THE ED MYLETT SHOW - Given a 1% Chance to Live – Matt Long’s Incredible Survival Story

Episode Date: February 4, 2025

Would You Go Through Your Worst Pain Again? Imagine facing an event so catastrophic that doctors give you a 1% chance to live. Now, imagine coming out the other side not only surviving but running a m...arathon just three years later. That’s the reality of today’s guest, Matt Long. Matt was a firefighter, an athlete, and a man in peak physical condition when life threw him under the bus—literally. A tragic accident left him with devastating injuries, five months in the hospital, 43 surgeries, and a battle not just for his body but for his will to live. There were moments when he questioned if it was worth it, when the pain and uncertainty nearly broke him. But it was in those moments that he discovered something most people never will—what he was truly made of. His story isn’t just about survival. It’s about rebuilding, redefining what’s possible, and finding purpose in the pain. Matt didn’t just fight his way back—he made his tragedy his testimony, using his experience to inspire others to keep pushing forward. Whether you’re facing loss, failure, or adversity, this conversation is a wake-up call that you are stronger than you think. Matt shares the brutal truth about what it takes to fight through life’s hardest moments and how he found the strength to start dreaming again. And at the end of it all, when asked if he’d take the easy way out—if he’d let that bus miss him—his answer will leave you speechless. Key Takeaways: How Matt found purpose in his pain and why it changed his life. The one conversation that reignited his will to live. Why setting new goals—no matter how impossible—can change your mindset. The real reason why your hardest moments might be the best thing to ever happen to you. How to rebuild yourself when life hits you like a bus (literally or metaphorically). You’re going to walk away from this one with a whole new perspective on what’s possible in your own life. If Matt can come back from this, what excuse do you have? Let’s go. Max out. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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Starting point is 00:01:52 ["The Admirer Show Theme"] This is The Admirer Show. Welcome back to the show everybody. So you know when I do an in-person interview something big is about to happen today and so the gentleman to my right had a 99% chance of not being here today and I don't mean in our studio, I mean of still being on earth and being alive. A significant event happened in his life that you're gonna hear about him and he was given a 1% chance to live and you're gonna hear the story of what happened to him today and his comeback and the amazing lessons that were taken
Starting point is 00:02:28 from that tragic event and the journey that he's been on. Today's gonna be emotional for you but more than anything it's gonna give you perspective, it's gonna give you deep reasons and it's gonna give you some insights of how to make a comeback or if you don't need to come back just take your life to the next level. He's also a tremendous speaker and communicator. He has a book that's been out now called The Long Run and you're going to figure out just in about 10 minutes here why it's called The Long Run. So my guest today is Matt Long. Matt, welcome to the show. Ed, thanks for having me man. Thank you. Really appreciate it. Yeah, thank you for being
Starting point is 00:02:58 here brother and coming in in person too. So let's kind of go back to December of 2005, and you had a pretty good life going at that time. Yeah, I would say so. I was a New York City fireman for 12 years at that point, an athlete my entire life, and I had just completed the New York City Marathon, qualifying for Boston. I'm 38 years old, and I'm in better shape
Starting point is 00:03:22 than I was when I was 21. And that was the big goal. You did the New York because you wanted to run in the Boston Marathon, right? Correct, 100%. I'm 38 years old and I'm in better shape than I was when I was 21. And that was the big goal. You did the New York because you wanted to run in the Boston Marathon, right? Correct, 100%. Boston is that unique statue where you meet someone that ran it, you say, where'd you qualify?
Starting point is 00:03:36 When you meet someone who finished New York, you ask them how fast they ran. Did you break four hours? But Boston is like, you gotta qualify to get there, at least back then, and that was our goal In the group guys I was running with when you were prepping just so I understand the whole genesis story You had left like a wall street job. I think right and then become a new york city firefighter. Is that right? Am I right? Correct? Well, I was an accountant of all things. So it wasn't even as sexy as wall street
Starting point is 00:04:01 Okay, I was an accountant that wanted a big eight accounting firms And um, I knew that wasn't for me, so I wrote it out for two years, the best I could, and got involved in bartending and in the restaurant business and then became a New York City firefighter when I was 26. So you're doing this profession that everybody now looks up to and understands the heroic nature. By the way, just with the fires recently in LA,
Starting point is 00:04:23 just watching those guys made me think of you because I knew we were gonna be doing this interview. And so sometimes you look at those guys, you think they're supermen, but they're men, right? And so were you, and we can all be hurt and injured or have tragedy enter our life. So here we go, everybody. So let's take them through what happened
Starting point is 00:04:40 in December of 2005 for you. All right, so in New York City, the Transit Authority went on strike. So it basically crippled the city during the busiest time of the year. We have eight million people that live there, another eight million people come there for the holidays. Transit Authority goes on strike.
Starting point is 00:04:56 No buses, no trains, nothing. The mayor put in these travel restrictions, and I lived in the heart of Manhattan. I lived in 48th and 3rd, and had a small one bedroom apartment. My firehouse was up in Spanish Harlem, and I was at this point an instructor at the fire academy. So in order for me to get to work,
Starting point is 00:05:15 I could have driven my car, but then I wouldn't have got back to Manhattan by myself if the strike was still on. So 18 degrees with a wind chill probably of 10, probably about eight, nine degree day. And I'm not a foul weather athlete, maybe running but not biking or anything else. I'm like, you know what, it's done for the day.
Starting point is 00:05:35 I got on my bike and I tried to ride my bike to work and I got four blocks from where I lived. Oh my gosh. And I remember driving up North, a third avenue north, and this big white bus just coming from all the way to the left. And I'm like, what's going on? Like it's getting close, it's 5.30 in the morning,
Starting point is 00:05:54 it's pitch black. And I'm like, holy, and I'm like, holy shit. Like he's turning. Now he was turning down a narrow street, like a one way street in Manhattan, that a bus would normally never turn down, maybe 57 to 34th, the double two-lane streets. Boom, right, he gets right in front of me
Starting point is 00:06:11 and I couldn't stop. And for whatever reason, I didn't bounce off the side of the bus, I got sucked underneath. Oh my gosh, so I knew it. So everyone, I knew he got hit by the bus. You went under the- I was under the bus.
Starting point is 00:06:22 And the bike, the bike and me became one basically, you know, I don't mean to be too graphic, but it's the only way to tell the story. And so the bike basically split me open, like a can from my anus to my sternum. Oh, my gosh. So I was crushed, bone fractures and stuff like that. But the worst is I was bleeding to death. Out in the street. Out in the street. In the cold. Are you conscious of what's happening?
Starting point is 00:06:49 Or have you fallen unconscious or in and out? I'm in and out. I'd like to say I was semi-conscious. But I think the mind, we all underestimate the power of our mind and our thoughts, right? So I think that the mind immediately said, he doesn't need to remember any of this. Because if he lives, he'll
Starting point is 00:07:13 never function again. So I started, I blacked out, like pretty much, I don't remember anything. The last word I remember hearing the fireman, the firehouse was right around the corner. Now I've told you, I was in the bar business, restaurant business, I knew a lot the fireman, the firehouse was right around the corner. Now I told you I was in the bar business, restaurant business, I knew a lot of firemen. And once they cut the hood off my head, I heard one of the firefighters say,
Starting point is 00:07:33 holy shit, it's Matt Long from 43 Truck. Oh my gosh. So at that moment I knew I was in good hands. Not that we would not take care of anyone else any differently, but I'm a brother. You're a brother, yeah. And extra care goes into that. And the first life-saving act was from a police officer,
Starting point is 00:07:51 you know, our friendly rivals, but a police officer said, he's a firefighter, and instead of putting on the blue glove in that cold weather, he just reached into my groin and held my femoral artery. You're literally bleeding out. Bleeding out. This man saved your life then. He's the first order of business, saved my life. Physically literally bleeding out. Bleeding out. This man saved your life.
Starting point is 00:08:05 He's the first order of business, saved my life. Physically with his hand. With his hand. Oh my gosh. Now I know he wouldn't have done that to an average person because there's too much at risk. Too much risk. He took the chance because he knew I was a firefighter.
Starting point is 00:08:17 Wow. And then that's all I remember. Before we go to the next step, are you in physical pain? Maybe that's a naive question. Or are you such in such shock you're not feeling anything? Total shock. Didn't feel a thing. Okay. I know I was screaming because they told me I was. Anything I could tell you now, anything I've told in the past is what recounts of other people's interactions with me from this moment on. What were you screaming for? Do you think? Pain or fear you were gonna die?
Starting point is 00:08:46 I probably pain and, you know, I don't think I knew the magnitude of what was happening. It was probably pain. You know, the fear of, or the thought of death didn't come into play probably till six or seven weeks later when I was awake and realized what I was going through. You know, the pity parties that we'll talk about. I wanna just first just stop and think some you're going to bleed to death in
Starting point is 00:09:09 this street. Yeah. Cause the part of the story in every story, when someone has a story like yours, there are other heroic things, kind of even like the fires in California that I'm referencing, like of all the tragedy there and if there was arson involved, but then there's all the heroic things, not just the firefighters, but the people that are donating and showing up every day. So this man, do you know who he is? I have his name, but we've never met.
Starting point is 00:09:33 I tried to go a couple of times when I was fresh out of the hospital and the comeback was on top of me. The comeback was happening and I wanted to make sure all those people that did something for me knew that it was happening. That's awesome. The comeback wasn't for me only. Yeah. Well it won't be for you only today either. There's gonna be millions of people are gonna be inspired. First things first everybody let's just step back for a second. I know you're thinking you're having a bad day or a bad week or a bad month. You're going through a bad time.
Starting point is 00:10:02 I would just say this to you and you you may really be, but compared to what? And if this man can go through what he went through to be sitting here today on the other side of this, and successful speaker and author, great family man, because we're going to go through this journey, if he can come out from under this bus crushed, bleeding to death, split in half, about to die, tell them one percent chance to live, you can certainly come back from what you're going through.
Starting point is 00:10:26 You can certainly survive this time. And God is in your life as well. Okay, so let's walk through what's next from there. What's the next thing you remember or the next things that happened? So the next thing that happened was they stabilized me, slowed the bleeding and got me to New York Presbyterian Hospital.
Starting point is 00:10:43 There was two options, right? They could have made a right turn down Second Avenue and take me to New York Presbyterian Hospital, there was two options, right? They could have made a right turn down Second Avenue and take me to Bellevue, or they went to First and made a left to New York Presbyterian. So I think that was the first, second order of business that saved my life. I'm not-
Starting point is 00:10:58 Why? Because it was just the right hospital with the right doctors, and at the right time. I've gone back to tell my doctors thank you for what you've done for me. And one of them was brutally honest with me. He says, look, we didn't save your life.
Starting point is 00:11:12 He goes, everything happened. Everything was in line. Like you weren't meant to die. And I was like, what? What do you mean? He goes, your accident happened at 5.38 in the morning. He goes, if it would have happened at 6.38 in the morning, all those operating rooms would have been booked, done, ready to go. And you would have been waiting
Starting point is 00:11:28 in that emergency room for another hour and died. And died. Oh, my gosh. He says, so the fact that you got here before everyone else, everyone else got bumped, and you went from room to room to room until we had you stable. You know, that makes me think ironically, one, how blessed you are, but that was the case. And it was destiny that you're here. But the other part of it is, just to what struck me when you said it is like, this is, tragedies are happening daily.
Starting point is 00:11:55 To the point where there's not even enough beds and we just go through our day thinking, oh, this person gave me a like that I didn't get on Instagram or said something bad to me or cut me off in traffic or the things we magnify in our life and as we're magnifying those things, there's people like you that are on the verge of losing their life anywhere in the world right now at any moment in any emergency room at any hospital at any time.
Starting point is 00:12:19 It's just the things we make a big deal in our life compared to the actual big deals. It's just the things we make a big deal in our life compared to the actual big deals. So hey guys, I want to jump in here for a second and talk about change and growth. And you know, by the way, it's no secret how people get ahead in life or how they grow and also taking a look at the future. If you want to change your future, you got to change the things you're doing. If you continue to do the same things, you're probably going to produce the same results. But if you get into a new environment where you're learning new things and you're around other people that are growth-oriented, you're much more likely to do that yourself and that's why I love Growth Day. Write this down for a second, growthday.com forward slash ed. My friend
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Starting point is 00:15:27 You now are there, you've gone to the right place. What ends up saving your life or when is the decisions made etc etc? What what are you faced with? So so in the first like five or six hours of the ordeal they gathered my family. All right, so I'm one of nine children. I'm the second oldest, seven boys, two girls. There's three firemen and the rest of different jobs, Wall Street, school, teachers, whatever. So they gathered my mom and dad, I was single, so they got my mom and dad,
Starting point is 00:15:55 they got all my family members to the hospital. And this is when the percentage was given out. I always feel for doctors is they have, in this situation, an ER doctor has a tough job, like they have to go outside to a family member and give them hope. But there's a line between false hope and actual like something's going to be positive here. So I don't know how they do it. But it's part of their profession. They know how they do it. Doctor goes out to tell my mom and my dad that this is as bad as it gets.
Starting point is 00:16:31 We're gonna do everything we can, but he has about a 1% chance to live. And he only went out, now again, I'm still friends with him as well, and he only went out because the nurses begged him to stop wasting blood and to let me expire. So he said, let me go out and talk to the parents and I'll be back in 36 to 60 seconds and we'll see what happens.
Starting point is 00:16:56 So my mom, this is this is a very pivotal point for my in my journey that I teach the strength of my mother. And she basically stubborn Irish Catholic woman. And she told the doctor flat out, do the best you can. He's running the Boston Marathon in April. And the doctor was like, now he was a runner who just finished the same marathon, but an hour and a half slower than me. Are you kidding me?
Starting point is 00:17:21 So he said- An hour and a half slower. He's like, what? He's running Boston? So he ran back outhouse. Yeah, he's like what he's running Boston So he ran back into the room looked up at the monitors and my heartbeat was down somewhere 29 to 31 beats per minute. Oh boy, and he said Keep working We're not dealing with a regular person here. His body is trained to go through insult keep working
Starting point is 00:17:44 Oh my gosh, and ten sixty eight units of insult. Keep working. Oh my gosh. And 68 units of blood in 11 hours. Oh my gosh. Oh my gosh. So that's why the nurses are like, hey, we're just pouring blood into this guy. I was just going out. I was like a sieve. Oh my goodness.
Starting point is 00:17:55 But they finally got me to interventional radiology and a doctor there, sealed up all the veins that were cut. And they finally took care of it. And I stabilized over the next five to six weeks. What was your, do you remember your first thought sealed up all the veins that were cut. And they finally took care of it. And I stabilized over the next five to six weeks. What was your, do you remember your first thought when you woke up or what you remember from that experience? Oh, I wanted to get the hell out of bed.
Starting point is 00:18:12 Like as soon as I woke up. Did you not understand the magnitude? I had no idea. So when I talked about the mind earlier being so powerful, I forgot things before the accident. So when they come in to do like a cognitive test to see how bad their head was hurt, and they would ask me if I'd like to travel,
Starting point is 00:18:28 and I'm sitting there with like, I had like maybe a fireman in the room with me and my mom, and I'm like, uh, nah, I don't like to travel. And my buddy goes, we just went to Puerto Rico together. We had a big, I went, oh, yeah, yeah, we went to Puerto Rico. So when people told me things, they came back. And I think that was just part of the mind saying,
Starting point is 00:18:47 this guy doesn't need to know what happened to him. Wow, it's God's way of protecting us somehow. Exactly. Okay, here we go guys. And we're gonna pull apart some lessons from this as well. I'm just, it's interesting, when you hear stories like this, you read it in a book, it's powerful, I recommend everybody read the book.
Starting point is 00:19:02 Or if we do a podcast and you listen to it or we do zoom It's different when you sit right next to someone this has happened to I just can tell you even my own personal experience Listening to you. It's very different being three feet away from a person who has gone through something like this You just feel something from them something about their spirits a little bit Tougher, I don't you know tougher is what I would say about you. Also just listening to you, you're a real person. You know what I mean? Everyone can hear your family background
Starting point is 00:19:32 and where you come from and what your career was. This is a real human being. I think we always think superheroes are like six, eight, can reverse windmill dunk. You know what I'm saying? Or can sing like Adele. Everyday people are heroes. You can't measure the heart of a champion, right?
Starting point is 00:19:49 You can't. So after all of this sort of settles out and now you are alive, then there's this idea of like walking, right? That would be nice to be able to do again. What was the prognosis on that even happening? Nevermind ever running again or running a marathon again. What about walking? I'm just curious,
Starting point is 00:20:08 was that in the cards from the beginning or was there a concern about that? No, that was in the cards from the very beginning. I think because of my personality, once I woke up, I was like, okay, how do I get out of here? What's happening? What are these pieces of metal coming out of my abdomen, my leg? What's on my neck? I was on a ventilator, I had a feed-in tube. I'm like, I need to go. So, and the doctor was like,
Starting point is 00:20:33 my brother Jim and I are the closest of the nine, he's only like 13 months apart, younger than me. But he had to be there and say, hey, listen, you were run over by a bus. And I'm like, what? He's like, that, you know, you need to listen, you're in a good place, and the doctors are taking good care of you. And you need to listen what he has to say. So I sat there, well, I was laying there. And the doctor said, Listen, you're going to be here for quite a while. And I said, Okay. And well, what's next for me, doc?
Starting point is 00:21:11 He's like, Look, let's not go down that road right now. Because you have a lot of surgeries. We have a lot of things to fix. And he goes, we're gonna do the best we can. Because but I can't guarantee anything. You'd be lucky if you're walking with a cane or a crutch the rest of your life. Wow. It's amazing.
Starting point is 00:21:32 You literally sometimes will say to somebody kind of joking like, well, what if you got hit by a bus? Yeah, what would you do if you got hit by a bus? You were literally hit by the bus. Now you shouldn't have probably lived. You end up living metal stuff sticking out of everywhere, ventilator, and probably shouldn't have probably lived. You end up living metal stuff sticking out of everywhere, ventilator and probably aren't gonna walk. I'm gonna give you guys a spoiler alert just so you're about to know the lessons. This
Starting point is 00:21:53 dude ran that marathon three years later. I just want you to get this. So from that right where we are and the reason I give you the spoiler alert, so we're gonna fill the gaps in with the lessons but But from that bed, three years later, he runs that marathon. Just so you know. By the way, that's bad ass and you're a stud. Yeah, you're a stud. I mean, I know it's your story,
Starting point is 00:22:14 but maybe sitting here hearing yourself, like I know you've told it a lot, like is that not freaking ridiculous that three years later you end up doing that? Is that not? Yeah, it's insane. It's insane. No, and I accepted the fact that it was insane.
Starting point is 00:22:30 I don't think I knew how bad as it was. One day when I was rebuilding myself, I would go from different gyms where I lived and I'm training and some guy came up to me in the gym and he said, are you, you the guy that got hit by the bus? And I was like, yeah. And he goes, Hey, you got your 1%. And I'm what he goes, No, he goes, the stuff that seals are made of the stuff that Rangers are made of those special military
Starting point is 00:22:58 people that made us that's what you're made of. And you know what? Something's interesting. I think you'd agree with me on this, because are You won't ever know that about yourself in life until you go through your biggest valley in your life Would you like a seal figures out I made of this stuff because they went through Seal training right they know that most of us will never know what we're made of unless in some strange way We're given the gift almost of the toughest moments of our life. Would you agree with that? 100%, I may say it all the time. God doesn't give weak people hard things to do.
Starting point is 00:23:33 God gives hard things to do to strong people. And I've said this a thousand times, and I got this from my mom, but I was chosen because I was strong enough to do it and Maybe my story Being told by you or John our friend or through the book will help someone not as strong not give up I love that by the way That's a lesson for everybody else what you're going through right now
Starting point is 00:23:59 And then your your test becomes your testimony your testimony can help the weaker person go through what they're going through and that's why you need to get through it. Man, I'm loving this right now. Just so you know, this is kind of why I did the show. What we're doing right now, I do a lot of topics but if we're gonna go to kind of the core why I did the show, it's this right now. You used a term a minute ago that I caught which was rebuild myself. I want to talk about that. Take us through the different surgeries you had, how many you had. But this idea of rebuilding yourself, I think a lot of people need to hear real close what you're about to say, because I think a lot of people, they may not have been hit by a bus. And I don't mean to be too goofy here, but metaphorically,
Starting point is 00:24:36 something's hitting them like a bus right now. Their business gone away, their relationship went away, their friends, you know, hurt them in a way, or someone stole or lost a loved one. Exactly. And life's hit them by a bus and they're going to have to rebuild themselves. So what did that look like? How many surgeries? What did you start to do? And what about this rebuilding yourself thing? All right, so we'll go through the hospital. I spent five months in this hospital. I did my rehab there and everything after,
Starting point is 00:25:03 but I spent five months in the hospital had about 43 surgeries in that period of time 43 three different surgeries most of them were internal. Look bones heal they put bones back together but I'll start with the left foot up broken foot. Every fracture was compound meaning the bone came out the skin. Tib fib compound fracture femur compound fracture, right side of the pelvis compound fracture, right shoulder compound fracture. My doctor would explain to me and I to this day really don't understand how it's possible. But his exact
Starting point is 00:25:37 words to me was that my right leg was no longer functionally attached to my body. I'm like, okay. Yeah, I don't know what to say about that. Now that is the leg that has most of my muscle damage and nerve damage. And then the worst of all was my abdominal wall was cut by the bike and severed my rectum. I had a clasp in my back for two years.
Starting point is 00:26:02 Multiple skin grafts to close the wounds. My gosh. Yeah. I mean. You know, it was as bad as it gets. And he he operated on a lot of soldiers and stuff like that. And I don't like to compare myself to that at all. You know, I hold all our military in the highest regard. So I never saw I compare myself. But he said he goes, I've been to war zone hospitals and you were as bad as it gets.
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Starting point is 00:28:22 What about your mind that When you say that I thought of, you know, any PTSD or your spirit in your mind just like going why this you had to had some moments of why this happened to me or I don't want to this isn't fair. You must have had some of that. I had a lot of it and it didn't get really bad until I left the hospital. So when I was in the hospital, oddly enough, I wouldn't want to be in hospital five months, but it was there was a safety factor there.
Starting point is 00:28:49 I had that little button. And if I needed anything at night, I hit that button. In the next few minutes, a nurse was coming to see me. When I was sent home, I was still in a wheelchair, my younger brother moved into my house, put his life on hold, and he lived on my couch. And I didn't have that button anymore. So what I did have it was a side table about the best big is that one in the middle here, with about 19 different medications on it. And night after night, I rolled over and looked at them and said, is it enough? And I the fight with myself was, well, you just got ran over by a 40,000 pound bus. I'm not sure it's enough. What do you mean by is it enough to kill me? I thought that's what you meant. But I wanted to make sure was
Starting point is 00:29:41 it enough to take? Wow, That would make me go to sleep and end this. And jokingly, my personality and my grit that I didn't know I had, this will not to give up that I didn't know I had, or maybe some stories in my life before should have gave me a warning that I have it. But I said, well, if a bus didn't kill me, I'm here now and I take all those,
Starting point is 00:30:10 what happens if it doesn't kill me? What am I, a vegetable? What do I do to my family? Am I brain dead? What do I do? What am I doing? What if you would have, was there ever a moment there, Matt,
Starting point is 00:30:20 where if you knew it could have taken your life, you knew it would have worked, would you have partaken in taking it, do you think? Was there ever a moment like that? Yeah, I think if I knew for sure that I could stop the pain and the doubt of what my life was going to be like, the unknown, I would have done it.
Starting point is 00:30:46 Wow. Yeah, if I knew for sure. But I didn't. And I'm glad I didn't. I'm glad you didn't. Couple million people are glad you didn't. Thank you. Well, more than that probably.
Starting point is 00:30:57 Do you think, wow. Ed, my moments of pity, I call them pity parties, right? So I allow myself a pity party even today. But I don't want the pity party to win. And my moments of pity were not why me, why did this happen, why am I hurt, why I'm in pain. My moments of pity were one question, why did I live? And I remember having a conversation
Starting point is 00:31:23 with a family priest about it. And he had asked me, he came in to visit me and I was very angry. I was still in the hospital. I was very angry at the time. And my parents had let Father Jim go in and talk to him. So Father Jim came in and I was rolling my eyes a little bit like, here we go. You know, God has a plan for me, blah, blah, blah, blah. And I'm like, OK. So this first time I remember lying to a priest.
Starting point is 00:31:46 I'm 38 years old, I felt bad about it. He asked me flat out if I was angry with God. And I should have said yes. And I didn't. I said, no, I'm not angry with God. I said, but Father Jim, I don't need to know why this happened to me. I need to know why I lived.
Starting point is 00:32:06 And he said, that's between you and him. And that was the end of the conversation. Are you convinced that part of the reason you lived is like what we're doing right now? Like you writing the book and us talking about this and the inspirational part of it? 100%. 100%, I believe that the first 38 years of my life
Starting point is 00:32:24 were great. I was a happy-go-lucky kid running around Manhattan, firefighter, chasing women, doing everything I could, jock. The first time I had the opportunity to tell my story, I didn't think anything of it until I got an email. Then I got another email. Then I got another email. Then I'm getting texts, and someone's following me
Starting point is 00:32:41 on Instagram, but someone's doing else, and they're saying thank you yeah for not giving up yeah well thank you for not giving up I can tell you that today this moves me FYI like it moves me I want to go back to this not knowing thing you got me a little bit today bro I'm a little bit emotional on this one you was that as hard as the physical pain I think a lot of people listening to this, like, they're like, Hey, you know what I'm most struggling with? Isn't even so much that this stuff's happened to me or that I'm in this spot.
Starting point is 00:33:14 It's that I don't know what's next. I don't know what's coming. How hard was that part of it? And, and what did you do about that? Just put your head down day by day. Or what did you do? The mental part of it was the worst, right? So so that says a lot based on your injuries and 47 surgeries. Correct. And it is it is. And it's probably that way for everyone, no matter what that what we talk about, whether it's the loved one that they lost or or a diagnosis they got or,
Starting point is 00:33:44 you know, lost their job. The mental side of it is the loved one that they lost or a diagnosis they got or lost their job, the mental side of it is the worst. And I remember talking to my doctor one time and I was kind of sarcastically saying, I'm like, hey, well, thanks a lot. I still had a colostomy bag. I was still in pretty bad shape and I was hoping to get rid of things.
Starting point is 00:34:03 I didn't want the colostomy bag at all know, at all. And I said, so he said, I said to me, I appreciate your hard work, but you fell short. And we had that kind of rapport. And he said, Listen, our job is not to worry about the quality of life. It's about saving your life. We saved your life. I said okay, because the quality of life is up to you. So that was the first like little smack I got from someone outside family, but pretty much family now is a doctor.
Starting point is 00:34:35 And I took a long time for that to set in. Like what does that mean? Like what, the quality of life is up to me. I mean I'm in a wheelchair part of the day, I have a class of me bag. I went from 178 pounds, 12% body fat, to 122 pounds, no muscle tone, and I look like my 90 year old grandfather.
Starting point is 00:34:58 I said I don't understand this. And that and the conversation with my mother that really made me change my outlook about what was happening to me. Okay, adversity, right? A lot of us in this business or talk that have stories we talk about the adversity we overcame, okay? And I know for a fact, just from talking to you earlier,
Starting point is 00:35:20 that you haven't overcome your adversity from your baseball accident. You live with it. So I adversity from your baseball accident. You lived with it. So I had to accept this accident. I had to accept all the injuries. I had to accept the new body and say, what are we gonna do about it? What quality of life am I gonna get back?
Starting point is 00:35:38 Because I can't go to a doctor for it. So I started plugging away. I'm just picturing you because now I'm doing the math. So if you're two years with a colostomy bag, you're a year out of that and run the marathon, right? Correct. Yeah, that's bananas. So was part of, obviously we would spend hours on the physical pain of physical therapy and going through the surgeries and the mental pain of waking up with it every day. It's one thing to hear a story It's another thing like Monday was this way for you Tuesday was this day Wednesday the next Monday the next it's every day Any of you that have even had the flu for eight days?
Starting point is 00:36:13 Imagine years of surgery pain physical therapy You can no longer also do what you used to love to do which is to be physical and be active Was part of what got you through or were you not envisioning this setting the goal to go run this marathon again? Was that like, I got something to look forward to? I've set a goal. Did that help get you through or it wasn't till years later? Like, maybe I run a marathon. It wasn't to a moment in in in the journey. So So no, that is
Starting point is 00:36:42 not what got me through. What is it that got you through? So the catalyst to get my human spirit fired up and all the burners inside me to start working again was a conversation with mom. And I had said to my mother in a nutshell, I just said to her, I'm glad you prayed and I lived. I wish you prayed for me to die. And that's something you don't say to your mom,
Starting point is 00:37:06 and especially the Irish Catholic stubborn mom who told the doctor he's running a marathon in four months after this, get patch him up, put a bandaid on. Right. She and then she said to me, enough's enough. She said, you're not the only person in this world that is suffering. You are not the only one going through a tough time. Because we have not left your side for five months 43 surgeries everyone has been here
Starting point is 00:37:28 If you want to be miserable s OB The rest of your life do it by yourself End of conversation some tough love. Mm-hmm Now that was the spark that I needed to hear it took about two weeks before I got over the pity parties and started to say, my mom was right. There are other people, and I listen to the people you have on here when you bring in the real life story, like mine, and I'm like, you know,
Starting point is 00:37:57 the woman you had on recently lost her limbs. I'm like, she's 10 times worse than the life I have. So mom was right back then, she's right today. I started plugging away. That's when I put my head down. That's when I said to myself, all right, Matt, what were you doing in your life when you were happiest? What was driving you forward as a kid?
Starting point is 00:38:19 The dream to play high school basketball. You played high school basketball. What was your next dream? To make it to the college level. I didn't care where I played, I wanted to play college. So I always had a goal, athletic, pushed myself, the Ironman, the marathon, because I was confused and I didn't know what I could do next.
Starting point is 00:38:34 I knew nothing else but to push my body to its limits. So I said I want to close the chapter on Matt Long, marathon runner, Matt Long, triathlete. I wanted to go back and do those two things and then figure out what's next. And I knew they wouldn't be the same because I've accepted this new body, I accepted this adversity in my life.
Starting point is 00:38:54 So I came back and did that marathon three years, it took me seven hours and 30 minutes. You finished it. I finished it. Yeah, it's interesting when you're in person with somebody, your whole physiology spirit, you just see that Stephen Stephen completely changed once you talked about your mom's conversation Like by the way and your intensity level and you leaned in and humans are awesome when humans flip that switch They're the mind the spirit. They're capable of so much one because your whole bro
Starting point is 00:39:21 You're your whole being was different and then the gold actually run but it's like did you see that Steven too like in person the switch in you same guy like just different just a it's like a switch and my mother did that for me i when i talk on stage and we're i'm probably a little older than you but if you remember back in the day the the old stove the white stove i think if you touch the middle of the stove, there was a pilot light that always burned. It's not electric like today. There was always a pilot light.
Starting point is 00:39:51 And my story is that analogy is that's the human spirit. We all have this pilot light burning inside of us. How do you get the four burners going? And my mom did that for me. She lit them all up. And anything is possible when they're firing up. Bro, that's awesome. What was finishing the marathon like? Finishing was awesome. It was it was a it was an emotional finish finish line, my family, the fire department, guys from
Starting point is 00:40:20 my house, and all my doctors. Well, not all but some of my doctors were they there. My one doctor, God rest his soul is not with us anymore. But he he had just had a baby during my ordeal. So he missed a lot of his things with it with his third child, third daughter. And I crossed the finish line. Everyone's you know, super static for me, congratulating me. And he pulls me aside, and this I loved. He pulls me aside really quick.
Starting point is 00:40:50 He said his wife, and we took a picture, and he looks at his kids and he goes, girls, this is why daddy misses Christmas. And we have a bond to this day with that family. But I was like, like that was another story within my story, right? Here is a guy who sacrifices his whole life to help people. The sacrifice comes in his children.
Starting point is 00:41:14 He operated on me on Christmas, on New Year's, and in time after time after time. And this was a reward. That's why I did what I did to run that marathon, let them know that their sacrifices did not go on unfinished, unpaid back, you know? Yeah. Bro, your story's bananas.
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Starting point is 00:42:37 lessons out everybody. Why did you call it The Long Run? The book. The book is a spin off of a story they did in Runner's World magazine. I know. And it was called The Second Life. Which is what I really liked. But we can't do that again. So the running magazine world, the running community,
Starting point is 00:42:59 we needed to have something about running. It's not only about running. Of course, not very little about running the long run, the journey. And I jokingly take people back to who I was my personalities as a kid, overconfident cocky kid from Brooklyn, I get it, not for everyone. But but, but when, when hit the fan in real life, real time, it might, it could have been 10 years for me to run that marathon again.
Starting point is 00:43:32 It could have been longer. Or the truth of the matter is that even though I wrote it, even though I did the marathon, did the Ironman and I'm living a pretty good life, still wake up in pain. I know you do. I still struggle and have pity parties. So my run is not over. Brother, I love that you're being honest about that. By the way, just the idea that 2005 you're under this bus on a freezing day bleeding out guys holding your artery, your
Starting point is 00:43:57 femoralis, so you don't bleed out that three years later, you're crossing the finish line of the it's the New York City Marathon, you finish that thing, right? It's just bananas. It's just, it's just unreal. And, but it should give everyone hope. Like by the way, it's a long life and a long run, but the turnaround sometimes feels long when you're doing it, but it may not, you may be one decision away, one new relationship away, but you can also be one event away from your life changing.
Starting point is 00:44:22 But to your point of your today, I want to say something to you that I noticed when I came down the stairs to greet you. You turned around and I was a little bit struck. You look great. Anybody watching YouTube will see this. But you do still struggle to some extent physically. We both were talking about our ailments coming in here. I missed our interview when we were scheduled guys for a root canal and this guy survives being pulled under a bus. So there's two caliber of men sitting here today.
Starting point is 00:44:47 He was gonna joke about it. I said, well, someone needs to bring it up. I literally had to reschedule our first interview for a root canal for a dude who was dragged under a bus. The caliber of toughness here is not equal. But you do still have the remnants of this, because sitting here and hearing you, people like, OK, he's past it. It's over. This guy must be just perfect. But not true, right? You still struggle. That's it. I still struggle.
Starting point is 00:45:14 Like like I said about my right leg not being functionally attached to my body. A lot of the muscle never came back. So I like to joke with my wife, if we're walking down the street, I say, could you mind standing on the other side so you can put your hand on my left cheek because my right cheek is mush and it makes me feel bad that you're touching something that I can't feel. And we have a joke, a laugh about it, whatever. So I have like my stabilizing muscles on my right side of the arm so I can't stand on my right leg alone. And that's that's easy. But to be honest, you know, being having your rectum and your anus torn apart
Starting point is 00:45:59 and being in a classroom bag for two years and a doctor saying we can put you back together. But we don't know how long it we don't know if it's gonna work. You have to train, I told John about this and I don't openly talk about it, because who wants to talk about it? Like, you need to. I had to train my rectum to operate again, because it was doing nothing for two years. So before the doctor could take the classmate bag out
Starting point is 00:46:27 and put me back together, he had to know that I wasn't just gonna walk around crapping myself. Everywhere, right. So what I went through Ed, the word dignity was gone. I had to enlist a friend to come in my apartment and squeeze cream or wheat into my rectum. And as soon as he was done, I kicked him out. And then I had to record how much was in
Starting point is 00:47:00 and how long it stayed in. My goodness, bro. And I did that for seven months months twice a week for seven months and It worked my gosh, you know and the doctor knew my mentality and he said to me you trained for marathons You trained for I am ends. I need you to train to get home And I did it and I mean when he told me and I left that doctor was like no way No way And I did it. And I mean, when he told me, and I left that doctor, it was like, no way, no way, but I did it. I don't eat premium wheat anymore. I'm sorry, she's in a commercial food.
Starting point is 00:47:31 But I think probably nobody is, but after that, but I'm glad you shared it because the real details of a comeback, it's easy to hear in a story. Oh, he was in pain. Oh my gosh, he had surgeries. By the way, that's a good friend. Yes. It's pretty damn good friend Goes down anonymous. Yeah, go go But still that's that's a brother right there. Gosh, what could you come back from that are listening to this? Are you hearing what this man went through? I'm sitting right with him And by the way, I had the highest regard and admiration for you, but you're just a man, right?
Starting point is 00:48:02 You're just a man now I really believe this. You can't tell from looking at somebody what they're made of. And I think most human beings don't know what they're made of until they face it, until the bus of life hits them, right? And then you're defined as a man or a woman.
Starting point is 00:48:18 We're all gonna get hit by life's bus, whether it's happening right now or not. They can reflect on this later if it's not happening to them. What would you say to that person, it's just happened, if they ran into you at Starbucks, my husband just left me, I just lost my dad, my business just failed, I'm totally lost
Starting point is 00:48:35 and I don't have a dream in my life right now. You go, well, I know a little bit about that. What would you say? What I would tell people is, or that person, is two things. I would say one, what I said earlier, that God doesn't give good people easy things to do. Your journey doesn't have to be a bus, isn't my journey. And where I would say to start is to look back in your life and figure out, because a lot of times we go through life without, oh yeah, oh remember, Ed, we had a good,
Starting point is 00:49:14 you had a great time on your football feast. Wasn't that awesome? Yeah, it was awesome. Right, so you look back at things and you're like, I, sometimes we just go through life and forget those things, right? I had to do an inventory check on my life. When I was in the worst mental state period,
Starting point is 00:49:29 I had to do an inventory check, look back in the rear view mirror, say what was Matt Long doing when I was happiest? And the answer kept coming back, I was dreaming. As a kid I was dreaming, and dreams are goals, right? You set the standard, you set the habits, you create the plan, and you make sacrifices. It's still a dream that you want to bring to fruition. So that's what I would tell someone who's going through a hard time right now. Okay,
Starting point is 00:49:54 take a deep breath. One, my mom says it, you're not the only person going through it. Two, God knows you're strong enough to succeed. Three, go back. What were you doing when you were happy? Figure it out. And we do it. Repeat it, start dreaming again. That's the way I would approach adversity on a blanket conversation. I love that answer. You know, in the Hebrew, my understanding is the word dream and health are very closely correlated or almost the same word.
Starting point is 00:50:29 It was just, Chris Hodges has become a friend of mine, runs a very, very big church, and he was discussing dreams and health, and he was saying, and I'm saying this too, is that the happiest I've ever been in my life is when I'm dreaming, when I've got a vision. It's also like, dream and vision can kind of be a cheesy word, but imagination is another word for that. Like when you're using your imagination, you're imagining your life.
Starting point is 00:50:53 Like God gave you this imagination. And when you're a little boy or a little girl, one of the reasons I think kids are happy is they're full of imagination and dreams. And, and, and so that is a direct connection to health and wellbeing. You know, you said God a couple of times, but I'm around, you know, I'm around the, some real God, God guys, you know, you know, some of these guys are that are friends of mine. And I guess I'm, I'm told that I'm that guy a lot too. I'm wondering in your case, you're not one of these guys that runs in
Starting point is 00:51:20 praise God, praise God. You know, you're, you're a quiet man that way, dignified in that regard. But I'm wondering how it impacted you. Did it make you believe in God more and less, got closer to God, not connected at all with, just overall, you can't go through that and not have some consideration of God and life
Starting point is 00:51:42 and dying and what it means or where you'd go or any of that stuff. We're at and raised Irish Catholic church every Sunday with the family same pew, blah, blah, blah. I believe I'm a man of faith. Do I go to church every Sunday? No. I would like to try to do that better with my family and my kids. There are some things my belly is not acting right today to start part of my adversity and I just say I'll watch online or so you have to church. But I do believe. That he put that bus there. I do believe that this was something
Starting point is 00:52:26 I was meant to withstand, to go through. I do believe that conversation with Father Jim when he said, my purpose will be known when I'm ready. You know, I'm lucky enough to be able to sit in platforms like this and tell my story, and I'm lucky enough to be able to sit in platforms like this and tell my story, and I'm lucky enough to get on a stage and get paid to tell my story, but whether I'm paid or sit here in a conversational space, the real reward comes in the email
Starting point is 00:53:03 that will follow this podcast, the email that will follow this podcast, the email that will follow a speech. And when I talk, like yourself, you're on stage and you're talking to adults, right? Professionals, some that are high net worth, successful professionals. And then you have time for Q&A and it's like they're back in high school,
Starting point is 00:53:19 they don't wanna raise their hand, no one raised their hand. But before my plane lands from West Coast to East Coast, I got 16 emails in my box. And you could see the tears in the email. Like, thank you, thank you. I'm going through something here. I didn't want to raise my hand. And that's, that I believe was divine intervention.
Starting point is 00:53:37 Like, okay, I'm not the smartest guy in the world. I may have been the toughest, mentally toughest guy, at least in my circle, but I was chosen for this. To help others. I love that answer. By the way, it's honest. It's honest, which is what you are. You're good, man. You're good, man. Thank you. How's it changed you? I'm still cocky, confident type of guy. And I'm, I try to do things. But I think it gave me a little more empathy
Starting point is 00:54:09 towards people that might be going through things, maybe a little more empathy, especially to my kids and my nieces and nephews, a little bit. You know, I'm still a tough uncle and I think I'm a tough dad. But I think, especially to my family and my kids, and I joke with them all the time, but I'm like, you know what daddy went through,
Starting point is 00:54:30 you know what daddy went through, it's gonna help you. You're built the same way. You come from this. Yeah, you come from this. You come from the same cloth, and my 12 year old doesn't get that yet, but. That's okay.
Starting point is 00:54:43 But yeah, she will. She'll get it someday. You know what they do? my kids. I think a lot of things with kids. I've said this before is caught not taught and Usually what they catch they're not aware of until they leave your house and then they very much are aware I've noticed that just with my kids as well And they're catching a bunch from you brother And by the way, millions people are catching a bunch from you today, too All right last thing I want to. And by the way, millions of people are catching a bunch from you today too. All right, last thing I wanna ask you, by the way, this has been remarkable.
Starting point is 00:55:08 I mean, I'm really honored to sit with you. And so am I. Well, thank you. In your presence, it's great. You're a tough dude. You're a tough dude. I mean, Root Kanell took me out, but it's the perfect metaphor, by the way,
Starting point is 00:55:22 that you were the interview I had to move for the Root Kanell. I think it's pretty hilarious. You know, as I sit and listen to you, I asked you, you know, how it's changed you. And then I wonder, I've had life incidents, I'm going to push you really hard on the last question here. I have life incidences where I've taken a lesson from it in the moment. And then I've taken another lesson a little while later. And then I've kind of given answers on shows about something. And then I've really changed my mind about something. And so I wonder how much of what we talked about today was like how you felt then compared to now.
Starting point is 00:56:02 And if you could go back. If I can go back 19 years ago, would I have the bus miss me? No. Wow. And the first time I was asked that question, I paused. But then I thought about the things that I have now in life. You know, my children, my wife,
Starting point is 00:56:28 the people that have emailed me, thanking me for surviving, thanking me for writing my story, thanking me for not quitting. All that will go ahead. Now, that's a lot to put on a person. And I wasn't ready for that. I mean, I got emails from people that were 10 times worse than me. And I didn't know what to say to them. But keep fighting, brother, keep fighting, sister. You got this. And I would go away. I'm like, oh, my God, I just got an email from a guy
Starting point is 00:56:57 who they told me is quadriplegic. What am I going to do? He's over at Christopher Reeves. He wants to meet me. I'm like, this is not good, I'm gonna walk in there. And this is, you know, I'm not gonna tell him, I can't, this is not what I'm, I can't handle this. And you know what? He's walking.
Starting point is 00:57:14 And we're friends. That's awesome, man. So all that would go away. That is unreal. And I wouldn't want that to happen. So you would not have the bus miss you. But bro, this is an all time conversation right here. I do it again.
Starting point is 00:57:28 This is my producer never gets emotional. Like that's incredible. Ah boy. If you guys don't share today's episode, I have no idea why we're doing this. Cause this is just one of the most remarkable conversations ever. Matt, I'm really grateful we did this.
Starting point is 00:57:43 I'm grateful to John for introducing us. I want everybody to go get the long run. You can hire Matt to speak. You can follow him on social. Where should they find you? So LinkedIn is the best. Matthew Long, matlongspeaker.com is my website. And matlongspeaker at Gmail, any questions.
Starting point is 00:58:00 I love taking emails and if it's just for a word of confidence or a boost you need shoot it out All right. All right, everybody. I hope you enjoyed today like I did Yeah, gave you a perspective did everything I told you to give you perspective make you emotional and give you key takeaways and insights That's why we do the show here. This was just perfect today. God bless you everybody max out This is the end

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