Interview with Cesare Moroni | S2E CEO

We talked to S2E CEO and Co-founder Cesare Moroni just after his second IronMan competition to understand how such an extreme race puts the mind and body to the test with positive effects on our professional life.

Cesare, you are at your second IronMan, why did you start?

During this journey, I realized indeed that everyone that decides to start, has often big reasons to do that. One of my friend started as a reaction for having lost his father, another one was recovering from a crashed love story, another wanted to begin to react after having been seriously ill. I started because I ever liked to see what there is beyond the wall… which is my limit? Is that limit real? Let’s see if I can get over it or not… in every experience I do, I try to overcome my limits and… you know what? They were, almost ever, just in my mind…And, most important, I became dad for the 4th time at 44, I wanted to show myself that I could be capable of doing something dramatically new in my life and I am also trying to keep myself energized and healthy to support at my best the 4th little boy and his brothers in the years ahead.

What does IronMan have in common with business?

Ahah good question! IronMan is a long journey, that starts far before the race day. You have to plan everything widely in advance and follow the strategy you created to arrive at the race day completely ready. You have to take care of any detail, because every little thing that won’t work, can make a big difference at the end of the day.To give you a small example, last year in Cervia I got out well from the swim leg, using less time than I planned but, during the bike leg, I wasn’t perfectly comfortable on the saddle of my TT bike, so I kept the pedaling cadence a little bit lower than the right one, 78 rpm instead of 85/90. This little detail, once gone along the 180 km ride, literally burned my leg muscles, so when I started the marathon my legs weren’t able to keep a steady pace and I ended up the run walking in the last 15 km!Moreover, the race day is a looong day. Once there, almost everything could be slightly or a lot different from what you have planned, so you’ll have to be flexible and creative, to be able to reshape your mind and find a new solution meanwhile the race is going ahead.

Key business lessons learned from IronMan

• Have a good plan
• Stick to it
• Take care of the details
• Be ready to face and solve different and weird situations, during the training and in the race
• Be ever aware of what’s happening around you, because it can suddenly change.

What has IronMan changed in your daily life?

I have become an expert on time management. Given what I have to do during the day with my work and my family, I ever manage to find a spot for the training of the day. And the training has become part of my job, meaning that when I train, I can offload my mind, “refreshing” it and giving it the time to elaborate all the informations about my job and life to find the better answers later. Moreover I learnt to really enjoy the training effort and every drop of sweat I gain from it. I also became an expert in bike technology and in swim, ride and run training theory, because I ever like to start from the theory in the books, applying it later when practicing.

Who could be a better you? Find your purpose and stay authentic

I ever believed that every day I can improve myself becoming a “better me”.For example I love to learn and speak foreign languages, so every day I manage to learn new words and to listen and read the languages I’m learning (usually a couple) to end the day with my mind richer.The same is in business and in sport, I really believe that lifelong learning is the key to stay young and motivated.

Thanks Cesare for this chat… we guess you are already training for the third IronMan!

Actually I would like to run one more half IronMan distance race, I have already made 2 of them in preparation of my full distance race in Nice… let’s see which will be the main target for the next season… many thanks to you!