We all face moments when life doesn’t go according to plan. The job we thought was guaranteed slips through our fingers. The carefully constructed vision of our future suddenly crumbles. Those moments of rejection—where we feel stuck, unworthy, and like we’ve completely failed—can either define us or refine us. For many feeling lost after college or during major life transitions, these painful moments of rejection might actually be the redirections we need to build the life we’ve always wanted.
When Kyle Coon graduated college with his communication degree, he approached the world with what he describes as arrogance. Armed with early success and a supportive bubble of encouragement, he expected doors to open automatically. Instead, rejection after rejection culminated in a humbling moment—being turned down for an entry-level grocery store position. “I felt like a failure and a loser,” Kyle candidly admits. “I have a bachelor’s degree in communication. I wrestled in college. I had been a group exercise instructor in college… And I was just like, it seems like the most difficult part of this job is asking someone if they would like paper or plastic. How can I not do this?”
That painful moment became a catalyst for change, pushing Kyle to reclaim control of his life in one small area—his physical fitness. Little did he know this single decision to lace up running shoes would eventually lead him to become a two-time Paralympian, complete multiple Ironman competitions, and build an inspiring career as a professional speaker and athlete.
His journey raises compelling questions about how rejection can redirect us toward our true path and purpose. What happens when we reach rock bottom? How can feeling stuck actually unlock opportunities to break free from others’ expectations? And is it possible that our greatest setbacks might lead to our most meaningful transformations?
When the Bubble Bursts How To Navigate the Gap Between Expectation and Reality
Many of us grow up in supportive environments where we’re repeatedly told we can accomplish anything we set our minds to. While this encouragement builds confidence, it can create a false sense of how the world operates once we venture beyond our bubble.
Kyle’s experience mirrors what many college graduates encounter. “Throughout growing up, it didn’t feel challenging,” he explains, “because I was surrounded by people that constantly told me, you can do anything if you just put your mind to it.” This support system, while well-intentioned, didn’t prepare him for the harsh realities of the job market, especially as someone with a visual impairment.
The transition from academic achievement to professional rejection can be jarring. Kyle’s college experience—graduating in three years with a communication degree—fed his confidence. The popular narrative of the time (around 2013) further supported his outlook: “The popular thing was the young hotshot tech entrepreneur or person that did not either finish college or never went to college… You didn’t need a college degree to be successful. You just needed tenacity and to think differently and to get out into the world and make stuff happen. And that’s what I felt that I was.”
This disconnect between expectation and reality creates the perfect storm for feelings of failure and unworthiness. When Amy Stone asked Kyle to describe his emotions after being rejected for the grocery store position, his answer was painfully honest: “I felt like a failure and a loser.”
This moment of clarity—recognizing that something needed to change—became a pivot point in Kyle’s journey. It’s often only when we hit these low points that we’re willing to reconsider our approach and open ourselves to new possibilities.
How One Small Decision Can Change Everything
When faced with overwhelming challenges, the path forward often begins with a single, manageable step. For Kyle, that step was addressing his physical fitness—perhaps the only aspect of his life he felt he could control after a year of professional rejection.
“The one area that I figured I could work on was at least getting my body back into shape,” Kyle explains. “And basically the only thing I could afford to do because I had no money was run.” This humble beginning—simply putting one foot in front of another—would eventually lead to extraordinary achievements.
The power of starting small cannot be overstated. When Amy asked how Kyle found his running mentor, his response revealed both resourcefulness and vulnerability: “I was really just sitting on the couch one day and I was like, what can I do right now? I guess I could run. But how does a blind guy run?” A simple Google search led him to United in Stride, an organization that connects visually impaired runners with sighted guides.
This single decision—to run despite not knowing how—set in motion a series of events that transformed Kyle’s life trajectory. His first running partner, who was training for an Ironman, suggested Kyle try triathlon. Kyle’s response captures his newfound openness to challenge: “That sounds absolutely awful. How do we start doing that?”
What begins as a simple effort to regain control in one area of life can unexpectedly open doors to opportunities we never considered. Kyle’s experience demonstrates how embracing small changes with determination can lead to profound transformation. By focusing on what he could control rather than dwelling on rejections, he created momentum that carried him toward a new and fulfilling path.
From Corporate Ladder to Paralympic Dreams
Our definitions of success often come from external sources—family expectations, societal norms, or the cultural zeitgeist of our formative years. Kyle initially measured success by conventional standards: “At the time I thought the definition of success was climb the corporate ladder and have a really well paying, well respected job.”
When Amy asked whether he would have pursued endurance sports had he landed a corporate job after college, Kyle’s response was telling: “I don’t think I pursue Ironman or marathons or anything like that… at that time.” This reflection highlights how our perceived failures often redirect us toward more authentic paths—ones we might never have discovered otherwise.
The interview reveals a fascinating evolution in Kyle’s definition of success. From the young college graduate who applied for “every job, CEO and above” to the elite athlete who embraces the triathlon community’s self-deprecating mantra: “Why suck at one sport when you can suck at three?”
This shift reflects a deeper transformation—from external validation to intrinsic fulfillment. Kyle describes himself as an “accidental elite athlete” who simply “poured all of [his] energy into learning endurance sport and getting better at it.” This dedication to improvement rather than status ultimately led to greater achievement than his original path might have allowed.
The story raises important questions about our measures of success. Would Kyle have found the same fulfillment climbing the corporate ladder? Or did rejection force him to discover a more authentic path? As he notes, many people don’t reconsider their definitions of success until their “30, 37, 40 year old” crisis prompts them to sign up for an Ironman—by which time they’ve potentially spent decades pursuing someone else’s version of success.
Lessons in Resilience and Innovation
Kyle’s journey as a visually impaired athlete offers powerful lessons in adaptation and resilience. His approach to overcoming obstacles demonstrates how constraints can spark innovation and create unique opportunities.
When faced with the challenge of running without sight, Kyle didn’t simply accept limitations—he sought solutions. “I just googled how does a blind guy run?” This straightforward problem-solving approach led him to resources that made his athletic career possible.
The interview details the creative adaptations that enable visually impaired athletes to compete: tethers connecting runners, tandem bikes with sighted pilots, and sophisticated communication systems for swimming. As Kyle explains their swimming method: “We have a bungee cord that wraps around my upper thigh and my guide’s upper thigh and we swim side by side… We have a series of tapping systems that allow us to communicate.”
These adaptations highlight how challenges often prompt innovation. When conventional paths are unavailable, we’re forced to find creative alternatives—sometimes discovering better approaches in the process.
Beyond physical adaptations, Kyle demonstrates psychological resilience. When asked what advice he would give his younger self, he shared wisdom from his triathlon coach: “Keep it stupid simple, do simple well and do simple better.” This philosophy—focusing on fundamentals and continuous improvement—applies far beyond sports.
Kyle elaborates: “In whatever pursuit that I was looking to do… don’t half ass my way through job applications. Have a high standard and do it really, really well. And then when you think you’ve done it really, really well, just continually get better at it. Because there is, at the end of the day, there is no best. There’s only better.”
This mindset—embracing challenges as opportunities for growth rather than insurmountable obstacles—transforms potential limitations into unique strengths.
Finding Purpose Through Redirection
When life doesn’t go according to plan, we face a choice: remain stuck in disappointment or embrace the unexpected alternative. Kyle’s journey exemplifies how redirections—even painful ones—can lead to more fulfilling outcomes than our original plans.
What began as a desperate attempt to “fix” one small aspect of his life evolved into a career that combines athletic achievement with inspirational speaking. Kyle has transformed his experiences into a platform that helps others navigate their own challenges. His story demonstrates how our greatest struggles often become our most powerful contributions.
The interview reveals a striking contrast between Kyle’s initial career aspirations and his current fulfillment. When Amy asked about his childhood dream job, Kyle noted: “Back in middle school, probably, I wanted to be a professional speaker, which, funnily enough, now I am.” This full-circle moment illustrates how rejection can sometimes redirect us back to our authentic desires—ones we might have abandoned in pursuit of conventional success.
Kyle’s experience suggests that our most painful moments often contain the seeds of our greatest growth. Being turned down for that grocery store job might have seemed like the ultimate failure, but it created the space for Kyle to reconsider his path and reconnect with more meaningful pursuits.
This perspective shift—viewing rejections as redirections rather than failures—can transform how we approach setbacks. Each closed door becomes an opportunity to discover a window that might better suit our unique gifts and circumstances.
The Courage to Begin Again
When we feel stuck, unworthy, or like we’ve completely failed, starting over requires tremendous courage. Kyle’s story reminds us that transformation often begins with a single step—even if that step is simply getting off the couch to try something new.
His journey from rejected job applicant to Paralympic athlete didn’t happen overnight. It began with a Google search, continued with a 15K race, then a marathon, and eventually led to international competition. Each step built upon the last, creating momentum that carried him toward a life he might never have imagined.
The power of Kyle’s story lies not in its exceptional outcome but in its accessible beginning. He didn’t need special connections, substantial financial resources, or extraordinary talent to start running—he simply needed the willingness to try something new when his original plan failed.
This willingness to begin again—to reclaim your time and energy, to break free from others’ expectations, to live life on your terms—is available to anyone facing disappointment or rejection. The path may look different for each person, but the first step remains the same: choosing to move forward despite uncertainty.
Kyle’s advice to “keep it stupid simple, do simple well and do simple better” offers a practical framework for anyone feeling overwhelmed by life’s challenges. By focusing on fundamentals and embracing continuous improvement, we can transform even our most painful setbacks into stepping stones toward a more authentic and fulfilling life.
Whether you’re facing professional rejection, navigating a significant life transition, or simply feeling stuck in your current circumstances, Kyle’s journey reminds us that our lowest moments often precede our greatest transformations—if we have the courage to begin again.
This article was inspired by a thought-provoking interview with Kyle Coon and Amy Stone on The Art of Imperfect Adulting podcast. To hear more compelling conversations like this one and receive special offers from our guests directly to your inbox, join our email community today.
Interview Transcript Kyle Coon with Amy Stone | The Art of Imperfect Adulting | June 18, 2025
Amy Stone [00:00:04]:
Kyle Coon, welcome to the art of imperfect adulting. Are you ready for a fun chat?
Kyle Coon [00:00:09]:
I am always ready for a fun chat.
Amy Stone [00:00:12]:
I suspect that about you, I really do. So I start every single interview asking my guests where they call home. Tell us where you, you are today, where you live.
Kyle Coon [00:00:22]:
Oh, my goodness gracious. Wherever I lay my head is home kind of these days. But I’m calling in from Victoria, British Columbia where my, my, my partner lives full time. And then I also live part time in Colorado.
Amy Stone [00:00:41]:
Very nice.
Kyle Coon [00:00:42]:
Wherever, wherever I lay my head is home basically these days.
Amy Stone [00:00:45]:
All right, very nice. So in a second we’re going to talk about the, the official topic that you proposed for the interview. But I’m going to ask one more warm up question. So to give the audience a chance to get to know you a little bit better. Tell us me in the something that’s a hobby or a passion or something you really enjoy that’s not related to family or work, but something that you enjoy doing that is not related to family or work.
Kyle Coon [00:01:12]:
Oh, something that’s not related to family or work. And that’s a tough one because my work has basically what I enjoyed became my work. But if I was to go outside of the, you know, the, the realm of, you know, adventure sport and you know, swim, bike, run, you know, rock climb, ski, all that, all that kind of stuff that I, I now do for a living, I would have to say that playing the game of chess is one of my favorite things to do.
Amy Stone [00:01:47]:
Very nice. All right. That is completely different. I love that you shared that. So when you like to play chess, do, do you like the online like Chess.com like the apps and things like that or how do you like to play?
Kyle Coon [00:01:59]:
I prefer to play people in person. So actually most, yeah, I have one, I have one friend that I play basically just about every week. You know, he comes over to, comes over to the house and we, we have just an epic like three or four hour game. Game of chess.
Amy Stone [00:02:19]:
Very nice.
Kyle Coon [00:02:20]:
So it’s, it’s, it’s a ton of fun but, but I absolutely play online. You know, chess.com is my, is my, is my go to app that I, I play, I play against the computer. I play some of the, some of the short, you know, 15 to 30 minute games. Not really a tournament player but, but no, just, just something that I’ve, I’ve really enjoyed doing. I’m terrible. But it’s, it’s just, it’s a fun, it’s a fun thing.
Amy Stone [00:02:46]:
We have to, exactly, we have to have things in our life that we’re not doing as a part of competition. I have a nephew who’s very interested in chess, and this is unrelated to the interview, but within the last couple of years, we were at a family member’s house who had a very modern decorative chess set that’s been on display for probably 20 years. And no one’s played. And so the pieces had. No one has been paying attention. It’s just really out for display. The pieces are, they’re shifted around. And this kid sat down and he’s like, these are not in order. But then we had like a whole group effort to try and figure out what these very modern shapes were in terms of the pieces, because it’s like, well, wait, is this a, is this a bishop or what is this? Because they were not. They were super, super nondescript. But that was a pretty, pretty funny thing. All right, so we’re, what we’re going to talk about today is not actually chess, but we’re going to talk about a shift that you went through after college. It’s a decision that you made to work on yourself. And you shared that with me in the intake that when you graduated from college, you describe yourself, you wrote this, not me, arrogant and with the mindset of, I’m going to apply for every job, CEO and above. But within a year, you were turned down to work at a grocery store. And that is what shifted to getting you to work on fixing your life. Does that sound like something you want to talk about today?
Kyle Coon [00:04:18]:
I mean, I absolutely am always willing to bear my, bear my soul in that, in that regard. Because if people can learn from, from my mistakes and my choices and decision making process, then I am all for it. To help people make better decisions and to learn from my experience.
Amy Stone [00:04:40]:
That is absolutely one of the reasons I seek out these stories. I think that it’s really, really helpful to know because when we all go through various phases of our life where we think we know what we’re doing, we think we’ve got it covered, and then if it doesn’t go the way we expect, we really can internalize it. But if you talk to people who have different experiences, so this is one of the big ones, a lot of people think that they’re going to be off to the races after college, and then when they go through it, a lot of stuff can shift and doesn’t work out. Let’s start with this. What did you study? What was the coursework that you studied when you were in school?
Kyle Coon [00:05:16]:
Yeah, so I Actually, I studied interpersonal organizational communication, which is a really fancy way of saying that I could write decent research papers and I could speak to groups large or small. And I had chosen that because, number one, I had been doing quite a bit of writing and stuff. At some point I wanted to chronicle my life in some type of memoir or autobiography or something along those lines. So I figured communication would help me in that regard. I had also done, you know, I had been on stages speaking, you know, just about my, my experiences as a, as a totally blind, you know, rock climber, downhill skier, and just overall adventure athlete. And so I figured that, you know, the, you know, the art and science of communication could help me in, in that regard. And, you know, I had already been on. Been interviewed for some major, you know, television and, you know, news programs and, you know, been on national television a handful of times. You know, so I like, I was, you know, relatively confident in myself and people had always told me that I was extremely articulate and that if I studied communication, I would become even more so. And so I went into college actually, already with, I went in with, I think it was like 30 or so credits of college credit already just from AP and dual enrollment coursework. And I was one of those few students that didn’t change their major over the course of, of school. And so I actually, you know, I entered, you know, college two weeks after I graduated high school and graduated in almost, you know, exactly three years. So blazed through it relatively quickly. And yeah, I was just, I rolled into the world. You know, it was. This was back in, you know, 2013. So at that time, the, the popular thing was the young hotshot, you know, tech entrepreneur or person that did not either finish college or never went to college or, you know, you didn’t need a college degree to be successful. You just needed, you know, tenacity and to think differently and to get out into the, get out into the world and make stuff happen. And that’s what I felt that I was.
Amy Stone [00:08:07]:
All right, that’s very fair. So 2013, that absolutely was a vibe at that time. That was, that’s around. That’s when a lot of those stories were coming out. Like, people were like Warby Parker and companies like that that were, you know, people were dropping out of school with these amazing, successful, innovative products. So if you and I had been friends when you were younger, like, if we’d been friends in like middle school, and I had asked you what you wanted to do when you grew up, what was the job you wanted to do, what Would you have said.
Kyle Coon [00:08:40]:
What Would I have said that? I don’t know what I would have said, because I really wasn’t sure, you know, you know, back in middle school, probably, I wanted to be a professional speaker, which, funnily enough, now I am.
Amy Stone [00:08:57]:
I was gonna say. I was gonna say that’s pretty spot on, given the. Given the circle of. Of your trajectory there. All right.
Kyle Coon [00:09:05]:
Yeah, like, so I, like, you know, I mean, look, as a. As a. You know, if you had asked me when I was, like, five, six years old, I wanted to be a, you know, professional. You know, a professional basketball player.
Amy Stone [00:09:16]:
Right.
Kyle Coon [00:09:17]:
You know, growing up, you know, and then, you know, going totally blind and actually only winding up being 5 foot 11 and a guy who can. Whose vertical jump is about three inches. Not happening. So I shifted from that to.
Amy Stone [00:09:33]:
That’s definitely a part of the evolution of people growing up. So if you talk to kids when they’re little and they, you know, first of all, they only know famous things. So they fireman and fireman, policeman, movie star, ballerina, basketball player, baseball player. And their concept of their own personal greatness is so amazing at that point. You know, they’re just. They can always win. And it is. It’s a little bit sad as an adult to watch when they come to this realization. So one of the kids in our family, when he was young, he was positive. He wanted to be Derek Jeter when he grew up, he wanted to be a New York Yankee. And I remember the day when he was like, well, why isn’t everyone professional baseball player? Why doesn’t everybody do this? And it’s the realization that not everybody grows into it, not everybody can become it, but it’s, you know, it’s part of our. Part of our evolution as people and. And figuring out what that is. So we’re going to talk a little bit more about this, but since you brought it up, I want to make sure that everybody listening and watching is all on the same page. You do have a visual impairment. Um, you lost your sight when you were a young child. Do you want to tell us, like, the highlight of that so that everybody knows what you’re dealing with?
Kyle Coon [00:10:53]:
Sure. So I was diagnosed with a rare form of eye cancer called bilateral sporadic retinoblastoma when I was 10 months old. And basically, I. I went through five or six years of pretty intensive cancer treatment. You know, every time I went in, you know, we. We would kill the cancer, but then it would come back stronger than ever. And eventually what had to happen was I had my Left eye removed when I was 5 years old and my right eye just before I turned 7. So that left me totally blind and fortunately cancer free as well. So grew up. So I had some usable vision in the first five, six years of my life. But basically from the time I was about 7 years old until now, I have, I have been totally blind.
Amy Stone [00:11:44]:
All right, so that definitely makes some of the things that you do and you accomplish, it throws them into a different light. So when you were. So you lot, this was, this is your lived experience from when you’re a young kid. And so this is a crazy question to ask because it’s one of those things where it’s a question first. I did not live this experience, and many people living, listening and watching, watching have not lived this experience. But as somebody who is going through, living life in a world where many, many people around you have sight and you’re living without sight. When you were a new college graduate, when you were in high school, when you were thinking about your future, how would you say that you thought that your vision impairment would impact your choices?
Kyle Coon [00:12:32]:
Well, throughout, you know, growing up, it didn’t feel like, you know, it didn’t feel challenging, you know, because I, you know, I was surrounded by people that constantly told me, you can do anything if you just, you know, put your mind to it. And, you know, basically I was uberly and ultimately very successful as a, you know, as a teenager and as a very young adult into college. I, you know, had great grades, had great, you know, developed great friendships. I was a, you know, decent, I was a decent athlete. And I was just, you know, my head was filled of, you know, everyone telling me how amazing I was and that I was going to be, that I was going to be successful. And, you know, I, you know, I knew that, you know, being totally blind, it was going to affect my, you know, I, you know, I, I knew it was going to affect the choices I, you know, I, I made eventually. And it was going to affect how I was perceived in the, in the greater world because I, I lived in this little bubble of people that, you know, believed in me. But, you know, it’s, it’s hard to wrap your mind around, you know, how small your bubble is until you expand it just a little bit. And, you know, you know, when, once I got out into the world and, you know, I’m applying for, you know, job after job after job and, you know, going, you know, quickly getting interviews and going on, going on interviews and then immediately just being rejected, you know, even though you Know, the, the qualifications and all that say differently. You know, I, I definitely started to, to wonder and question myself and started a downward spiral.
Amy Stone [00:14:41]:
Okay, that’s fair. That’s very fair. I, When I wrote that question, I was pretty sure it was. I think it is. It’s a. Two sides of the same coin. Like, people are very curious about what it’s like. And then it’s the same kind of thing where you ask somebody, you know, if you don’t have any other experience, how could you know anything else? So it’s both sides of that. So I wanted to give it a try. But I totally get that. So I think you’re, what you’re saying. I wanted to ask you about your perception of where this sense of overconfidence came from, but it’s sounding to me like what you’re saying is that you think that it might have started in the fact that you had such a secure, supportive group of people, your bubble around you. Like, where do you, where do you think that the sense of overconfidence started for you?
Kyle Coon [00:15:29]:
I mean, it definitely started with, you know, the, the people that I surrounded myself with. You know, I was always surrounded by extremely successful people, you know, that pushed and challenged me. And ultimately I, you know, I, I felt that I was successful, you know, already, you know, it’s, it’s really, you know, it’s, it’s really hard to, you know, tell, you know, to tell a totally blind, you know, 21 year old or to, you know, convince myself that, you know, after when you, you know, go and, you know, speak on an international, you know, convention stage at 12 years old and, you know, just about skiing and rock climbing and all that, or when you, you know, are invited to, you know, national competitions as a totally blind rock climber who, you know, who competes against sighted kids when blind rock climbing wasn’t even a thing, you know, or, you know, when you’re like, when your idea of fun is, you know, what other kids are, are, you know, are like, ah. I like, you know, my idea of fun is, is, you know, going out and, and driving around town with my friends and, you know, my idea of fun is, hey, I like, I’m gonna, you know, go to Africa and climb Mount Kilimanjaro. Like, you know, just it was a different level, you know, and then just everything, most subjects and stuff that I worked on in school and all that, I, I just, I was relatively good at, like, it nothing like I was challenged, but it didn’t over stress me at all. And like, it was just, you know, I didn’t, I didn’t have a Midas. It wasn’t like that. I had a Midas touch. But, you know, I never was pushed and challenged to the extent that, you know, I, I, maybe I didn’t push myself to overcome as many things as I, as I thought. And, and so that, you know, all the successes that I had led me to believe that it doesn’t matter. Like, I’ll just, I’ll succeed at, I’ll find something to succeed at. Um, it was interesting.
Amy Stone [00:18:03]:
Yeah, I would say that, that is, I would say you’d had nothing to show you otherwise. So that makes sense. So when did the passion. So you talk about rock climbing. You did that as a kid. You have done other things too. Okay, so rock climbing, you have climbed Mount Kilimanjaro. Um, and you also are a two time paralympian in multi sport. In triathlon, I think.
Kyle Coon [00:18:30]:
Yes.
Amy Stone [00:18:30]:
Yep.
Kyle Coon [00:18:31]:
Correct.
Amy Stone [00:18:31]:
When did the passion for endurance sports and adventure sports, when did that start?
Kyle Coon [00:18:38]:
So the passion for adventure sport started when I was very young. So my, my mentor is, is a guy named Eric Weinmayr. And I met him when I was about, you know, eight years old. And you know, he was, you know, at the time he wasn’t as famous as he is now, but he was a, you know, he’s a totally blind adventure athlete, downhill skier, skydiver, mountain climber, rock climber. And a few years after I met him, he became world famous for being the first blind man to climb Mount Everest. And so he actually encouraged me at a very young age to try rock climbing. And that’s when I, I got into competitive rock climbing. And then that spiraled off into hiking, backpacking, downhill skiing, all those kinds of, all those kinds of things. And then the love and passion for endurance sport in particular came after, came actually in about 2014. And that was what kind of pulled me out of this, you know, downward spiral that I was, that I was in after college because, you know, I was basically, I was a year removed from graduating. I was deep in debt. I, you know, had gone in and applied to be a bag boy at a grocery store and was turned down for it. And once you experience that, it’s like, you know, maybe I’m, you know, it basically was the, the slap upside the head that I needed saying I am actually, you know, right now I am not successful and I need to figure something out. And so the, the one area that I figured I could work on was at least getting my body back into shape. And then, you know, basically the only thing I could afford to do because I had no money was run. And so I started running. And the guy that I wound up running with, I told him that running was stupid because I was struggling with it. And he said, yeah, running is stupid. You should do triathlon. And I said, cool, what’s that? And here we are over 10 years later.
Amy Stone [00:21:04]:
All right, so that’s the timeline. So you had done downhill skiing, winter sports, rock climbing before you went to college. Then it was after this. I love this story. All right, very good. So you, so you go, you graduate from school and you’re looking for a job, and it’s not working out the way that you want it to. You go into the grocery store job and you don’t get that when that happens. So you were just talking about that. I want to ask you to go back to that day where you’d been looking for a job for a year. You were spiraling and you knew it. Grocery store packer job is. Is definitely considered, you know, an entry level job. It’s a right. It’s a one that pretty much my kids have done that as, you know, a first job. Right. Because it’s like, easily trainable, that kind of thing. When you did not get that, can you think back and describe how you felt in that moment in just a couple of words? Not as a way to judge you, but as a way to sort of describe it to the listeners? And for anybody who’s in a spot like that, feel like camaraderie with. This is. This is how it feels.
Kyle Coon [00:22:18]:
Look, I felt like a failure and a loser. I just, to be quite, you know, honest, Frank, I felt like a failure and a loser because I was like, I have a. I have a bachelor’s degree in communication. I have, you know, I was, you know, I wrestled in, you know, I wrestled in college. I had, you know, I had been a group exercise instructor in, in college, you know, so, like, it’s not like it was, you know, my first ever job. And, you know, and I was just like, like, it seems like the most difficult part of this job is asking someone if they would like paper or plastic. How can I not do this? And why am I being told I can’t do this? Yeah. And so, like, at that point, yeah, I felt like a failure and a.
Amy Stone [00:23:04]:
Loser, which is not a good way to feel. Fair enough, fair enough. But I think that it’s worth talking about because if you are. When I refer to the time after I graduated from college, I sometimes say I’m like, I approach this with the confidence that you can only have when you’re 24. You don’t know any better. So it definitely is a point. But I think that if we proceed through life and we don’t think that there will be moments where we’re like, oh, my gosh, I am not doing well and we’re not ready for it, that makes it even worse. All right, so you turn your attention to fixing your life. And you already said this. What that meant to you at the time was getting back into physical shape. How did you find the mentor that you were running with who turned you on to triathlon?
Kyle Coon [00:23:50]:
So I, Yeah, so I, like, I was really just sitting on the couch one day and I was like, what can I do right now? Like, I, you know, I. I can’t join a gym because I, like I said, I don’t have any money. So I, I guess I can. I guess I could run. But how does a. How does a blind guy run? And so I just googled how does a blind guy run? Okay. And, you know, came across how, you know, people who are totally, you know, visually impaired or totally, totally blind, how they use people who are sighted guides to call out obstacles, and they use these run tethers and all that. Eventually, I came across this website, this brand new website called United in Stride. And it basically was a tool where you could plug in your zip code and people that were like, yeah, I’ll volunteer to be a, you know, a guide runner for someone who’s blind or visually impaired if they want to get out and walk, hike or, you know, run or something like that. And I plugged in the zip code where I lived, and I expanded the search a little bit to, like, you could search within a 5, 10, 20, 50 mile radius. And I expanded the search and I think at the time there were only like two people that, that showed up in the list of results, and you could contact the person through the website. So I sent them, sent them both an email. One of them responded, and I basically said, beggars can’t be choosers, and arranged to meet up with this guy, told him, basically, yeah, I’ve never run. You know, I’ve not really done a whole lot of running in my life. So we’re just going to make this up as we go along. I have no idea what we’re doing. And he was, he was like, yep, okay, sounds good. And, yeah, we just, we went on a run together and we, we did a. We did a few runs together and just you know, I didn’t really have anything else to do. And he was in the process of training for his, I think it was his 9th or his 10th Iron man triathlon at the time. And yeah, he later told me he was like, I just, he was like, I just wanted someone else to, you know, to train with and keep me, you know, and hold me accountable so that I actually finished all my, you know, my training for Kona. And so that’s why he threw out the idea of, hey, you should, you should do triathlon. And I was like, cool, what’s that? And then he just, you know, he laid out for me what it was and I was like, well, that sounds absolutely awful. How do we start doing that?
Amy Stone [00:26:48]:
That sounds terrible. What time? Exactly, Exactly. I have a shirt that says that on it from my triathlon days. I said, that’s a horror. It says that’s a horrible idea. What time?
Kyle Coon [00:26:58]:
Yep.
Amy Stone [00:26:59]:
Which is really sort of the mantra of long course ironman training.
Kyle Coon [00:27:05]:
It certainly is. And I will say I definitely, after a handful of years I embraced also the mantra of why suck at one sport when you can suck at.
Amy Stone [00:27:15]:
I will say it does do that. United In Stride is a wonderful organization for anybody. I’ll put a link for that in the show. There’s varying degrees of co captaining and piloting with sighted and non sighted partners. You were a Paralympian, which requires a very specific set of skills for the person who’s with you because you’ve got pace needs and you’re going for goals. And then there’s also people who are looking for more sociable, local type things. So there’s a lot of, a lot of options for people to volunteer.
Kyle Coon [00:27:53]:
Oh yeah, yeah, yeah. You know, and I, I do have to point out that like at, you know, when I, when I initially heard about United Stride and I, and I joined up and all that, I was not an elite athlete. I, I was not, I was not a Paralympian. Like I, I, I call myself an accidental elite athlete. Yeah, because I just, you know, I had the time on my hands and I just, I poured all of my energy into learning, learning endurance sport and getting better at it. And you know, yes, eventually I did land, you know, land jobs and you know, have, have something resembling a, a desk job and a career for a few years, you know, but then accelerated my career growth in the, you know, in endurance sport and got, you know, got presented with opportunities to pursue that at a higher level and just grew from, grew from there.
Amy Stone [00:28:50]:
And so the, when you were working at. So this went from a. A very basic put one foot in front of the other turn, take control of the small piece of your life that you had to. You really built a personal brand and a profession around. Around this, I think. Tell us how it. Tell us how it went from reaching out just to put one foot in front of another to going to the Paralympics, to climbing Mount Kilimanjaro, to. I think you’ve done an Iron man or two.
Kyle Coon [00:29:22]:
I. I have done. I’ve done three Ironmans. So it’s. It’s actually, it’s. It’s funny because. So I did Kilimanjaro when I was 15 years old.
Amy Stone [00:29:31]:
Okay, so that’s earlier.
Kyle Coon [00:29:33]:
Yeah, so that was. So that was earlier. So I did Kilimanjaro when I was, you know, 15, you know, and that. And that was one of the things that lent itself to, like, I am successful because I’m the youngest blind guy to ever do kilimanjaro, like, at 15 years old. Like, you know, most, you know, most kids don’t even have their driver’s license or their learner’s permit at that point. And I’m climbing a, you know, one of the tallest mountain, you know, the tallest mountain on a continent. But the. The journey of, you know, going from, you know, a. A slob who, you know, felt like a loser and a, you know, a failure to, you know, making it to, you know, to two Paralympic Games started just by, you know, wanting to be consistent and get my. Get my body back into shape. And, you know, I. I set some. Set some goals. And once I started running, I was like, hey, I want to actually, you know, I don’t want to just do this for fitness. I want to set a. Set a goal. And, you know, my buddy was like, oh, well, there’s this random 15k road race that we can do in September. I was like, cool, let’s. Let’s sign up for that. I don’t know what a 15. I don’t know what 15km. I don’t know what 15k means, but yeah, let’s. Let’s go do that.
Amy Stone [00:30:54]:
What could go wrong? That sounds fun.
Kyle Coon [00:30:57]:
Yeah. So did that, and then we finished that, and he’s like, hey, you know, I think if you. If you ran a little bit more, you could actually, you know, finish the Disney marathon in January coming up. And I was like, awesome. Like, you know, marathon. That’s like, what, Just a little bit longer than we just ran yesterday. He’s like, yeah, just. Just a little bit longer.
Amy Stone [00:31:18]:
Just A little bit. It’s 42. So you went from 15k to 42km?
Kyle Coon [00:31:23]:
Like, yeah, something like that. But, but, but here was the kicker. He was like, oh, yeah, well, the Disney Marathon is at. Because I was actually living in Orlando at the time. And so he was like, oh, but the Disney marathon, it’s actually sold out right now. But I went ahead and signed you up for the Goofy challenge, which is the, which is the half marathon day before, and then, and then the marathon on the next day. So I was like, oh, so that.
Amy Stone [00:31:52]:
Was a long time ago because now I think the Goofy. No, wait, I’m sorry. So the Goofy is just the half and the full, and then they have the Dopey, which.
Kyle Coon [00:32:00]:
And then Dopey is the 5K.
Amy Stone [00:32:01]:
Dopey is everything. 5, 10, 13, 26. Okay.
Kyle Coon [00:32:03]:
Yep. Yeah. And you know, and most expensive 5K.
Amy Stone [00:32:07]:
You can ever do.
Kyle Coon [00:32:08]:
Yeah, well. And now. And now Dopey and Goofy sell out in like, you know, 10 minutes. Whereas, like, back then it was like, you know, we were able to like it. People weren’t quite as crazy about doing those, those challenges because everyone. And this was only like 2014, 2015. So it’s just amazing how much it’s exploded in the last 10 years. But yeah, my buddy Mike was like, yeah, well, I already signed you up for it. So I was like, oh, great. So I guess we’re doing this. And yeah, I just, you know, Mike and I ran together, you know, a bunch between, you know, in those next, you know, three, two, three months. And, and I, you know, completed. Completed both completed the Goofy Challenge. And after that, Mike was like, yeah, I think you have the, the fortitude to do, to do an Ironman. And, and then that’s when I kind of started, you know, training for triathlon. And over the course of a couple of years, I, you know, I did a couple of 70.3s or, you know, half Ironman distance races. I did a bunch of sprint and Olympic distance triathlons. So. And then in 2016, signed up for my, my first Ironman, which was at Ironman Boulder in Boulder, Colorado. And ground my way, you know, dragged my, my body through that and I, I finished it in just under 16 hours. And so for those people that don’t know what an Ironman consists of, it’s a 2.4 mile swim, 112 mile bike, and a 26.2 mile run. And it’s all. You have to do it all in under 17 hours. And so I finished Iron Man Boulder in just under 16. And I was like, that was the most awful experience of my life. I can’t wait to do it again.
Amy Stone [00:34:05]:
That’s so crazy. So 2016, you were in Boulder.
Kyle Coon [00:34:08]:
Yep. So I did know that. I did not.
Amy Stone [00:34:12]:
Yeah. So you and I did Ironman Boulder the same year. That’s crazy.
Kyle Coon [00:34:15]:
Wow. That is wild.
Amy Stone [00:34:17]:
That is crazy. So I’ve realized that we should backtrack here because there’s a thing that you and I both know that we haven’t shared with the audience, which is how it works when a non sighted runner is doing, is participating. So we talked about how you have a partner in this and sometimes you’re tethered to the partner when you run in triathlon. There’s a couple things. So the bike, right. You’re not on a bike by yourself, I don’t think. But are you on a tandem bike when you’re doing triathlon?
Kyle Coon [00:34:47]:
Yep, Yep. I’m on a, I’m on a, I’m on a tandem. My guide is, is up front. Steering, shifting, braking, also pedaling. That’s a, it’s a thing that everyone’s like, does the guide pedal as well? It’s like, yes, yes, they do. Yeah.
Amy Stone [00:35:00]:
Because otherwise you’d be pushing for two people. It would be unfair.
Kyle Coon [00:35:03]:
It’d be, it’d be, it’d be a lot.
Amy Stone [00:35:04]:
It’d be unfair. And that’s one of the things that is very interesting because you have to be about the same height. Height as the person who is, is the, is the, is your partner when you do that?
Kyle Coon [00:35:14]:
Yeah, ideally.
Amy Stone [00:35:15]:
Yeah, ideally. So I’m like, that usually knocks me out for being a pilot on the bike because, so, because I’m pretty short. But the, and then in the swim, how do you guys work together on the swim?
Kyle Coon [00:35:28]:
So it’s a lot of people do a lot of different methods, but the method that I, and most athletes now use is we have a bungee cord that wraps around my upper thigh and my guide’s upper thigh and we swim side by side. And when we come to turns and such, the, my guide will, you know, give me a tap on the shoulder, like double tap my back or double tap my shoulder. Or we have certain cues that we, that we have. Like if, you know, if my guide needs me to speed up, he’ll like tap the, you know, tap the back of my head. If, if he needs me to slow down, he’ll like tap the, you know, you know, tap me back near the, you know, tap me back on like my lower back or. So we, we have you know, a series of tapping systems that let me know that allow us to communicate.
Amy Stone [00:36:17]:
Very good. All right. Yeah, I so that, so that’s a very. So Ironman Boulder was not a good race for me. I am a sea level dweller. I do not do well in the dry air. I got completely dehydrated in the bike and right at about mile 105, I realized I was like, ah, I am overheated. And so it was a very long day for me. But, but we were there at the same time. So that’s a very, very interesting part of this story. All right, so do you think that you would have pursued these ambitious endurance challenges if you had gotten the job you wanted right out of college? Do you think that you would have found your way to these things or do you think that if you had gotten the job you would just gone, gone corporate and had a totally different life?
Kyle Coon [00:37:10]:
I, it’s something I’ve thought about quite a bit and I don’t think I pursue Ironman or marathons or anything like that. At least, you know, I don’t think that I do. If I had gotten, you know, a corporate job or you know, any job pretty quickly out of, out of college, I, you know, at the time I thought my, you know, the definition of success was climb the corporate lap, you know, climb the corporate ladder and you know, have a really well paying, well respected job. And you know, now I, I think a little differently. But no, I don’t think I pursue any of this at least at, at that time. You know, who knows? You know, who knows, maybe you know, 10 years into a, a court, you know, 10, you know, 10, 12 years into, you know, corporate career, maybe, you know, I start looking around, I’m like, ah, I need to, I need to change things up a bit. Like, who, who knows?
Amy Stone [00:38:15]:
That is, that, is that, that is the standard start time for the, is the, is the 30, 37, 40 year old. Oh, look, what should I do? I’m gonna buy a book and sign it for Ironman.
Kyle Coon [00:38:24]:
All right, exactly.
Amy Stone [00:38:26]:
If you could give your younger self, if you could go back now and give your younger self the recent college grad a little bit of advice based on what? You know now, like, so if you, based on the last, what are we talking, 12 years of experience since this all like, unfolded, what advice would you give your younger self?
Kyle Coon [00:38:48]:
I, you know, I would give myself the advice that actually my, my triathlon coach and, and my endurance coach that I’ve had the last, you know, six or seven years, you know, has given me, and that is to keep it stupid simple, do simple well and do simple better. And whatever that, whatever that means to my younger self, do it. So, you know, figure out how to, how to simplify things, not over complicate them, then do those simple things to a high standard. So, you know, in whatever pursuit that I was looking to do, you know, don’t half ass my way through job applications. Don’t, don’t, don’t half ass it. Do it. Have a high standard and do it really, really well. And then when you think you’ve done it really, really well, just continually get better at it. Because there is, at the end of the day, there is no best. There’s only better.
Amy Stone [00:40:01]:
All right, very nice, Very nice. Relentless forward progress. Yes.
Kyle Coon [00:40:09]:
Yep.
Amy Stone [00:40:10]:
Yeah. All right, so in a minute we’re going to do the final questions, but I want to give you a chance to tell the audience what it is that you do these days other than the endurance sports, if you want to share, and how they can connect with you and follow you online.
Kyle Coon [00:40:25]:
Yeah. So, you know, these days, you know, like you said earlier, I’ve built, you know, my personal brand around just being an endurance adventure athlete. So, you know, I’m still, you know, still racing a little bit here and there. You know, by the time this recording comes out, I will have done my, my third Boston Marathon, you know, this racing right there. Yep, racing the Boston Marathon in the, in the elite, in the elite field. So really excited about that. But then, you know, but I also do do a little bit of podcasting as well. Some of my, my paratraiathlon teammates and I from the, the last couple of Paralympic Games have, have launched a brand new podcast called the Resident Table. So by, again, by the time this, this episode comes out, it will, it will be live and you know, we’ll have at least four or five, six episodes up. So super excited about that. So you can search the Resident table on, on YouTube or all, you know, your favorite podcast platform of choice. And then I also, I, I do, you know, I, I do a lot of public speaking, whether that be inspirational or motivational speaking or speaking on applying high performance sport principles to our everyday lives. So, and you know, you can learn more about that by just, you know, reaching out to me. KyleCoon.com is, is the best way to get a hold of me. And if you want to just keep up with all of my, my various adventures, the, the best way is to probably just follow me on Instagram. And my Instagram is at Iron Kyle and that’s E Y E R O N K Y L E. Okay, very good.
Amy Stone [00:42:13]:
So I will put all the links to those in the show notes and that that’ll be wherever you’re listening to it. And also the easiest way for people to get those links because people listen to podcasts while they’re on the go, while they’re on the treadmill, while they’re doing a run. So be. Be a part of the imperfect adulting email community. And I send it direct to your email box and you can just click on the links and it’s easy peasy lemon squeezy. All right, Kyle, are you ready for the final three random questions?
Kyle Coon [00:42:41]:
Let’s do it.
Amy Stone [00:42:42]:
All right, so I have never been to Mount Kilimanjaro, but I know several people who have made that trip. I hear that one of the things that’s interesting about that trip is that the food can be very interesting. What is the craziest thing that you had to eat or drink on that trip?
Kyle Coon [00:42:59]:
On that particular trip? I don’t know if there was anything crazy that I had to eat or drink, but it was the first time that really experienced eating. Like this obsession with like hot dogs. For we had like these hot dog like sausages basically almost at every single meal. And so we started calling them tube steak. Just to call it. Just to have it be something different. But the most interesting or, you know, strange thing that I. I’ve ever eaten at. Well, at the time was. Was I did have guinea pig in. In Peru when I. When I did the.
Amy Stone [00:43:46]:
The.
Kyle Coon [00:43:47]:
Yeah, yeah. So. But that was. That was in. That was when I was in Peru back in 2006 or whenever that was. So. So that was before Kilimanjaro, But.
Amy Stone [00:43:58]:
But yeah, yeah, I have not. I have not eaten that. When we went.
Kyle Coon [00:44:02]:
It’s different.
Amy Stone [00:44:03]:
People say it’s different. When we went to. We saw that in Peru and in Ecuador and at the time we had household pets that were guinea pigs. And so it was off the option for my family. It was like, we do not eat our pets. For sure. Our guinea pigs have names, you know, so. All right, so technology sometimes gets a really bad rap. But what is a tool or a bit of technology that you would say improves your life and that you are actually very happy was invented.
Kyle Coon [00:44:32]:
The iPhone, I think is the absolute most wonderful, brilliant invention of all time. It is basically an extension of my right hand. So all Apple products now come with built in screen reading softwares. It’s called Voiceover. And so you can actually access it on any iPhone, iPad, iPad, touch or, you know, any Mac, you know, any, any Mac product, you know, any Apple product basically has voiceover built into it. And just with the wide variety of, you know, applications out there and stuff, it has made my life, you know, so much easier in terms of being able to actually text with friends and family, to being able to scan a, you know, a print document with my, my, you know, my phone’s camera and then, you know, having that translate into, you know, audible text. I, you know, I’m even at the, you know, we’re even at the point now where with, you know, I can, I can use my camera and, you know, be taking a video and ask chat GPT at the same time what’s going on around me in those types of environments. And, and it’s, you know, I, I think technology is just amazing. And that is amazing. I’m only, I’m only scratching, I’m only scratching the surface.
Amy Stone [00:46:02]:
So I’m very impressed. So differently, like Google Translate, when I’m in a place and I don’t speak the language, I find to be a tremendous. Oh, yeah, tremendous enhancement. But to put the visual spin on that where it’s telling you what it’s seeing, that’s, that’s mind blowing. That’s very, very cool. All right, so if you were a guest in my house and I offered you a choice of three snacks, the choices are a homemade chocolate brownie, a platter of fresh fruit, or number three, some salty, crunchy chips. Which do you choose?
Kyle Coon [00:46:33]:
All three.
Amy Stone [00:46:35]:
All right, answered like an ironman or a marathon. Marathoner in training. All the food all the time. Perfect answer. Perfect answer. That’s it. Kyle Coon, thank you so much for a wonderful guest today on the show.
Kyle Coon [00:46:49]:
Thank you, Amy.