into training with the Air Force Pararescue Team, but after he enrolled, he was diagnosed with sickle cell anemia and had to drop out. He could have returned to training later but decided not to, mostly because he so disliked the swimming aspect of it. However, he did complete training for the Air Force Tactical Air Control Party and served as a member of the TACP from 1994 to 1999. Goggins' Navy SEAL training is legendary. After his Air Force stint, it took him two years to reach his next goal of becoming a Navy SEAL. His weight had ballooned, and he was 297 pounds when this dream took root. Plus, he was getting older, and at the beginning, he had a hard time even getting a recruiter to talk to him. Yet eventually, he graduated from Basic Underwater Demolition/SEAL (BUD/S) training with Class 235 in 2001 and was assigned to SEAL Team 5. But he had to endure three Hell Weeks before getting there. At the time of his first Hell Week, he suffered a stress fracture and came down with pneumonia. He wanted to try again, but his second Hell Week was scrapped for him because he fractured his kneecap. Yet he tried again two weeks later and made it through. After completing BUD/S, Goggins and his SEAL team deployed to Iraq just a few weeks after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. "In 2004, he was the only SEAL in his class to graduate from Army Ranger School," according to the VA. The part of the Ranger creed that says "my country expects me to move further, faster and fight harder than any other soldier" seems custom-made for Goggins. Goggins was searching for a way to make a difference after the tragedy of Operation Red Wings in Afghanistan in 2005. Twelve Navy SEALs were killed, and Goggins knew each of them personally. "I wanted to find a way that I could raise money for their families," he told the U.S. Navy's All Hands publication. In July 2006, he finished the Badwater 135 in Death Valley, California, in fifth place. He has raised more than $2 million for the Special Operations Warrior Foundation.