London, as we speak, is suffering a collective hangover. From courting the bright lights of the world’s media, and having one massive (and expensive) party, we’re now back to work. The athletes are leaving and the TV schedules return to their normal mush. But the Olympics taught us much; about winning, losing, and business.
Before I start this article in earnest, I feel I should get something off my chest. Hosting the Olympics may have been expensive it may have introduced a new level of draconian policing and the most outrageous curtailment on free speech, but it was awesome. London preened and posed in front of the world’s media and for the first time in a long time British people didn’t have to shrug their shoulders and pretend they didn’t care about losing. Team GB rocked, the Olympics ran like clockwork. Britain felt cool again. For a nation brought up to believe that only fascists fly flags, the Union Jack was everywhere. In the words of the Official Restaurant of the London 2012 Games, we were lovin’ it. So what you’re about to read isn’t objective, nuanced commentary, it’s an unapologetic gush-fest.
But I suppose I should try and make it relevant to this blog, so here are my ‘lessons we can learn from the 30th Olympiad’.
Don’t be a cynic
British people love a bit of a moan. To read the newspapers before the events began was like reading a forewarning of the Apocalypse. We couldn’t help ourselves, and, secretly, it was part of the fun. We’re weird like that. The traffic was going to be chaos and terrorists would kill us all. It would be Armageddon. But foreigners, reading press reports of imminent meltdown, stayed away. ‘Armageddon outta here’, they might have said.
Despite the Olympics running flawlessly, central London was a ghost town. We talked ourselves into failure and, at least off the track, the prophecy came true.
Its easy, really easy, to convince yourself of failure. It’s a defense mechanism designed to shield your ego in case the worst happens. But feeding that narrative for so long has its own repercussions, it becomes a recipe for failure. Or if you do succeed despite yourself, the success is tempered because you didn’t believe in yourself to push yourself that little bit further.
If you have the best products or services, shout it from the rooftops. If you don’t, work at it until you do.
Ignore the crap
Given what I was like as a teenager, I find those who compete at the Olympics inspiring, fascinating and a little terrifying. I have no idea about the pressures facing say, Ye Shiwen, the 16 year old Chinese gold medalist swimmer, but I can get a decent idea about what’s going on in the minds of Missy Franklin, the 17 year old American swimmer, or Tom Daley, the 18 year old British diver. I was once, a very long time ago, their age living an almost similar life. (Of course, substituting exercise for ‘watching tv’, and an amazing body with, well, a less amazing one.)
I’ll spare all the sob stories for when I’m next on Dr Phil, but essentially, my memory of being a teenager is sleeping all the time, and trying to fit in. If someone had then said "OK Andrew, I get you’re having an existential crisis, I get that you’re tragically misunderstood, but you need to do 100 laps today, and you’ve got a session with your trainer at 4", I’d have probably said “**** ***, you ****”. Which is why I’m the one typing this and they’re bagging million dollar sponsorship deals and cover shoots with magazines. BUT WHO’S HAPPIER? I ask myself, crying.
These guys have almost total devotion to what they do. Life as a teenager (but as an adult too) is full of pointless trivia that distracts you from where you want to be. These athletes don’t watch TV or get caught up in the petty squabbles that most people deal with. They don’t get distracted by life, they live it. (Take THAT Dr Phil!)
And that then is our next lesson. Don’t get distracted by stuff that doesn’t matter. If these guys can focus on what’s important (with WAY more distractions and much less maturity), then so can you.
The BBC Olympic commentator Clare Balding, when talking about the well-being of Olympians, said that "concentration is happiness". With all the endless ‘stuff’ that permeates our lives, I think she’s right. Concentrate, don’t get distracted by the crap, and you’ll be more successful (and happier) for it.
The show must go on
Athletes are admired the world over because they work harder than anyone else. Their diets are meticulously controlled; they spend their lives in the gym, on the track or in the pool. They never slack off, even if they really really want to. But it’s not just the athletes. Everywhere in the Olympic park people were fighting on, and living up to Olympic ideals. From the US athlete who kept running with a broken leg to Gary Barlow, who sang at the closing ceremony despite, a week earlier, having a stillborn daughter.
Both on and off the track, the Olympics were filled with stories of people who didn’t let an upset get in the way. They didn’t ‘take 5’ and they didn’t give up. They just carried on.
Because really, we’re all performers. We all have other people’s expectations to live up to, and you’ve just got to meet them. In the words of British comedian Jason Manford:
“If thousands of people have bought a ticket and are waiting to see you perform, have sorted out babysitters, have traveled from all over the country or the world to see you, then quite often, you put your personal problems to one side and you give them the show that they want.”
If you don’t perform then your reputation takes a knock, and you might never get it back. Your customers may not have traveled hundreds of miles, but they probably have clicked ‘buy’ or signed up to your newsletter. Whatever it is, they’ve committed to you. You just need to return the favor.
