Morada Musings

I’m in awe.  Really.  Watching the Winter Olympics in Vancouver, I’m amazed by the level of human strength, perseverance, finesse.  Those who have spent hour upon hour honing their bodies to endure the arduous pounding of moguls and pipes, the strain of  maintaining an awkward, unnatural position while skating as fast as humanly possible or gliding, jumping, spinning and flying through the air non-stop for long minutes while remaining graceful.  It is truly astounding what one can do when one puts one’s mind to it!

Then there are those who lose it – lose their focus, their determination, their timing.  Some, it would appear, just didn’t train long or hard enough.  Others have obviously done the physical training but somehow haven’t been able to bring their minds to the same level of preparedness.  I applaud each, winners and losers, for pursuing their dreams over the long haul.

Like Shen and Zhau, Chinese pairs skaters who left their homes as children to live in segregated dormitories with other athletes in training, even while they have been married, and after 18 years of skating together, won gold.

And Seth Westcott, who overcame injury, weather and being well behind the leader to dig deep, play smart and grab the lead late in the run to win gold, for the second time.

And I cringed with sympathy when Jeremy Abbott let his nerves get the better of him, losing his focus early in his short program with missed jumps that put him too far back to have any hope.  Cried when I read that luger Nodar Kumaritashvili of Georgia had expressed fear of the track that took his life but stepped into the gate nonetheless because it was his dream, what he had trained for.

And I’ve been thinking how these situations are not much different than what we entrepreneurs experience – years of training in the trenches of corporate life to bring our dreams to fruition, reaching some critical juncture where we must put in our best effort to attain the prize we’ve been pursuing.  And sometimes failing because we didn’t work hard enough, or missed the depth of training in a particular skill, or simply lost our focus.    So, what have I been learning while watching these tremendous athletes?

Prepare as much as possible.  Stay calm.  Be focused on your goal yet balanced in your life.  Get back up when you fall.  Be gracious in defeat.  Applaud the superb performances of others.  It’s not over until it’s over, and for many, there’ll be another try next time.

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