Men’s Journal’s Everyday Warrior With Mike Sarraille is a podcast that inspires individuals to live more fulfilling lives by having conversations with disrupters and high performers from all walks of life. In episode 37, we spoke to Jurica Barac, former Red Bull professional BMX rider and chief executive officer of HIGHLANDER, which provides once-in-a-lifetime hiking expeditions around the globe.
Listen to the full episode above (scroll down for the transcript) and see more from this series below.
This interview has not been edited for length or clarity.
Mike Sarraille:
Welcome to the Men’s Journal Everyday Warrior podcast. I’m your host, Mike Sarraille. I’m joined by Jurica Barac of Highlander who has a very interesting story and has created an adventure race concept that really reconnects people, not only with themselves in nature, through mentally and physically challenging events, which I love. When you remove the competition it makes it mental, it makes it spiritual and that’s what we’re all about here at the Everyday Warrior. But you’re got one hell of a story man. Born in Croatia, correct?
Jurica Barac:
Yeah, that’s correct.
Mike Sarraille:
Okay. And then you grew up doing BMX?
Jurica Barac:
Yeah, so I was born just in the middle of war in Croatia. It was beginning of nineties and we had very hard time over there because Serbia and Croatia were in the war and sleeping in the basement waking up with shelling and sirens and it was very, very tough. And a friend of mine, they start to organize some kind of gathering for people who ride BMX inline skateboard and they used to gather before the war, so they just started to doing it again. And I fall in love with that because it was kind of positive energy, no competing. It was very cool. And this is how I finished in BMX and after a few years I found that I really love extreme sports and I started doing it for real. When I say for real, I was doing it, Let’s do it. Maybe I can compete maybe I can do some prize money. Maybe I can fight for life through BMX and this is how I finish in the BMX.
Jurica Barac:
And then I was already a pro athlete a few years after and I got a Red Bull sponsorship, became Red Bull athlete, started traveling around the world because for me, coming from OTE cro, this is very small town and in the middle of wartime, it was like a miracle just to go out of the country and not even going to us or I don’t know, UK or Asia. And I saw this BMX as perfect opportunity to meet new people, to enjoy sports, to travel around. And I didn’t see it like a sport and competition, I just saw it as an opportunity in life and I really enjoyed that time. It was a great time
Mike Sarraille:
From war to a Red…
