What running 1,000 miles in 2020 taught me about business and life

2020 has been a challenging year for the world, to put it mildly. A global pandemic, natural disasters, issues related to socioeconomic inequalities, increase in unemployment and many other challenges defined this year. Perhaps running became my coping mechanism to deal with the challenging times. Beyond my own expectations, I ran 1,000 miles last year during which I completed my third full marathon, ran dozens of virtual races and long runs and experienced a setback which caused me to abort the second marathon attempt for 2020. Here is what I learned about business and life in general from my 2020 running experience:

1. Setting goals for the long run: Life is more like a marathon than a sprint. If you’re looking to transform yourself, a company or even an industry, you must lace up for the long run. It requires a growth mindset, building tremendous endurance and increasing your pain threshold. You must slog through hundreds of rigorous training runs to be prepared for a handful of races.
2. Knowing your limits and pushing them: Any major endeavor whether it is in business, life or running requires you to set bold and ambitious goals. I prescribe to the philosophy of setting goals that seem beyond your reach. Oftentimes, you or your team surprise yourself with creative solutions and tapping into dormant strengths that get activated in the face of an intimidating goal. Long-distance running, and the training behind it, is supposed to hurt. You need to learn your pain threshold in running and push it further through hard work.
3. Balance is key: Running 1,000 miles in a year requires balance in endurance, speed work, strength training, nutrition and recovery. If you don’t focus on all of these elements, you won’t achieve your goals, won’t achieve your personal best or you’ll be injured along the way. In business, you need to build an organization for the long run. It requires a similar balance of hyper focus on the external factors like Customer Satisfaction and Shareholder value, but also requires intense focus on important internal factors like building the right culture, vision, strategy, growing your team, enough time communicating and so on. 
4. Dealing with setbacks: It is never going to be all tailwinds in anything in life. After finishing my third marathon in March , I set my eyes on a second event in October. I trained very hard for three months and put in six continuous weeks of double-digit long runs. Unfortunately, just two weeks before the marathon, during taper time I hit the dreaded Patellofemoral Pain Syndrome. The symptom is knee pain, but the root cause is lack of proper balance. I had compromised on strength workouts and just obsessively piled on mileage. In life and work, I have experienced these times when I ran too fast for too long, resulting into a major setback. Somehow a sport like running gives you a very clear view of why you encountered such a setback and how to avoid it. It also teaches you very clearly how to deal with such setbacks, pick up the broken pieces, keep the chin up and keep marching on. There are no shortcuts, you need the discipline to invest in the balance. If you’re curious to know the outcome, I still attempted a second marathon in October and aborted after mile 17 due to excruciating knee pain.
5. Value of Inspiration, mentorship and support: During the year, I got tremendous support from NYRR group trainings and inspiration from many fellow runners, family and friends. Sports teaches you that you need a growth mindset and to continuously learn. Often, after a long period of success in one’s career, complacency can set in. But just as when you pick up a new hobby, you are reminded how much you need to continuously keep learning to perform at the highest level. The same can be said about career change. In 2018, I made a major change in my career leaving Microsoft - a world-class software company, to MSCI - a world-class quantitative investment technology company. It can be a humbling experience when you realize how much you need to learn about the new company culture, industry, the key challenges and how technology can help solve those challenges. There is no substitute for getting help from mentors, coaches and senior, more experienced leaders, whether it be in business or sports.
6. Adapting to the environment: If you want to run 1,000 miles in New York City, you need to learn to adapt. You will run in temperatures between 25?F-90?F, with high wind gusts, high humidity and elevation. Occasionally, you run in the snow. You never know what the weather on race day will be. The same is true in business and life. If you’re adventurous and ambitious enough for tough challenges, you’re going to face adverse conditions. The good news is that you can adapt, if you have a growth mindset. I successfully ran in such conditions thanks to the right training, gear, coaching from experts, observing others and pushing through pain. The key is to have a goal that you’re obsessed and passionate about , and have the resilience for long-term focus.
7. Enjoying the journey: It's not always about speed, distance, races, goals and medals. You need to be able to enjoy the journey. For any audacious goal you set in life, you’ll need to experience a lot of ups and downs. You need to be able to enjoy the whole journey and be witness to your own unfolding story. Or else, what’s the point?

Moral of the story: Set ambitious, audacious goals for yourself, don’t fear failure, push your limits, learn and grow your way out of setbacks, get inspiration and support from your ecosystem and enjoy the journey. Go ahead, lace up, I’ll see you on the road.