Want to be a millionaire? Start acting like an Olympian.
7 ways an athlete's mindset can help you win in business.
Hi friends.
The Olympics are here!
I’ve always been someone who gets excited for the games. I have fond memories of watching them on TV as a kid and eagerly checking the medal count in the newspaper each morning (the pre-internet days 🫠). The little patriot in me loved seeing how the US fared against other countries.
I was also an athlete growing up. Though certainly no Olympian, I competed at the State level in field hockey and track, and went on to dance competitively through college. Playing competitive sports during my formative years laid a strong foundation for business later in life, and I’ve noticed that many of the most impressive people I’ve encountered throughout my career were also athletes at some stage.
The fact is, there are so many similarities between what it takes to succeed in sports and in business—executives can learn a lot by taking a page out of an athlete’s playbook. In many ways, achieving outsize success in the world of business today requires more than just talent or luck—it demands an Olympian mindset.
So in honor of the games, and in lieu of my usual weekly round-up, I’m sharing a few things I think we can learn from athletes that will help us win in business.
The odds are stacked against you, which makes an extreme work ethic mandatory if you want to succeed.
Being an athlete conditions you to bounce back after failure, over and over again.
Earning—and keeping—a spot on a high-performing team is normal in sports and should be the gold standard in business.
Competitive athletes know how to work exceptionally well under pressure.
Daily discipline and consistency over long periods of time can facilitate extraordinary achievements.
The habit of analyzing wins and failures leads to personal growth, continuous improvement, and accountability.
Loving what you do is a superpower.
More on each topic below. Let me know your thoughts in the comments! ⬇️
xAllison
Welcome to On the Rise—weekly musings on founder life, navigating the business world, and women's empowerment from award-winning entrepreneur Allison Luvera, Co-Founder & CEO of Juliet. Subscribe (for free!) today.
7 ways an athlete’s mindset can help you win in business.
1. The odds are stacked against you, which makes an extreme work ethic mandatory if you want to succeed.
The harsh reality is, the chances of becoming an athlete who competes at the highest level are staggeringly low. Less than 2% of college athletes go pro. Only about 600 U.S. athletes are invited to compete in each Olympics games.
So how do those chosen few make it to the top? Lots of different factors play into it, but one thing every successful athlete has in common is a work ethic that borders on insanity.
They don’t just work hard, they work harder than everyone else.
And they don’t stop pushing themselves even when they are at the top of their game. This relentless drive is what separates the Olympians from the rest.
As a society, we seem to expect this. We understand that Simone Biles wouldn’t be Simone Biles without years of blood, sweat, and tears, and we applaud her effort.
For some reason, this level of hard work and sacrifice isn’t as synonymous with outsize success in the workplace—but it should be. In business, the probability of making it to the top is just as slim. Only 6% of Americans become millionaires. Less than 1% of the workforce will ever become a CEO. It’s widely known that 90% of startups fail.
So how do you ensure you’ll be in the top 10% in business? The people who are beating the odds are adopting an athlete’s work ethic, and the companies that are succeeding embed that into their culture (Netflix and Traba are two examples of this).
The 20VC podcast had a great interview last year with Keith Rabois and Mike Shebat on this exact topic.
There is a lot of career chatter these days about work-life balance, mindfulness, and even “leaning out”—especially amongst the youngest generation in the workforce. And if someone has only moderate ambitions, that approach is totally fine.
But for those who want more, whether there are at an Olympic training camp or a startup office, long hours and intense focus are the norm. This is the only thing that reliably creates the momentum that turns seemingly impossible dreams into reality.
2. Being an athlete conditions you to bounce back after failure, over and over again.
I think women struggle with failure so much (I need to write a whole post about this). A lot of us are perfectionists, or risk-averse, or both—and it can hold us back in business. If you haven’t read Reshma Saujani’s book Brave Not Perfect about this topic, put it on your Summer reading list immediately.
To achieve anything great in business, you need to be able to reframe failure as a positive. It’s something you learn from. It’s a byproduct of innovation. It breeds resilience. It’s going to happen to the best of us over and over again in our careers.
And yet, many people in business let fear of failure hold them back from achieving their full potential.
Athlete’s don’t.
This was beautifully illustrated by Roger Federer at his recent Dartmouth Commencement address.
In his now-viral speech—which I absolutely loved—the tennis champion gets real about how you can work harder than you thought possible, and still lose often.
He succinctly breaks down his career losses in numbers, pointing out that as one of the world’s top players he’s only won about half of the points he played, and that taught him how to not dwell on the losses.
The best in the world are not the best because they win every point... It’s because they know they’ll lose... again and again… and have learned how to deal with it.
You accept it. Cry it out if you need to... then force a smile.
You move on. Be relentless. Adapt and grow.
In business as in tennis, the most extraordinary leaders are the ones who are taking big swings. Trying things, making decisions. Getting “in the arena”, if you will. They win some, they lose some, but every time they move on—stronger, better, smarter.
3. Earning—and keeping—a spot on a high-performing team is normal in sports and should be the gold standard in business.
The concept of “high-performing teams” was first introduced to me by a former manager who had our team read a case study on the All Blacks Rugby Team at a corporate retreat. At the time, I knew nothing about rugby and had no idea who the All Blacks were (spoiler alert: they are iconic—do yourself a favor and search “All Blacks Haka” on YouTube).
As one of the most winning teams in the history of sports, the All Blacks attribute their success to their unique team culture (whole books have been dedicated to this):
Sweep the sheds: each player is humble enough to pick up a broom and clean.
Follow the spearhead: emphasizing how well the team flies together in the same direction.
Champions do extra: self explanatory.
Keep a blue head: control under pressure.
Leave the jersey in a better place: uphold the legacy of the team.
Ever since I learned about this, I’ve been obsessed with the idea of high-performing teams—how they succeed in sports and how to create them in companies.
I also love the idea that earning a spot on such a team is an honor that not only has to be earned, but maintained, through performance. Did anyone else watch the recent docuseries on the Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders? In their annual selection process, Vets have to re-audition for the team. Their spot is never guaranteed, so they always have to maintain a competitive edge over incoming Rookies.
Too often in business you encounter people coasting by, doing just enough work to keep their jobs, and subsequently bringing an entire team down with their mediocre efforts. It might be an unpopular opinion, but I think companies could take a page from sports in this regard—if you don’t perform, you’re off the team.
Netflix is one company that does adopt this approach with their famous “keeper test”.
Similar to Netflix’s ruthless approach to talent management, trained athlete’s never take their spot on the team for granted. They know that if they don’t perform—if the results aren’t there—they will be benched or cut.
4. Competitive athletes know how to work exceptionally well under pressure.
Did anyone else watch the recent Euro 2024 championship—where many of the games came down to a tie-breaking penalty shootout—and wonder how those players didn’t crumble under the pressure?
I mean … imagine being one of those men, standing in an arena with millions of people watching, knowing that everything you have worked for comes down to one kick in that one moment. I get the chills just thinking about it.
But despite the tremendous pressure, none of the players cracked. They all performed like the pros that they are.
Years of practice, experience, and more practice have conditioned them to not let the nerves take over. They rely on their preparedness and trust in that to get them through the moment.
The same principle applies in business. Entrepreneurs and executives have to perform well under pressure, often in the midst of chaos and uncertainty.
This is one of the shifts that I’ve really felt as I’ve climbed the corporate ladder and now hold a leadership role in my own company. When you are the one making the biggest, hardest decisions, you have to learn to rely on your experience and data to make the best choice possible given the information you have at the time.
You also have to learn how to stay calm and exude an air of competence, even when it feels like the world is crumbling around you. You can’t let your emotions take over and throw you off kilter.
In business, as in sports, there are going to be high-stress, make-or-break moments. Maintaining a clear head and calm composure to navigate these scenarios for your team is something that comes with practice and experience, and separates the leaders from the rest.
5. Daily discipline and consistency over long periods of time can facilitate extraordinary achievements.
One of the hardest working founders I know (the ever-inspiring Virginia Frischkorn from PartyTrick) recently texted me an episode of the Good Trouble with Nick Kyrgios podcast.
“Starting ~10 min, good clip”, she said.
The clip in question featured another tennis star, Novak Djokovic, speaking candidly about the role that consistency and discipline have played in his success:
Repetitiveness and consistency are key if you want to do anything well in life.
It can absolutely be hard to have discipline on a daily basis, especially on the mornings when you don’t feel the best, or just want to be doing something else.
To get into the right mindset, have a clear sense of purpose and express gratitude for your achievements so far.
On a similar topic (from yet another tennis star), one of my favorite quotes of all time comes from Venus Williams, in this speech about the importance of discipline:
"I honestly believe discipline is freedom.
When you have discipline you get what you want. When you don't have discipline, you don't get any of what you want.
So you're free to live your dream, you're free to do the things you love, and then you start to come to love the discipline and then when you don't have the discipline that's when the anxiety sets in because you know you're not paying the price.”
Discipline is freedom! Such a revelation. And in business, it’s no different.
If you want to achieve outsize success, you need to put in the work, even on the days that you don’t feel like it. Especially on the days that you don’t feel like it, because that consistency is exactly what will help you pull ahead from the rest. The ones that understand this and adopt it over long periods of time will find a way to win in the end.
6. The habit of analyzing wins and failures leads to personal growth, continuous improvement, and accountability.
In sports, it’s commonplace to sit down with your coach or teammates after every game and watch your performance.
You talk about what you did right and wrong. You discuss how to improve next time. There is no ego, defensiveness, or excuses. Just a neutral evaluation of what happened, and how to learn from it.
This post-game analysis is a process that demands honesty, objectivity, and a willingness to examine personal choices and actions.
The best people I have worked with in business have the same sort of growth mindset. They are constantly evaluating their own performance and considering how they can improve, then making the necessary adjustments. They know they are a work in progress and view every experience as an opportunity for development. Their career is a dynamic series of self-improvements that never truly end.
This is a behavior I’ve always been a fan of.
Right now, I’m specifically working hard on my public speaking skills. I used to be terrified of standing up in front of a group of any size, and have been working to become better at this for over a decade. With my shift into entrepreneurship, it’s come to the forefront as an even more important skill to hone.
Some approaches I’m currently taking:
Over-prepare for every speaking engagement to build up my confidence.
Say yes to every opportunity to speak to a room large or small and have someone film it (practice!)
Say yes to appear on any podcast (practice!)
Push myself to film video content on a weekly basis, whether for our company or personal social media channels (practice!)
Then watch every single video back in detail.
I’m not going to lie, that last point is so painful and cringeworthy. I have to psyche myself up to do it. I hate hearing the sound of my voice and I’ve discovered so many awkward ticks and filler words that I use. But little by little, I am improving, and I’m excited to be turning a former weakness into a future strength.
To sum it up, the path to success in any endeavor involves a commitment to ongoing self-assessment, a willingness to learn and make continuous improvements. The best in business (and sports) know this, and live by it.
7. Loving what you do is a superpower.
Professional athletes choose their “job” intentionally. Over and over again, they choose to continue to fight and work and sacrifice to do what they love for a living.
Often times, it’s a dream for them to get to do what they do every day. And when you watch them compete, it shows. Their passion for the sport shines through in their performance. That’s why people pay money to watch them do it.
I’ve always felt that the most successful people in business also love what they do (not a coincidence that I work in the wine industry!). They are fulfilling their dreams through a different kind of achievement.
Maybe they don’t have people paying for tickets to watch them negotiate deals or make Excel models, but they are passionate about their career, and that is part of what drives them to work so hard, for so long, to achieve lofty goals. It’s also part of what motivates people to follow them.
Whether they are building something that they think will change the world, or aspire to lead a great organization that stands for something larger than themselves, work is not just a means to an end or a paycheck. It’s a source of pride—and this can be a superpower.
Athlete or executive, when you genuinely love what you do it allows you to do things that others deem unsustainable.
Case in point, I just read this article about Olivia Coffey, a Private Equity professional who also rows for the US Olympic team. In order to make her dream of rowing in the games possible, she trains 3.5 hours each day in addition to her full-time job.
Most people would say that’s not possible, or at the very least, insane. But it’s proof that passion for something allows you to work harder and longer than anyone else, and to persevere in the fact of adversity. It’s a motivation that leads to momentum, that snowballs into extraordinary success.
Thanks for reading—enjoy the Olympics & see you next week! ✨
Love the olympics too I always get inspired.
Definitely some interesting points in here, but at the end of the day, some people just prioritize other things than work and I think that's OK! But these are good ideas for anyone wanting to be top of their game.