Reaching as High As You Can, Every Day of the Week: An Interview With Wisio Co-Founder Adam Frank
It’s national “Reach as You Can Day” — admittedly a rather obscure holiday and yet one which made me immediately think of Wisio’s co-founder Adam Frank (@adam_frx): tech entrepreneur by day, and a real life Ninja Warrior by night.
Adam studied Computer Science in university and received an MBA. After years of taking a more relaxed approach to fitness, he found himself applying to the 2019 season of Ninja Warrior following a bet with his friends. He was accepted, and suddenly needed to cram months of training into days.
He trained with Itay (@itay_ptrainer), an athlete he found on Instagram. As Adam reports, “I told him that I was willing to do anything and he gave me a few things to work on and I did my best. I had a lot of luck at the time. And then I fell in love” with Ninja Warrior and eventually climbing. “It’s like a toy playground for adults,” he gushes. “It’s amazing and sophisticated and changes all the time and is versatile and unique.” Adam loves that the sport is extremely challenging and dynamic. “I love being in the air and the adrenaline and the rush, as well as the feeling of truly being strong.”
Adam embodies the act of reaching as high as you can in whatever you do and in all areas of your life. Read my full interview with him below to learn his take on getting ready for Ninja Warrior, true strength, and how to approach life when you’re lacking motivation.
LI: How did you get into Ninja?
AF: It started as a bet with my buddies. They were making fun of me that I had gained a lot of weight during the past few years. We talked about the Ninja Warrior show, and I said to them, “I chose to gain the weight and if I chose to, I could join Ninja.”
They said no way, so I said, “want to make a bet that if I signed up, I could get onto the show?”
I lost 25 kilos and got into the show the following year. [I didn’t start training in advance] and the show called and wanted me to come for an audition the following week. I was sitting with [my Wisio co-founder] Idan when they called to invite me, and Idan said, “you? Ninja? You need to know what you’re doing.”
Why Ninja? How Did You Start?
I found this great guy through Instagram called Itay. I told him that I was willing to do anything and he gave me a few things to work on and I did my best. I had a lot of luck at the time. And then I fell in love.
I had tried working out in the gym but it was so boring and monotonous and repetitive, and I couldn’t stick to it. Through Ninja, I started climbing — and climbing is just a whole different world. It’s like a toy playground for adults. It’s amazing and sophisticated and changes all the time and is versatile and unique. Extremely challenging and dynamic. I love being in the air and the adrenaline and the rush — a feeling I couldn’t get from running or a basic workout. The more I climbed and did Ninja, the more I realized the sport covers 100% of your body — you can’t do Ninja without a strong body and mind.
Since it’s a relatively new genre, there’s also a fresh, lively, supportive climbing and Ninja community, unlike for many other sports that are a little more individual.
What does training for Ninja Warrior look like?
I don’t train for Ninja, I train for myself, and I want to be the best Ninja. I realize once you train for something and that something doesn’t appear, you get disappointed and discouraged so for me it was really important to train for myself and not for anything external. Because of that, I tend to focus on different things at different times. I’ll have a climbing sprint or a Ninja sprint or a core sprint, and I do that over and over again and become better and better because everything is related. Eventually, all of these will make me a better Ninja. The fact that you don’t know what you’re gonna get [in the competition] requires you to be the best athlete, and that’s why I do my sprints from month to month.
What’s your favorite exercise?
My favorite thing is flying through the air and being very dynamic — if you mess up a single part of the sequence, you’re out.
What’s the farthest you’ve flown?
3.7 meters from bar to bar.
What does “reaching as high as you can” mean to you?
Whatever I do, I do on the best side I can. I never take responsibility for something I won’t be able to do properly. This reflects on all areas of my life: I won’t start a business if I won’t be able to do my best. Same things with sports. Relationships too — I have a very small circle of people I care about, and I give them my best.
If I don’t have the mindset to be as good as I can, I’m not gonna do it. A lot of times I start working out, but if my body tells me to rest, I just stop. I always listen to my body.
I take this motto to every aspect of my life and people feel it. I filter — I don’t do too many things, but the things I do, I do well. People will give their best to you when they feel that you give them your best. I don’t do it because of that, but it’s a very pleasant circle.
What does doing your best mean?
The best you can doesn’t mean the absolute best — and that’s extremely important. Everyone should do the best they can and not compare themselves to anyone else — and only compare themselves to their “yesterday me” and disconnect from looking at others. The only way to be our best is to compare ourselves to yesterday and be 1% better — multiply that by years and you’ll be amazing.
How do you choose, set, and reach your goals — athletically, personally, and professionally?
Athletically: If I know I want to get into the Ninja Warrior show, I break it down into things I have to cover, and then I build a workout plan and make sure I’ll be wherever I need to be. I don’t have “a single goal”, but rather micro-goals. I write down all my workouts and achievements and then I come to it and revise once a week or two, and try to break a record, and be just a little bit better.
That said, my #1 goal is to have fun and feel good, and the best way to reach that is to see my improvement. And the way to do that is to document everything and prove it. (Read more here).
Personally: I don’t have any goals besides being happy. In order to maintain that, I try to take a step back every once in a while and see if I’m pleased with where I am. If not, I really try to adjust and shape my life to be the way I’d like it to be.
Professionally: Within a startup, you have many goals. We break it down and reverse-engineer for medium and long-term goals according to the milestones we need. If we know we need to raise 1 million dollars, we need to reverse engineer — who will give us 1 million dollars, and what do they want to see? How do we build a product?
Being flexible is key and the name of the game. Always keep your eyes open to market, your position, your competitors. Remember, goals are set to be changed. While we always have a goal, it can change within days, weeks, months because that’s the only way to be an adaptive, breathing company.
What do you do when you lose motivation?
Understanding you’ve lost motivation is the first step, and then you have to understand why. Don’t make excuses. Sometimes it’s solvable and sometimes it requires more intervention. Maybe you just need to understand you need a vacation if you’re worn out. Or the conclusion could be you just need to keep going — maybe I have no motivation, but I know it will be worth it and I know what’s coming because there is a bigger goal or achievement or dream that’s just around the corner.
Other times you lose motivation because you don’t believe in what you are doing, and you need to understand why, because if you don’t believe in it, others won’t either.
When you lose motivation, it’s a good time to take a step back and understand why — without fighting the feeling. For example, Idan and I lost motivation three years ago with our previous product. We realized that something didn’t make sense and so we decided to figure it out. We saw the company had a few issues, and realized that if we solve a few things, it will get better and we’ll get our motivation back — and that’s how Wisio came to be. Once we got aligned, everything changed.
So losing motivation is good — but you have to understand it and fix what needs to be fixed — big or small. Don’t fight it. When you ignore it, that’s when bad things happen.
Any tips for someone who wants to start Ninja Warrior?
Just start. That’s the best tip.
Of course, I could give you a million tips. But just start. You’ll figure out what your strengths are, what you like and don’t like. You’ll never know how you’ll be until you try it yourself.
Another tip — start climbing because there are so many qualities that will be helpful for Ninja.
The last, but most important tip — enjoy! If it’s not fun — it’s not for you!
