When I was a teenager I was a competitive swimmer. In the evenings when other kids were hanging out at the mall I was in the gym lifting weights or in the pool doing laps. In the early morning while other kids were still sleeping, I was back in the pool. On weekends, instead of going to parties or being mallrats, I was travelling around southern Ontario, visiting a variety of pools to compete in swim meets.
Like most kids who are serious athletes, I had dreams. Hockey players dreamed of the NHL, baseball players dreamed of the Major Leagues and like many other swimmers, I dreamed of the Olympics. I had visions of walking into Olympic stadium in some foreign country behind the Canadian flag.
Well, eventually that Olympic dream died. I didn’t walk into Olympic stadium wearing the Canadian colours. I never made the national team – never got close. And no matter how much the Beijing Olympics will bring back memories of those dreams, the truth is that this is one goal that is forever behind me – I’m just too darned old to make this one come true.
For the longest time the dashed Olympic dreams were my deepest secret and my biggest failure. And although I’m an Olympic junkie, for years I could never watch the swimming events because they brought back that sense of failure.
Then one day I was driving to an out-of-town meeting with a colleague. It was a long drive and we didn’t know each other well so we traded life stories. I told my story of being a swimmer but never quite making it. Imagine my shock when she responded in awe and admiration, “Wow. You must have been good.”
That one comment completely changed my perspective. In an instant all those years spent training stopped seeming like a failed effort and became an accomplishment. And they were. I learned how to work hard, be persistent and became really fit. These are all skills and attributes that are with me today. And when I “retired” from swimming, I took my skills and coached a swim team and taught swimming lessons which paid my way through university. Not bad for a failure.
This paradigm shift has had spin off repercussions. It has allowed me to look at my business in a different light. Every step – and misstep – I take along my journey is no longer a win/lose proposition; it’s just a step. When something doesn’t work the way I had hoped, it isn’t a dismal failure; it’s a lesson that might lead me to somewhere unexpected.
I’ve also learned that I don’t have to be on the top of the podium to be a success. We can’t all be Bill Gates, Steve Jobs or whatever successful entrepreneur you happen to admire. But if you’re doing something you love, building a business and managing to pay the mortgage, that’s success too.
And although I suspect there may be a tear in the corner of my eye this August when I watch the winning swimmer step up to the podium to accept the gold medal, there will also be a twinkle there as well. Because I know that although athletes have an expiration date after which there’s no going back, the same isn’t true of entrepreneurship. Age and experience can only help you achieve your goals.
Andrea J. Stenberg
