After high school Sam went into the Merchant Marines, then quit and spent some time traveling Europe. He went to Harvard, also working a summer on the largest cattle ranch in Montana. Immediately after graduating, Sam took a job on a private sailing yacht for 18 months all the way to Australia. From there Sam went to Thailand, where he lived in a Muay Thai camp and fought, featuring on National Geographic’s “A Fighting Chance.” Later Sam got a job doing construction in Antarctica, where he met a smokejumper who got him into Wildland Firefighting.He continues to do yacht deliveries and has been writing books for the last few years. His first book, “A Fighter’s Heart,” took him on a lengthy odyssey to Brazil and Japan. Sam's second book, “The Fighter’s Mind,” is an investigation into the mental game of fighting, with essays and interviews with the best fighters and trainers in the world.