“You never give yourself a chance to say, hey, look back at what I accomplished.”

You spend months working toward a goal. You finally accomplish it. How long before you start chasing the next one?

For John Pagliarulo, that drive has helped build a demanding actuarial career and carry him through two full IRONMAN races. It has also raised a harder question: when do you stop long enough to appreciate what you’ve done?

In this episode of Built to Finish, Steven Pivnik sits down with John to explore the patience, resilience, and daily consistency behind meaningful achievement. John shares the parallels between preparing for actuarial exams and training for endurance events, including learning to handle setbacks without losing sight of the larger goal.

The conversation also explores how endurance sports helped John move from working in isolation to finding strength in community, his personal experience living with Tourette syndrome and advocating alongside his family, and why communication and human connection matter as AI becomes a bigger part of professional life.

Key takeaways:
• Why difficult training days and failed exams can teach the same lesson in resilience.
• How smaller milestones create direction during a long pursuit.
• Why shared training helped John become more connected in his professional life.
• The tension between staying ambitious and recognizing your accomplishments.
• How John’s family experiences motivated him to speak more openly about Tourette syndrome.
• How he uses AI to reduce routine work while retaining human judgment.
• Why technical expertise becomes more useful when you can explain it clearly.

Connect with John:
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/john-pagliarulo

Listen to the full conversation for an honest look at pursuing hard goals, finding support, and making room to appreciate the progress along the way.