And in the end, it’s not the years in your life that count. It’s the life in your years.
- Abraham Lincoln
“‘Hurt Yourself’ is the worlds first “self-hurt” book. As such it is the dialectic opposite of self-help books.” Thus begins an amazing tale of one man’s desire to live a life of adventure and fun. In the tradition of George Plimpton, author Harry Hurt III is in pursuit of action, danger, and a decent looking pair of swim trunks. In Hurt’s book Hurt Yourself, we are invited to tag along with the author as he engages in what he calls, ‘executive pursuits’, the 
notion of facing your fears with fun. His premise is that life is a high pain, low gain proposition, it can be just or unjust, but it always boils down to just us.
Hurt Yourself began as as a series of articles in the New York Times that chronicles the exploits of it’s author as he seeks adventure in the most unlikeliest of places. From buying a custom made suit in Chinatown to buying handmade jewelery for his wife, flying a vintage TF-51 Mustang or being a professional quarterback for a day. Hurt’s wry sense of humor and self is entertaining and engaging. It truly is a lot of fun…and it makes you want to embark on your own executive pursuits.
I’m following Harry Hurt on Twitter and I look forward to seeing his future exploits. And I have plans on having a few ‘pursuits’ of my own. I would recommend that you pick up a copy of Hurt Yourself and think about how your life would benefit from you being Hurt a few times.
QUOTABLES
- “Like death, taxes, and circumcision, shaving is also an inescapable fact of life for most males.”
- “What could be more real – or more necessary – than a lay preacher of an Eastern religion who has a Ph.D. in nuclear physics and the wisdom and humility to quote lyrics of a country-western singer?”
- “Overcome with joy, I realized that polo and pain had a lot in common – they both made you feel so alive even though you sometimes wished you were dead.”
- “Tuck forward, chill out, and wait for the Hands of God.”
