The Mighty Atom: A Legacy of Iron and Heart

A few years ago, I purchased a horseshoe bent into the shape of a heart. Its owner sold it to me because he wanted it to remain in hands of someone who knew what it represents. It hangs on the wall of my home, a familiar symbol that I look at almost every day, but which never fails to inspire me. This horseshoe is an expression of a well-lived life, a source of inspiration both professionally and personally.

It serves as a tangible reminder that the limits we perceive are mental constructs, meant to be challenged and broken. Obstacles are information.

The horseshoe was the work of an extraordinary figure - a representation of the American dream and often cited as the real-life character on whom Superman was based. Joseph Greenstein, better known as ‘The Mighty Atom,’ was said to be pound-for-pound the greatest strongman ever to have lived. I’m often asked in interviews or by new employees about my approach to life and business, my personal philosophy. I think of the horseshoe, a triumph of mind over matter. It serves both as an expression of some of my convictions – the importance of both strength and compassion – and a symbol of the lessons about ambition and accomplishment I find in the story of The Mighty Atom.

Joseph Greenstein was born in the ghetto of Suwa?ki, north-west Poland, in 1893, only a few hours’ drive from my own birthplace of Minsk, Belarus. He was a sickly child – doctors gave him little hope of surviving into adulthood. He suffered from tuberculosis and was far smaller than his classmates at school. Even as an adult, he never exceeded 5ft 4in and 140 lb. Aged 14, he went to a local circus and met a strongman, Champion Volanko, who saw something in Greenstein and became a mentor. Young Joseph undertook a gruelling training regime and quickly became a well-known wrestler – Kid Greenstein.

With the rise of anti-Semitism in Europe, Greenstein decided to emigrate to the United States. He was working in a gas station when fate intervened. None other than Harry Houdini pulled into the station with a flat. Greenstein couldn’t find a jack, so he lifted the car up - including Houdini and his manager - with one hand and changed the tire with the other. Houdini’s manager was so impressed that he signed Greenstein there and then, rebranding him ‘The Mighty Atom.’[1]

It’s hard to know which of the many stories about The Mighty Atom’s extraordinary life are true and which mythology. One story has a jealous man firing a pistol at his head from 30 feet, and Greenstein blunted the bullet with what he called “force of will”, causing it to fall harmlessly to the ground. He would drive nails into wood with his bare hands, twist bars of steel, break thick chains. He’d attach ropes to his hair and his beard, the other end to an airplane, and stop it taking off through sheer follicular strength.

I first became aware of Joseph Greenstein when I saw his 93-year-old son pulling a truck with his teeth on the television a few years ago. I was profoundly moved by the story of The Mighty Atom, by the way he broke limits and achieved the impossible over and over again throughout his life. It felt like a useful model for me – in finance and other quantitative endeavours you need to be consistently reaching for new goals, maintaining extraordinary focus on the details while not losing sight of your long-term ambitions.

Before Joseph Greenstein undertook one of his feats of strength, he would retreat from the world, into himself. You could talk to him and he wouldn’t hear you, so completely focused was he on the task ahead.[2] I call it hyperfocus – the state you enter when considering a problem: the world disappears, only the problem remains, until it cracks (or you crack!).

From the Mighty Atom I learnt the following key lessons about business and life:

1. Demonstrate relentless persistence and an unwavering commitment to goals, regardless of obstacles. Use the obstacles as information to inform your next steps.
2. Construct for yourself an ambitious and well-defined vision: Greenstein set out very clearly the path he wanted his life to take and he achieved this vision through strength of will and determination. This is a form of self-efficacy - a concept developed by psychologist Albert Bandura that argues success may be determined by one’s conviction in being able to achieve it.[3]
3. It’s important in life to have people who are models against whom you can judge your actions, measure your aspirations and evaluate your achievements. Choose these models wisely, but be open to where they may come from.
4. Your path to success may not be straight or simple. Embrace diversions and learn from mistakes. Do not underestimate the place that luck will play, but recognize also that luck can be made and harnessed.
5. You will have areas of strength and weakness; play to your strengths and work to minimize your weaknesses. Remember that Joseph Greenstein became The Mighty Atom.

Joseph Greenstein must have looked back on his long life with pride and a kind of wonder, but above all a recognition that he took the chances that were presented to him and wrung from them everything he could. I hope that I have done the same so far, and that I will continue to do so.

Whenever life's trials and tempests seek to wear me down, I cast my gaze upon the horseshoe, and I am reborn: mighty, with a heart of steel and compassion, ready to conquer the world.