Cycling CEO is the leader of corporate cycling programs, helping business leaders and their companies create a healthier more productive workforce.
It has been an exciting three weeks of cycling with the Giro d'Italia and the Tour of California both taking place this month. After many days of hard racing, neither race was decided until the very end.
In the Tour of California, Robert Gesink won the Stage 7 finish atop Mt. Baldy as well as put himself in position to win the overall with only one day remaing. In the Giro d'Italia, it was settled on the last day, mano a mano between Ryder Hesjedal and Joaquim Rodriguez.
However, in both cases, neither Gesink nor Hesjedal would've been in the position to win the race if it weren't for teammates.
Often overlooked and under appreciated (unless you are the guy for whom they are working), the other six or seven guys on your team were there to get their team leader to the finish line. Whether it was Christian Van de Velde of Garmin pulling for kilometers up the Stelvio pass or someone dropping back into the caravan to get bottles from the team car, each rider had a role to play and a hand in their teammate's victory.
This same analogy can been seen in successful businesses. No one person can do it all. It takes a team, pulling together with a single purpose that delivers success. The sales rep may be the "team leader" but, if he is to be successful, he needs a strong supporting cast to aid him in his victory.
In business and in sport, it is proven time and again that you cannot win the race without the help of others to put you in the position to utilize your strengths when it is most important. Surround yourself with a strong team and you most certainly will taste success.
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Last Saturday, I rode in the L’Etape du California. It was a grueling ride - 79 miles long, the last 25 being uphill. The ride involved over 11,600 feet of climbing with the last four miles at an average grade of 8.5%. It was a terrific event, well organized and supported, and challenging, so much that nearly 50% of those who started the ride never made it to the finish.
What impressed me most, however, was the drive that I saw in other riders who refused to let a 14% grade two miles from the finish deter them from completing the ride. They persisted, drove on and made it, even if it meant having to stop, walk or zig-zag across the road. Their sheer determination to make it to the finish got me thinking about tenacity, perseverance and determination and the role each plays in achieving success.
When I was racing my bike (all those years ago), I was never the most natural climber or the fastest sprinter on the road. What I had, however, was the desire and determination to not let anyone or anything get in the way of me being successful. I refused to let others define for me success and failure. To me failing was nothing more than a learning lesson, a setback on the path to success. I was determined to be a successful cyclist and put in the hours in the gym, on the indoor trainer and on the road, persevering when I encountered setbacks and staying focused on achieving my goals.
In late 1990, I said good bye to the Army and to competitive cycling and was immediately hired by a company in Stamford, CT. I will never forget what the President said to me one day as to why he hired me over more qualified applicants. He said, “You’ve been successful in everything that you’ve done and I’ve no doubt that you will be successful here.”
In business, one sales representative might earn two or three times that of another in any given year. However, that doesn’t mean that the former is two or three times better of a sales representative than the latter. It is more likely that the higher earning representative went about his job in a consistent, persistent manner.
Napoleon Hill devoted an entire chapter in Think and Grow Rich to the subject of persistence. He said, “There may be no heroic connotation to the word persistence, but the quality is to the character of man, what carbon is to steel.”
Nobody is guaranteed success. But, you can, through persistence, heavily influence your likelihood of success. And, in the words of the late great coach Jim Valvano, “Don’t give up, don’t ever give up.”
"No horse gets anywhere until he is harnessed. No stream or gas drives anything until it is confined. No Niagara is ever turned into light and power until it is tunneled. No life ever grows great until it is focused, dedicated, disciplined." - Harry Emerson Fosdick
I have been listening Bob Proctor's Freedom Series on my training rides (not necessarily a great idea!) when Bob read Fosdick's quote. I stopped, scrolled back and listened to it a couple of times. To me, this is one of the best success formulas I've heard. To me, this is what it means:
Focus - the ability to stay on task and not let yourself get distracted and off-track. In business, sometimes it is easier to do emails as opposed to picking up the phone to call a prospect or a challenging customer. On the bike, it is the ability to stay focused on doing what it takes to achieve your goal. You have to commit to the goal and stay focused on doing what it takes to achieve that goal.
Dedication - commit yourself to putting in that extra phone call, to making the extra effort that your colleagues may not be willing to do. When riding, it is dedicating time required to achieve the goal, whether it is a personal one or even a team goal. If you choose to do, then commit the time to doing it right.
Discipline - in business and in sport, I see as the one of the most difficult tasks. It takes a serious commitment to get and stay disciplined. On New Years, many people set goals to lose weight or go to the gym. However, what they lack is the commitment to stay disciplined to those "resolutions" and, after a month or so, fall back into the ways of old. If you want to success ,you must dedicate yourself to achieving that goal and doing what it takes, day in and day out, to achieve that goal. In business, this is even more true if you work in a home or remote office. You have nobody but yourself to hold you accountable.
In 1988, I had multiple short, medium, long term and dream goals. Three of those goals were to be a National Champion, make the US National Team and the Olympic team (my dream goal), there were days when my wife thought I was crazy. I would go out on training rides all types of weather, one day even trying to ride when there was over four inches of freshly fallen snow on the ground! I committed myself to staying focused on my goals, dedicated myself to doing the work necessary to achieve those goals and was disciplined to doing my work every day to get better. All of this commitment resulted in me nearly achieving ALL of the goals that I had set at the beginning of the season!
When you commit, you focus. You focus your energy, your effort, your actions on the very thing to which you have committed. You are willing to take action without any distractions, action that delivers the results you want.
