Michael
Phelps says he has swam his last race. The five time Olympian is 31
years of age.
He
first competed in the Olympics at age 15. Same goes for Katie
Ledecky. She too made it to the Olympics by age 15.
This
is what psychologists might call the multiplier effect. Early success
drives a person to work hard and earn additional successes.
This
is all well and good but, what if you do not experience early
success? I mean, my blog is about effectiveness and entrepreneurship.
Not sports. If we do not experience early success should we give up
on our dreams of owning a successful business?
This
is where we should talk about David Plummer. Plummer did not swim in
the Olympics until he was age 30. I do not know if you can appreciate
that fact. But, what it means is Plummer had lived two lifetimes
before making it into the Olympics.
This
is a really important lesson in entrepreneurship. In a word, Plummer
is the personification of Angela Duckworth's Grit. What Duckworth has
discovered is the critical importance of grit, or perseverance.
When
your competition benefits from the multiplier effect, and explodes
our of the gate, it can be rather disheartening. If that is your
reality, remember David Plummer.
Actually,
this is a big part of the reason I would rather be an entrepreneur
than an Olympian. The window of opportunity is much larger for the
entrepreneur.
Michael
Phelps is the most decorated Olympian of all-time. And, he is retired
by the age of 31. By age 31 most entrepreneurs have not even
experienced real success yet. So, you need to just keep plugging
away. Perseverance is adaptive.
A
good mindset, for the entrepreneur, is urgent patience. I borrow that
phrase (urgent patience) from the Harvard professor John Kotter and
his book A Sense of Urgency.
As
an entrepreneur, you want to be urgent about the activities but
patient with the results. Be like David Plummer. Jump into the pool
everyday. Do the work. And, someday you will make it to your Olympics.
