Jim Lucas turned his world class athletic talents, skills and experience into becoming a world class senior executive in silicon valley and further turned that same athletic edge into a world class teacher.

How can he do it? Learn below Lessons from Jim Lucas.

When I was training with my alma matter university San Jose State University in Judo, I was fortunate to see Jim Lucas train in his former years as SJSU SPARTAN WRESTLING CLUB coach, where he was named 5 times Coach of the year for the NCWAA.

What I didn't know was how exceptional coach Jim Lucas was in his life beyond the high perfomance in athletic untill I ran into him by accident as I was sharing wth him my mission to help high performing be stealth performer both on the court and off the court.

There are priceless lessons from Jim Lucas Life as an elite athelte and beyond an elite citizen and human being.

No one is born as high performer athlete, turning those gifts and skills acquired into every area of your life is a passion of mine said Jim Lucas; this is where the jedi master and I met to discuss in this exclusive interview brought for you below as a preview of the upcoming telesummit "Forever Elite Athlete".

As an athlete, Jim Lucas  from 1997 – 2007    Jim is      7x US National Champion, 18x All American (top 3 placing at National Championships), World Champion, World Championships Bronze medalist, 6x 5th place at World Championships, 1x 9th place at World Championships, 3x 10th place at World Championships, 2x USA Team Captain.

As a coach in Freestyle/Greco Roman Coaching Experience, from 2001 – 2007    SPARTAN WRESTLING CLUB, SSJU ; Jim brought Seven wrestlers were in contention to win “Grand Champion” in SCVWA first season competing. Crowned “Grand Champion” in freestyle (2004), and Greco (2004, 2005).

We could  read on more about Jim achievements, but let's listen to what made Jim an elite  performer both on the field and off the field.

Soul Ongoiba:                  Hello, hello, hello. Jim, can you hear me?

Jim Lucas:                         Yes. I can hear you perfectly.

Soul Ongoiba:                  OH, Okay. Perfect. Perfect. Welcome. Great. It's working. Thank you. Jim Lucas here again, this is Soul Ongoing, the Elite Athlete. I have here a privilege and honor an amazing guest I'm going to get the chance to introduce right now. I'm really excited, as you guys know here really what we do, we help high performer athletes transform both on the field and off the field. The idea is that being an elite athlete it's all about ... it is way of life. I'm really excited with the Tele Summit coming up, at Forever Elite Athlete. Will be helping elite athletes thrive

                                           Without further ado I have here with me, the privilege, Mr. Jim Lucas. Jim, I'm sure you can hear me. Correct?

Jim Lucas:                         Yes I can.

Soul Ongoiba:                  Okay, great, fantastic. Really quick before we move on, I want to introduce our distinguished guest here. Jim Lucas has been coaching for over 25 years, now he's retired but he still for the love of it, he's still coaching and Jim has coached at all levels I can think of. Middle school levels, high school level, collegiate level, and one thing that I'm really excited about, Jim was a coach at my Alma Matter school San Jose State University and obviously played with at the NCAA? Jim, for five years in a row was pretty much the coach of the year for NCAA so that is such a huge, huge privilege to have him here obviously with a lot of knowledge, a lot of wisdom that he will be able to share with us here. Jim, why don't you just share with us a little bit about you and your wrestling career?

Jim Lucas:                         Well, I was actually forced to wrestle because my brother was a wrestler, I was a guitar player. I thought I was going to be the Beatles but he forced me to go out for wrestling and I wasn't very good my first year I was terrible ...

Soul Ongoiba:                  Mm-hmm (affirmative)

Jim Lucas:                         Then I got so so my sophomore year in high school and then my junior year it kind of kicked in and that's when I started getting pretty good. Then my senior year I was all CIF so I took the fourth in the state meet and I was on a couple of junior USA Duel Match teams going against Japan and Germany and ...

Soul Ongoiba:                  Wow

Jim Lucas:                         And I had a number of scholarship offers for college and accepted the one to San Jose State and at San Jose State I was all PC AA selection three years in a row and was in a 76 Olympic rials and I took a brief hiatus, a brief meaning about a 20 year hiatus from competition and then through my coaching

Soul Ongoiba:                  Mm-hmm (affirmative)

Jim Lucas:                         My wrestlers wanted me to get back on the mat so I became a masters world champion and seven time national champion and was team captain and flag bearer for the united states at two world championships so that was pretty nice.

Soul Ongoiba:                  Wow! That's impressive! You know Jim, I think what's really impressive that I really want to share here is not only have you been an athlete, you've been a coach and also to your point, you have done much so you went away, you came back so it's not really a fluke.  That's really something really awesome. I really want to point that out and I really want to you and just recognize you here for that. That's amazing. That takes a lot of dedication and a lot of things that we are going to talk about here so I'm really really impressed and I really really want to thank you for the time that you're here with us.

Jim Lucas:                         Yeah

Soul Ongoiba:                  I mean coaching is one of, that one thing that obviously you've been successful at, you know transitioning from coaching you know, you also are a teacher, and I know you also worked in corporate. What can you tell us about that a little bit here?

Jim Lucas:                         Well, Here's the thing, I mean I when I didn't make the Olympic Team I put all my energy into my corporate career and so ...

Soul Ongoiba:                  Mm-hmm (affirmative)

Jim Lucas:                         I went from an entry level junior copywriter position, my major was in advertising and I just put, you know, that focus that as an elite athlete you ... no one is a born elite athlete

Soul Ongoiba:                  Mm-hmm (affirmative)

Jim Lucas:                         You might have natural abilities, but to get to the elite level, you need to focus and you need to push and so ...

Soul Ongoiba:                  Mm-hmm (affirmative)

Jim Lucas:                         I took that mindset and put it into my career and rose up to senior vice president level and I was working with some of the largest companies in Silicon Valley and the world or whatever you know.

Soul Ongoiba:                  Mm-hmm (affirmative)

Jim Lucas:                         Again, it is that focus and that drive and that dedication and there are people who have that drive in their sport ...

Soul Ongoiba:                  Mm-hmm (affirmative)

Jim Lucas:                         ... but they don't know how to transition that into a workplace environment.

Soul Ongoiba:                  Right

Jim Lucas:                         That's ... It's just redirecting a couple of things

Soul Ongoiba:                  Mm-hmm (affirmative)

Jim Lucas:                         To do that. To be able to accomplish that and I was very fortunate to do that and then at 55 years of age, I made the career change and decided to become a teacher. I had accomplished everything in my advertising career and public relations career and wanted to become a teacher, I felt that I could provide more for society so I went back to school, went to Grad school, and I did a combo masters credential two year program I condensed down into one and my goal now is to become a world champion teacher. I think I'm on the road.

Soul Ongoiba:                  That's impressive. I mean really, Jim I think here you will see  and I really want to make sure that our audience caught onto that and I really, it's just a lot of a of work and it is so priceless gold nuggets and I love what you said, you said "no one is born and athlete" and then you said, at 55 years of age, being able to transition and change careers, that's impressive, and then one thing that you talked about was ... that has really touched me a lot ... is you talk about providing to society, that was one of the drives for you, I mean I really have to say that hopefully at the end when we talk, people can see you know, what kind of heart you have, the servant heart you have and really I think Jim you've provided that.

                                           The question before, well, we'll get to that in a few minutes, the question I have if you can help us here is obviously, athletes, one thing you talk about the Olympic trial. One thing that I found was a challenge for me that I realize years later and that I think is a challenge for most athletes is when you didn't make the Olympic team, or when you felt that you were at the end of your career how was, I don't know, that might have be a long time, but how was that experience, I mean, I mean obviously, we all go through pain and you know maybe some disappointment, but I'm just curious you know, where you prepared for that or ...

Jim Lucas:                         It was devastating. It was devastating. It was ... when you spend, half your life, stealing yourself to be on that Olympic team, to make it, you know, to make the team, to gain the gold medal, when that's your whole focus and then you don't even make the team, it’s devastating. It's devastating. To the point that where I even walked away from wrestling

Soul Ongoiba:                  Wow

Jim Lucas:                         I redirected that energy I'm a , hard to believe, but I'm a type A personality, when I do something, I go ballistic on it and I got into surfing competitions, I've been surfing since 1962 when I was ten years old and ...

Soul Ongoiba:                  Wow

Jim Lucas:                         I went full on into that and so I redirected the energy to subdue the paint because as you said, that pain, that pain of not making the team was horrendous and in wrestling the most I think is in Judo, there's only one person per weight that gets to make the team.

Soul Ongoiba:                  That's right.

Jim Lucas:                         If you're not that one person, you don't get to go to the show.

Soul Ongoiba:                  Right, right, yeah. So yeah exactly so what you're describing is exactly the same thing I went through and you know even some of the people who make it to the top active in career and so you know, a lot of us go through that pain and             It's just impressive that you know from that, you were able to redirect that energy to something more, than an even bigger than your own career. I love what you say right?  About using that boost as a new directive. What did you use? Any trick that worked for you that you can give our audience maybe, people that are coming after us what worked for you?

Jim Lucas:                         Well, when you’re training, okay just to let you know what my wife says, I'm a lunatic on training but this is a typical training regimen. I would be up at 4:00 in the morning and I would run four miles.

Soul Ongoiba:                  Wow

Jim Lucas:                         I would do those for miles in about 25 minutes.

Soul Ongoiba:                  Wow

Jim Lucas:                         Then after I ran the four miles I would go into the bathroom and I'd put a towel over my head and I would do 100 pushups and 100 crunches and then I would  sweat for a bit,

Soul Ongoiba:                  Mm-hmm (affirmative)

Jim Lucas:                         For about ten minutes then a hundred more of each. Then sweat for another ten minutes, and a hundred more of each, and then sweat for another ten minutes, and then a last hundreds of each so a total of 400 pushups and crunches after I'd run ...

Soul Ongoiba:                  Wow

Jim Lucas:                         Four miles. This is by 4:00 - 4:30 in the morning I would do it again at noon.

Soul Ongoiba:                  Whoa

Jim Lucas:                         Then as you recall, I would go to San Jose State and I would coach the wrestling team at San Jose State but after our collegiate season was over, we'd go into free style and Greco and that is when I would actually go out on the mat, and then I would wrestle if you remember, the old man out there, I would be beat the you know what out of the college kids at 50 something years of age and I would go two hours straight without stopping and it's that physical dedication. Then I would watch videos, or read books, or whatever and take notes and so you're training exceeds six plus hours a day. With that type of focus of my wrestling

Soul Ongoiba:                  Mm-hmm (affirmative)

Jim Lucas:                         That's what I mean focus. What did you do in your athletic career to get to the top? THat's where I talk about dedication, you have to transition that drive that intensity into learning your business. If you're in marketing or sales, what's your competition doing?

Soul Ongoiba:                  Mm-hmm (affirmative)

Jim Lucas:                         How are they successful? What is their strong point? How do I line up? How does my company my companies products line up with that and so you don't just walk in, cold call and say "Hey! I'm Jim, buy my product" you know

Soul Ongoiba:                  Mm-hmm (affirmative)

Jim Lucas:                         You have to do your homework, and that's where that athleticism and the drive for reaching the top in athletics transitioning that same drive into the workplace, that's where it comes into play.

Soul Ongoiba:                  That makes sense, that makes a lot of sense. Absolutely, thank you transfer that energy, that's a beautiful thing. Obviously you said something like I just briefly mentioned, you talked about the reason you talk about being a teacher is to provide to society.

Jim Lucas:                         Yes

Soul Ongoiba:                  So how did you, when did you find out about your calling I mean you've looks like he wants to take it to the next level so how do we equate that

Jim Lucas:                         Well, had been working, I was in charge of corporate communications for a number of these large corporations in Silicon Valley whatever, and I'd worked in ad agencies in San Francisco for a dozen years as well but I had been working for this smaller company and we had been so successful that our largest competitor came in and bought us

Soul Ongoiba:                  Oh wow

Jim Lucas:                         So I got a little bit of money out of that, but not enough to retire on and so I started, you know, the whole interview process and a lot of people were interested in me because I had achieved a lot of success in the business world and so around that same time, I went to wrestle in the world championships in Latvia, which is right next to Russia

Soul Ongoiba:                  Right

Jim Lucas:                         Now I'm half Russian, my mother was born in Russian so here I am, I'm close to affectionately called the motherland so I was going to go to Russian after the world championship and so I was in my hotel room in Moscow

Soul Ongoiba:                  Mm-hmm (affirmative)

Jim Lucas:                         The only way I can describe this is that I had an epiphany where I was making a list as far as the type of companies I wanted to go to work for and what I wanted to do and I'm looking at this, and I'm going, okay, I like to  do this, I like to  do this, I like to do this, I don't like that, I don't like that and all of a sudden, I'm looking at these notes, and it hit me like a ton of bricks and it said "you need to be a teacher"

Soul Ongoiba:                  Wow

Jim Lucas:                         So you have to understand that I was at the highest level, so I was making a base salary of a quarter million dollars a year

Soul Ongoiba:                  Wow

Jim Lucas:                         My first year teaching, I was a long term substitute, my first year salary was 25,000. One tenth of what I was making

Soul Ongoiba:                  Oh my God!

Jim Lucas:                         Thank goodness, my wife has the brains of the family because we have a nice home and all of that but we could have had a considerably more opulent larger, more expensive home, and I could have been driving a Ferrari and all of that so ... we had nice cars but we just kid of went middle of the road and that allowed me, now I had to pull in my belt a bit, for the first time in my life I actually had to look at the prices on the menu when we went out when we did go out

Soul Ongoiba:                  Right, right, right.

Jim Lucas:                         You know that's how that all came about, it's just, I was looking at this ad I didn't go into it blindly, because as you said, I had been coaching for a number of years at that point, my wife has been a teacher all of her working career so I had been around teachers, I had been around education, ai had been around students ...

Soul Ongoiba:                  Right

Jim Lucas:                         ... and student athletes and it just seemed to me, this was my calling, this is what I had to do and ...

Soul Ongoiba:                  Wow

Jim Lucas:                         ... and I have never looked back. It's not even a job. It is too enjoyable. I can't call it a job, it's you know, when I leave in the morning, I'm off to go to school, you know.

Soul Ongoiba:                  [crosstalk 00:17:35]

Jim Lucas:                         You know, what you have to do in your work career, and again, how we all have that passion for athletics, you need that same passion for your job. You spend more time at your job then you do at home

Soul Ongoiba:                  Mm-hmm (affirmative)

Jim Lucas:                         You've got to have that passion

Soul Ongoiba:                  Absolutely

Jim Lucas:                         When you have that passion, success follows.

Soul Ongoiba:                  Oh, beautiful. I hope I guys can get that people who are listening to this to replay it or ... this is really great that drive, that's powerful Jim. This is obviously someone who succeeded in and has also been successful in the business world. That's fantastic thank you so much Jim.

Jim Lucas:                         Yeah

Soul Ongoiba:                  So one question that I have obviously, what do you think athletes can do to prepare for the crash of burnout, I mean from that transition? Is there anything they can do? What do you think? Just curious.  just part of the experience I guess.

Jim Lucas:                         Well, you know, take it, you know, when you have, we all experience devastating losses in our competition

Soul Ongoiba:                  Mm-hmm (affirmative)

Jim Lucas:                         We're all going to have at least one loss in our life and when we have that loss that is just like I said devastating, "oh my goodness, I can't believe I lost that match at that tournament or [crosstalk 00:19:11]

Soul Ongoiba:                  Yeah

Jim Lucas:                         As an elite athlete, you jump back on the horse and say "okay, I didn't win it so ... boom, I'm on it and what did I do wrong?"

Soul Ongoiba:                  Mm-hmm (affirmative)

Jim Lucas:                         What do I need to improve upon, what do I need to make sure I don't do next time? What do I need to accentuate the next time? That's the approach that I take, you know, when I got out of athletics

Soul Ongoiba:                  Mm-hmm (affirmative)

Jim Lucas:                         ... and put that energy into my job, it was that same mindset, what can I do to make myself better. Okay, I've had a set back. That's the way you have to look at it. You have to look at it okay, this is a loss, this is a set back, [crosstalk 00:19:59] now I'm redirecting and taking it to the next level and I'm still one of those crazy guys so that I have this imaginary coach on my shoulder that's screaming at me saying " hey, you're slacking off Lucas you know, get your but t in gear. That's just the easy way, push yourself, push yourself" ...

Soul Ongoiba:                  ... I'm so glad ...

Jim Lucas:                         I have this imaginary guy whose telling me that all the time and so that's one of the things that I use to push myself forward

Soul Ongoiba:                  You know Jim, I'm so glad you touched on this point this is actually one of my last points that I was Because that's one thing that I am  being in a sport, an athlete, is one thing that I really think personally, when I went through that loss personally, that I wish I had really when I look back from what I hear your wife was amazing but personally, one thing I really wish I'd had was family community whether it's a coach, or whether it's a friend, or a support group that I had that would know what I was going through.

Jim Lucas:                         Yeah

Soul Ongoiba:                  When I look back, I realize that if I had that, because it took me 18 months to really transition through that pain and when I look back I was like, "wow, I wish I had that community, I wish I had that coach that I had when I was an athlete in hindsight, I really wish I had that .... something ... do you think it is important I mean, what do you think?

Jim Lucas:                         Yeah, I mean, it's ... I've always been kid of a loner and

Soul Ongoiba:                  Mm-hmm (affirmative)

Jim Lucas:                         Wrestlers are kind of like that, kind of like long distance runners

Soul Ongoiba:                  Mm-hmm (affirmative)

Jim Lucas:                         I'm the baby of the family right, so I was always in the shadow of my middle brother who was in two Olympic trials. He was actually known as the wrestler of the family. I'm the world champion, but he's the wrestler of the family. The sibling rivalry where I have to outdo my brother, and it's not in a negative way, it's just something to push yourself and we all have something within ourselves ...

Soul Ongoiba:                  Mm-hmm (affirmative)

Jim Lucas:                         That will push us. We have to find that. It's always nice to have a coach, and it's always nice to have someone, a friend or someone in the community or whatever to help us

Soul Ongoiba:                  Right

Jim Lucas:                         What it really comes down to, what it really comes down to is that you have to find it yourself. When you're on the mat competing, you're not relying on anybody else. It's you.

Soul Ongoiba:                  Right

Jim Lucas:                         If you don't do your job, there won't be success

Soul Ongoiba:                  Right

Jim Lucas:                         I look internally a lot for self drive. What can I do ... as a teacher, I'm in my room and it's my own little island, no one comes in and checks on me, right? I have this little coach on my shoulder saying, "Lucas, are you teaching these kids what they need to know?" I mean, I've been very successful with test scores and passing AP exams and all that kind of stuff, but ...

Soul Ongoiba:                  Right

Jim Lucas:                         ... It's that whole athletic drive I want 100 percent. I want to be the best. [crosstalk 00:23:47] You keep driving, and you can't be bogged down by setbacks, you just get back on the horse and you do it again and that's really ...that's what motivates me, that's what my driving force is.

Soul Ongoiba:                  That's awesome, that's awesome.

                                           Well, I really really want to thank you for your time and I think from what I'm getting ... it's a really powerful thing that's one of the keys, talking about drive, how to be able to transfer that focus, right? From the field to all of the fields. That's powerful, that's powerful. This is really really very positive, very powerful for me here learning again from you Jim, of course a senior of mine, and you know, just really a model in that way. I know we have almost gone over time, do you have any parting thought?

Jim Lucas:                         Well, it's ... follow your dreams, don't be ... don't fall into complacency. Do what you really want to do and push yourself to the that you can and be passionate about what you do, because if you're passionate, you'll be happy, and ultimately, we just want to be happy.

Soul Ongoiba:                  Beautiful, oh beautiful beautiful. Great ending, great ending, thank you so much. Be passionate and be happy and use your drive to transform the world and to provide for society. Jim those are great great nuggets you are going to take away and I'm going to post that and people listening to the replay. I really really hope you can tune in to our live . itself coming up in a couple of weeks but really really, this is a really big ... and stay tuned!

                                           Thank you so much Jim for helping the community and the society and all. I really want to thank you again

Jim Lucas:                         Yeah, thank you, I'm glad to help and it's a pleasure to be here.

Soul Ongoiba:                  All right, great, thank you,

If you’re listening or reading don’t forget that you can get more when you register at the forever elite athlete telesummit.