Outliers: Powering Up Your Dreams

As billions of sports enthusiasts across the world relieve the Olympics 2012 moments with David Rudisha breaking the 800m World Record or Usain Bolt powering through the barriers of history to become the first athlete in history to retain the Olympics 100m and 200m titles, we ought to relieve and internalize the unspoken but valuable lessons, many which transcend beyond sports and are essential to the success of any business or career. 

Some of these valuable lessons exemplified by top world athletes include: 

1. POWER OF SETTING CLEAR GOALS

Haroldson Lafayette "H. L." Hunt, Jr, a Texas Oil tycoon once said that only two things are required to be successful. First, you must decide exactly what it is you want to accomplish and secondly, you must determine what price you’ll have to pay to get it, and then resolve to pay that price. That’s exactly what Usain Bolt and David Rudisha did before the start of the London 2012 Olympics.

Bolt declared that he wanted to become a legend by becoming the first sprinter to win both the 100m and 200m races at two consecutive Olympics games. As for David Rudisha, he declared that his goal was not only to win an Olympics gold medal but also break the 800m-world record.

These two top world athletes came into the Olympics games with a clear mindset of exactly what it is they wanted to accomplish.

Jeffery H. Davis in a book titled “Managing and Achieving Organizational Goals” states that the power of goal setting is threefold. First, setting goals gives focus to your efforts. Second, goal setting is always a way to align resources behind a central set of goals, thus reducing waste and redundancy. Third, having specific goals allows you the opportunity to measure your success.

What stood out during the London Olympics, while watching Usain Bolt and David Rudisha participate in their respective races was the fact that, they didn’t seem to care about their competitors; they kept their eyes on the clock. 

1. DOING WHAT YOU LOVE IS ALL WHAT MATTERS
   
   

It has been said that if you find a job doing what you love, you'll never work a day in your life. Arnold Schwarzenegger, former Governor of California when asked how he managed to be successful, he replied with a single word “Drive”. To have “Drive” you need to have a burning desire and love for what you do.

 Watching Bolt, Rudisha and Phelps participate in their respective track or swimming events during the London Olympics; it was quite clear that they enjoyed their life's work.

 Success ultimately begins with an idea, but what makes ideas become reality is the fuel of human desire. Life is often filled with lots of challenges, and when the tough times come, it’s easier to keep going if you are truly motivated and operating in a field you really love.

 Frederick Herzberg, one of the most incisive writers on the topics of motivation noted that the thinking on motivation is distinguished between hygiene factors and motivation factors; where hygiene factors represent status, compensation, job security, work conditions or company policies while motivation factors include challenging work, recognition, responsibility and personal growth.

 By analyzing Bolt, Rudisha and Phelps through the lens of Herzberg’s theory, it was quite clear that hygiene factors don’t motivate them but challenge, recognition, responsibility and personal growth does.

1. BE AN EXPERT IN YOUR FIELD
   
   

Danish Physicist Niels Bohr once said that an expert is a person who has made all the mistakes that can be made in a very narrow field, understood the mistakes and learnt from them.

 By watching Bolt, Rudisha and Phelps in action in London, it was quite clear that they enjoyed their careers because they were expert athletes, who always delivered exceptional results.

 While their ability to perform is partially due to their innate talent, it is also a product of many hours of grueling training and strategic coaching.

 Loving what you do is great but more is always required for your success. Being knowledgeable and proficient in your field is important if you want to deliver exceptional results. Everyone wants to work or buy from the person who has the reputation, credibility and knowledge of an expert.

 Laurie Hayes, a Certified Life and Business Coach articulated in her article ‘How to become an expert’ five key steps that if followed, can catapult anyone to become an expert. The first and second steps being to identify a very specific niche and committing to learn as much about it as you can while remaining focused on your identified niche.

 Olympics offers a wide spectrum of track and swimming events but Bolt, Rudisha and Phelps identified specific events and remained focused on achieving their set goals regardless of how many exciting events they could have participated in and probably excelled.

 Surrounding one-self with people you want to be like is another powerful step towards becoming an expert. Britain’s Mo Farah, the celebrated Olympics 5,000m and 10,000m gold medalist set camp in Kenya and trained with top Kenyan athletes as he prepared for the London Olympics.

 Willingness to acknowledge that you will never know everything but still regarding yourself as an expert are the last two crucial steps towards becoming an expert.

 It takes long hours of commitment to achieve expert status; just accept it’s a process.

1. ZERO IN ON YOUR STRENGTH AND OVERCOME WEAKNESSES

At the age of seven Michael Phelps, was diagnosed with Attention-Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). ADHD is a childhood condition characterized by constant activity, impulsive behavior and the inability to focus one's attention on anything for a short span of time.

Phelps dealt with his own issues effectively by channeling his energy into what he loved most – swimming.

In the book titled Developing strengths or weaknesses: Overcoming the lure of wrong choices, Jack Zenger’s answers one of the basic questions on whether to focus attention on correcting faults or focus on building strengths. He concludes that serious weaknesses that are “Fatal” ought to be corrected first. Once the serious weakness is corrected, only then can you begin to work on developing strengths.

Working on strength is more fun and especially when progress is evident.

1. ALWAYS KEEP YOUR CUSTOMER HAPPY

One thing that differentiates Usain Bolt from any other athlete in the world is the tremendous response that he receives from his fans whenever he goes. He is a natural showman, who knows how to please his audience and leave them wanting more.

During the London 2012 Olympics, Usain Bolt showed that he is the sports finest showman as well as worlds greatest ever athlete when he retained his 200m Olympics title and celebrated by kissing the track, hugging spectators, dropping and performing a set of press-ups, striking the lighting pose, before borrowing a photographer camera to take souvenir snapshots of the occasion.

 Raven Craven, Managing Director of Directors Centre Business Club in the United Kingdom states in his article “10 ways to keep your customers happy” that one way to keep your customer happy is to understand what they want.

 Whenever Bolt, Rudisha or Phelps take to the track to compete, fans look forward to not only watching them cross the finish line ahead of the rest of the competitors, but a possibility of breaking a new world record.

 Always think about how you can 'wow' your customers by meeting their needs, offering incentives, and going above and beyond the call of duty to serve them.

 As we conclusion, don’t be left counting the number of medals won by various athletes in London, relieve the powerful unspoken lessons that were exemplified by the top world athletes.