Understanding my Own Olympian Spirit
Back in mid-1999 I started working for an Internet marketing company in Boston, a start-up with venture capital funding, and a small group of very talented employees – I was the 6th one, and we grew the company to about 130 employees with 3 offices (Boston, Atlanta and NYC) in about a year and a half.
In the early part of 2000 someone suggested getting a team of people together to ride in a 3-day bike ride from Boston to NYC, about 325 miles, for the benefit of AIDS and sponsored by PAllottaTeamWorks and Tangeuray. I’m still not sure today what inspired me to say “yes, sure, I’m in,” especially given I hadn’t even been on a bike in over 20 years.
We had less than 3 months to train (and I had to actually buy a bike!) to ride over 100 miles per day, and through some areas of Western Massachusetts with substantial long climbs in the mountains. It was, without a doubt, the most difficult thing I have even done physically, mentally, and emotionally.
Did I give up? No! Did I want to? Oh my, I can’t even count the number of times I wanted to stop...during training, but even more so during the ride. I imagine there are some times in an Olympian’s life when they just want to stop, be it due to fatigue, injury, or loss of motivation, but their goals and their commitment keep them going.
And then I did the AIDSRide again the next year, by myself, along with about 3000 others, riding from upstate New York to Boston, about 350 miles!
As I reflected on the spirit of the Olympics, and the theme of this contest, these bike rides really stood out in my mind, both in terms of their reflection of the kind of person I am, as well as in some ways an analogy of our business.
First, there is commitment – a commitment to doing one’s best, to helping each client to the best of my ability, to continued learning and education, and not giving up when things go awry, either in the business or personally.
Less than 30 minutes after we left Boston on my first ride we were blasted with a significant thunderstorm, with lots of lightning and torrential rain for several hours.
It was pretty scary to ride on the roads at morning rush hour with tons of cars, and with several inches of water cascading down the sides of the roads and flooded areas to avoid. I remember pouring water out of my bike shoes at the first rest stop, and I felt I would never dry out that day, even after riding 8 hours!
There are certainly times when my commitment to this business had been challenged, with moments of frustration, transactions not going the way they should or falling apart, difficult people in the business, or problems in personal life with health or family matters that intervened.
But I’m not one to give up easily, and prefer to work through a problem or frustration to find a solution…like fighting my way up a hill when my legs were burning, the heart rate significantly accelerated, and finding it hard to breathe…rather than succumbing to the desire to just give up. Do you see Olympians stop and say – I can’t do this anymore? No, unless an injury or disqualification prevents further progress.
Another thing about these bike rides, and my real estate business, that spoke to me is a focus on achievement. Olympians strive to win a particular competition – the fastest time, the best dive, the most difficult vault, the highest jump. But even in the face of not winning, there is the achievement of just being there, of participating as a solo athlete or on a team.
Some Olympians, despite successes in their sport for their country, never will be the winner – there are always others who just are better, and in each competition that can only be one winner (or the rare tie!). But they have achieved success by being there and participating in the greatest sporting event in the world, even when faced with the disappointment at not being #1.
Real estate offers multiple opportunities to succeed – to secure a particular listing, to reach a transaction or GCI goal for a year, to enjoy the feeling of finding each client a new home or helping them succeed in selling one. And we have the pleasure of participating in an industry that significantly impacts the lives and dreams of homebuyers, over and over, year after year.
Sure, there are awards and recognition along the way – that’s always an honor – but the real pleasure of achievement is in helping each client reach their unique personal goal. And it happens over and over! And we can continually strive to achieve again and again, and set different goals to stretch us beyond what we thought we were capable of doing. Olympians do that as well, don’t they?
And it looks like I am reaching the finish line of getting this done within the qualifying time. Perhaps not in record time, but I achieved my goal!
Comments(24)