Strava Founder: How I Motivated 100 Million People To Stay Active: Michael Horvath | E148

We have reprogrammed our lives to be remote, and so, we are stuck in patterns that are really difficult to get out of.

I actually ... This, I don't know if I'm gonna get canceled for this. But I think that, um ... Michael Horvath, the CEO and co-founder of Strava.

With over 76 million athletes. You track your activities, turn those activities into a post, that's when the Strava magic happens. If you wanna be as good as you possibly can be, you have to strive to be the best. But can you be okay also with not actually achieving the goal of being at the top of everybody? Win or lose, that's the feeling you're looking for.

How are you doing in your personal life?

My wife was diagnosed with a terminal illness in September of 2013. I think I prepared a lot for how to live my life caring for her. I wasn't prepared for how to live my life when she was gone. I had to not rediscover who I am, I had to define who I am. That doesn't happen overnight. But if what you do every day is put a little effort into being kind to the people who are important to you in your life, and the complete strangers, then that's where you're gonna find the meaning.

So without further ado, I'm Steven Bartlett, and this is The Diary of a CEO USA Edition. I hope nobody's listening, but if you are, then please keep this to yourself. Michael, I tend to believe that people have, I know I eventually developed it, but I tend to believe that people have some kind of hypothesis as to what factors or experiences from their earliest years shaped them most significantly into the person they are today. Do you have a hypothesis like that?

I think I have several, starting with how my family felt. To me, being the youngest of, of the five kids in my family, felt like it was pulled apart by geography, uh, between Sweden and the United States at an early age. My sisters stayed behind when my family moved back to the States when I was five years old. And I had this, uh, dream to reunite us in some way. How could we re-, how could we be one family again? Um, now that my sisters were older, they were choosing to... It was the, the normal, maybe a few years early what, from what you'd say normally would have happened anyway, them deciding just w- where do they wanna live, who are they as people. And, but me, I was, I was this five-year-old and I was, uh, I was sad to, to lose my f- my sisters. My, uh, I had my brother with me. And, um, when you think about what are the most important things in your life, it's the relationships you have with people. Um, now, I'm not necessarily an outgoing person myself, so it's, I don't, that's not where this is, this hypothesis has led me. But it has led me to the idea of connection, deep connection with people you care about is super important for how you live your life, and the choices you make, and what you prioritize. So that was, that's the one, that's one theory. And then there's one other one, which is, I think, growing up, going through high school, coming to the United, first of all, coming to the United States not speaking English at the age of five and learning it all, you know, from television and getting thrust into school. And you have this, this feeling like you don't belong, you don't fit in. Uh, that just, that kept, you know, for many people, I think it keeps going, and you don't have that great sense of belonging until later, maybe until your teenage years or later, even into your 20s. But throughout all that time of searching and looking for something, like, uh, what I s- kept believing is that there's something inside me, a potential that needs to get realized. And I don't just think that about me now. I think that about every single human being on this planet. And, um, the aspect of what it means to realize someone's potential, your own potential, and then create the opportunity for the people around you to realize their potential, that drives me. That is something that I've, I feel like has been a constant in everything I've done since I've been about 25 years old.