From 600+ conversations with the world’s leading thinkers.
I was only 9 years old, but I loved ski racing. I loved skiing in general, and was lucky enough to meet my idol, Picabo Street. I met her at an autograph signing at a ski shop in Minnesota, and I said that's it… that's what I want to do… and this is who I want to be like. From then on, I made ski racing my focus, and my dad helped me create a ten-year plan to make the next Olympics.
What makes any sport exciting is learning how to excel by staying within the confine of rules, not by winning through ignoring them. The team isn't just the one with your jersey, it's everyone who wears a jersey.
Swimming transcended mere physical activity. It served as a conduit for life lessons, embodying the essence of its beauty. It taught me discipline, respect for others, and how to navigate the fine line between friendship and competition. Upon arriving in Germany, swimming became my sanctuary during a time when I had no other home. It provided a common language that allowed me to connect with others effortlessly, facilitating a smoother integration into German society.
In football, even though your revenue comes from a source that's linked to your core business, it's not your core business. The core business of any club is simple, to have success on the pitch.
Fighting crosses demographics. You can come to one of our gyms and find a barrister rolling with a security guard. If you go to the polo club, it's usually a single demographic.
When you're a child, you define your team as those wearing the same jerseys and your team's goal is to defeat anyone wearing different jerseys. But as you get older, your notion of what constitutes a team evolves.
I earn my living from coaching people how to fight… it may come as a surprise, therefore, to learn that until I was in my early twenties, I was terrified of fighting. I hated arguing, shouting, violence – all forms of conflict, basically. That's not unusual, of course, but to be honest, I was a bit of a wimp – or, as some of the kids in school liked to tell me, a pussy.
When you go out to run 100 miles – the lessons of a lifetime get compressed into 24 hours of non-stop running.
You can have athletes that are at their physical peak but without the right mental resilience and approach, their performance will not be where it needs to. I've focused on that a lot through my career- learning through experiences and trying to keep a perspective on what I'd achieved previously.
With 650 million global fans, MMA has the third biggest worldwide fanbase (after soccer and basketball). However, those MMA fans are very under-served and very under-monetized.
I approached fighting, and each contest, as an experiment. I would develop hypotheses on what strategies and techniques were winning, I would set-up experiments (or go into fights)- try them out- run tests- look at the results and try to be as unemotional as possible.
Everyone has a little bit of warrior in them. We all grow up and have a little piece of us which wants to be a superhero, who goes and fights the bad guys. In real life, fighting is tough, you have to overcome your fears – nobody really wants to get into a fight! Escaping that fear is the reason so many people who get into combat sports.