Breakfast of Champions

When I was a kid I wanted to win a gold medal at the Olympics. It didn’t matter what sport. I just wanted that medal around my neck. Our national anthem would play and our flag would rise. 

During these past Olympics, I watched incredibly talented athletes compete. And I wonder: athlete, entertainer, entrepreneur…what does it take to reach the top of your field?

There are some wonderfully strong and positive adjectives associated with success – dedication, determination, grace, resilience, motivation, drive, passion. But all of these attributes come into play after the decision to pursue an endeavor. What is behind all of this? Where does it all start?

I think it starts with something very simple; someone says something to you that makes you believe.

That something is said at a very specific time; when you’re young and it’s easier to believe that anything is possible. Perhaps it’s by a parent, teacher, mentor or coach. It is said by someone who believes in you. And they, in turn, inspire your initial spark of interest. But, and this is paramount, you must believe that this particular pursuit will be worthwhile.

You start to work and put in the hours. Author Malcolm Gladwell (The Outliers), references 10,000 hours; that is the amount of time required to begin to master your craft. During those 10,000 hours that you are devoting to your talent, you may be sacrificing a lot of your life – family dinners, anniversaries, birthdays, vacations, lazy Sunday afternoons in the park. But, you believe this is a valiant pursuit. 

There are days when it’s a hard choice. Questions arise and you wonder if the right decision has been made. Those are the days when people say, “No, no, no, you’re not ready, you’re not good enough, or you’re not what we are looking for right now.” That hurts. You think about a cousin’s wedding that you missed because you were on the coast, involved in a competition of sorts, from which you couldn’t extricate yourself. And your family says, “It’s okay.” And so you push on. You train and you study harder. At times, you think that there is nobody else in the world that understands your life. You feel alienated from everything and everyone. And, again, you hear, “No, no, no.”

Florence Griffith Joyner, an American sprinter who is considered the fastest woman of all time, and still holds the world record for both the 100 and 200 meters, said, “I’m not gonna kick every barking dog, cause I’m not gonna get where I’m going.”

Listen to the good voices.

You push harder, still. You train more, you study more. You put in another 10,000 hours. And then something happens; that “ah-ha” moment, when you become one with your discipline. There is a comfort and a solace in what you are doing and where you are taking your talent. And things start to look okay.

But it is an uphill climb. Always. You never stop. There is never a point in which you can rest. There is always something else that can be achieved. Until…that proverbial gold medal is hanging around your neck.

Then, perhaps, you take a moment, look back and say to yourself, “Yes, this was all worth it.”

I have often wondered about that moment. When standing on whichever podium in life that one occupies, what is going through one’s mind? Finally, you have hit your mark. Is there a moment of reflection in which you ask yourself for whom you did this: your company, corporation, country?

I think maybe, as I have watched those who have stood on the various Olympic podiums during the last couple of weeks, that perhaps in the very long run, and no disrespect to the massive amount of support that they have garnered along the way, but in that moment and at the end of that day, some of those Olympians are simply standing there for themselves and the years that they have spent mastering their craft.

It all comes back to that initial voice of encouragement heard during an age of innocence and resonating during a time of belief.

I remember that voice in my life. I was ten years old on a summer afternoon and I was in the backyard playing soccer with my father. I missed an easy pass and became somewhat disheartened. He turned to me and said, “Allison, you can do anything you want in this world. But, whatever you choose, know that it will take hard work. Success never comes easy, but if you follow what you love, you are half way there.”

I’m fairly certain that I will not hear the national anthem played on my behalf, nor watch the Canadian flag rise behind me, but I can still hear my father’s voice resonating within me in moments of success. But I am, more so, reminded of that afternoon and his words during turbulent times.

Al Joyner, Olympic gold medalist in the triple jump echoes such thoughts, “Success does not make a man, challenges do.”

And with that, we should all be feeling the wonderful weight of a gold medal around our necks.