Get significant discounts on bulk orders of "Hard Lessons From The Hurt Business: Boxing And The Art of Life" for your group. This is ideal for using the book as part of a class curriculum, sports teams, and professional organizations. Provide those you lead with a story and tools to build the resilience, grit, and mental toughness of a professional boxer.
Get the Pre-order my newest book
Preorder Now. Available 8.5.25
We’ve all got a choice. We can get better at fighting or worse at life.
Read the 2 chapters for free! (Download here)Pre-Order Hard Lessons From The Hurt Business From Any Retailer Below
There is no other writer quite like Ed Latimore. The best part about this book, though, is that it really feels like he’s just speaking with you the way he would over beers at a bar—and Latimore has plenty of experience with this, as you’ll come to learn. This book is a knockout.
Rob Henderson
Best selling author of “Troubled: A Memoir of Foster Care, Family, and Social Class””
You don’t have to take the punches I did. But you can learn from every one of them.
From a violent childhood and street fights to addiction and the relentless grind of the boxing ring, Hard Lessons from the Hurt Business is my raw, unfiltered story of how I turned pain into purpose and hardship into personal power.
This isn’t just a memoir. It’s a survival manual for anyone battling chaos—whether it’s poverty, addiction, toxic relationships, or self-doubt. With the bruised knuckles of a fighter and the sharp mind of a physics graduate, I lay out how I escaped a destructive path, found discipline through boxing, and rewired my mind to reroute my life to win on my own terms.
If you’ve ever felt stuck, underestimated, or one bad break away from rock bottom, this book is the corner coach you didn’t know you needed. Honest, gripping, and at times hilarious, Hard Lessons From The Hurt Business will remind you that your past doesn’t define your future—but only if you use them now to build a better future.
12 rounds in a prize fight. 12 chapters to learn hard lessons I learned the hard way.
1. A Hard Childhood Makes It Easy to Accept Harsh Truths
When survival is your only priority, you never get a chance to pretend the world is fair.
2. If You Can’t Beat Your Environment, Change It
You either become a product of your environment, or your environment becomes a product of you.
3. A New Environment Reveals Old Weaknesses
You can take the boy out of the ghetto, but you can can’t take the ghetto out of the boy.
4. If You Ain’t Got a Dream, You Ain’t Got Nothin’
When you’re drifting through life without direction, anyone’s expectations can become your prison.
5. Make Things Happen, or Things Happen to You
Either you take control—or the chaos takes you under.
6. The Harder You Work, the Luckier You Get
No hacks. No shortcuts. Just the relentless grind that puts you in the right place when opportunity shows up.
7. You’re Only as Good as Your Last Win
You’re never “made”—you’re just in between battles.
8. Nothing Lasts Forever
The applause fades. The spotlight moves on. What’s left is who you’ve become in the process.
9. If Your Miserable Life Doesn’t Motivate You, Nothing Will
There’s no deeper hell than being fully aware you’re wasting your potential.
10. Make Your Reality Match Your Ego
You can dream big—but until your actions catch up, it’s all fantasy.
11. You Only Have to Get Unlucky Once to Ruin Your Life
A single bad decision can collapse everything you’ve built—so move like every choice matters.
12. Old Endings Are New Beginnings
Sometimes, walking away is the real win—and the start of something greater.
Ed Latimore’s Hard Lessons From the Hurt Business is an extraordinary chronicle of resilience and reinvention. Ed takes the reader on his journey from poverty, trauma, and addiction to the halls of academia and intellectual triumphs. Along the way, he takes us into the boxing ring as he tells his story of transformation and unyielding determination. Hard Lessons is a must-read, particularly during our age of uncertainty. Ed is a source of inspiration for us all.
Dr. Drew Pinsky
Author of “The Mirror Effect,” and media personality
Teach Hard Lessons To Your Students, Faculty, and Team
