Suicidal Drug Addict To Elite Military Commando with Ben Williams | E68

Why am I at this point? And how the hell has someone died under my watch? (dramatic music) You can't even go and kill yourself. You can't even go hurt yourself. You're all fucking useless. (dramatic music) And I'm bel- beneath the surface, and you can hear the thumps overhead, like... (mimics thumping sounds) (dramatic music) And I turned around and looked at

Wow. This is the most gripping, inspiring, twisting conversation I've ever had on this podcast, ever. If you're squeamish, I'm gonna have to ask you to prepare. But even if you are, I'm begging you to follow this story. My guest grew up in a broken home, one plagued with domestic violence, with abuse, with heartbreak, and he moved to five, six, seven different schools as he stumbled through his childhood trying to find his way, trying to find out who he was, and then stumbled through his adolescence looking for purpose in life. And he was met with rejection, with pain, with confusion, with barriers. And as he spiraled into daily drug abuse, into addiction and into purposelessness, a job that he hoped would give him that sense of purpose ended in a manslaughter case. And this tragedy only caused him to spiral further. And as he reached the depths of his despair, he made that decision one day that he was going to leave his house, go for a drive, and end his life. For whatever reason, and thankfully, he didn't go through with it. And by fate or luck or faith or whatever you want to call it, whatever you believe, a short YouTube advert that popped up one day out of the blue would be the catalyst for him to pull himself out of his darkest, most desperate moment, to give up drugs, to overcome his mental challenges, to brush himself off, and to pursue his childhood dreams. He went from suicidal drug addict to elite commando, developing what he calls the Commando Mindset, a mindset and a set of values that you can learn. But his story doesn't stop there. His time as a commando is riddled with graphic violence, with heartbreak, with being injured by the Taliban while at war. He'll describe the moments after he was blown up, and turning around and seeing his friends laying there behind him in pieces, and losing some of those friends, being discharged from the military because of his injury, grappling with PTSD, finding comfort in alcohol and addiction again, getting himself in trouble with the law, finding him- himself in court, facing four years in prison, and then rebuilding himself once again, launching an incredible coaching company and working with elite performers, Harry Kane, Gareth Southgate, and the whole England team before they went off to the World Cup. And then the pandemic comes, and his coaching business collapses. But in typical Ben Williams fashion, adversity doesn't dictate his outcome. Thanks to the values ingrained in his Commando Mindset, he bounces back to launch an incredible tech company. What a wild, emotional, gripping ride you're about to go on. Honestly, congratulations for choosing to listen to this episode. Without further ado, I'm Steven Bartlett, and this is the Diary of a CEO. I hope nobody is listening, but if you are, then please keep this to yourself. (dramatic music) Ben, from doing this podcast over the last couple of years, one of the things that I've been reminded of, and, uh, an idea that's been reinforced in my mind is how important all of our childhoods are in influencing what we then become. And I studied childhood psychology between the age of like 16 and 18, and it blew my mind to understand, especially in those early years, how that sort of fundamentally shapes who we then become as adults. And it's, and it's, in some respects, often quite hard to shake.