Shay Eskew: Burn Survivor with scars over 65% of his body, Best Selling Author, Ironman, Team USA Member

Do you believe that anything is possible? This week’s amazing guest, Shay Eskew, has proven that it is.

As an 8-year old, Shay was severely burned on over 65% of his body and was told he could never be a competitive athlete. Now, several decades later, he lives life to the fullest and has a relentless “never quit” attitude.

Shay is a team builder, coach, mentor, RCM authority, market disruptor, motivational speaker, best-selling author and proven sales leader. He’s a high-energy innovator, entrepreneur, and has successfully built and sold multiple companies. 

He has achieved multiple world championships, and after enduring nearly 40 surgeries, Shay is a 4-time IRONMAN, 4-time member of Team USA, 25-time IRONMAN 70.3 athlete, is ranked in the top 1% of IRONMAN worldwide, and has competed in 11 triathlon World Championships in 7 countries on all 6 continents. Equally impressive, Shay is the proud father of 5 children under 13. Shay’s life is overflowing with blessings.

• I felt close to God before the race, but He was not there during the swim.

• My wife will stand at the exit of the swim and tell me how many women beat me out of the water.

• I was accidentally set afire by a neighbor’s kid at age 8, and burned over 65% of my body.

• At the University of Tennessee, I never lost a wrestling match.

• I was inducted into the National Wrestling Hall of Fame.

• Thank God that doctors told me I’d never play sports. That was the best thing because it pissed me off enough to prove them wrong.

• Many times, pain is just a state of mind.

• When I started walking in the hallway of my school – there was complete silence.

• If people are gonna make fun of me, I’m gonna beat ‘em to the punch.

• There’s no reason to blame society. You just gotta make the most of it. You just gotta ask yourself what else can I do that I never thought possible?

• The hardest thing is watching your kid suffer knowing you can’t do anything to fix it.

• The more chances I’ve taken, the more time I put myself out there, the more opportunities have presented themselves.

• Everything I went through prepared me for who I am in life.

• On a campus of 30,000 people, nobody looked like me. They remember who you are.

• We all struggle, we all face adversity, we’ve all been tempted to quit. We’ve all said God, why me? How am I gonna get through this?

• Once you know that somebody else has not only been what you’ve been through, and not only survived but thrived… That’s Impactful.

• The things that we cherish are the things we bust our butt to get.

• Everybody’s out there racing. It’s not to win, but to finish. To finish is to win.