What we can learn from Shaun White

April 16, 2010

 

Shaun White began his life with a challenge that most would not begin to comprehend. Born with a congenital heart defect, Shaun endured two open-heart operations before his first birthday. This however, did not discourage him. At 4 years of age, Shaun showed a sense of fearlessness as he raced down mountain slopes, chasing his older brother, Jesse, on skis. In an attempt to slow him down, his mother put him on a snowboard, and instructed him to copy everything his brother did. Her idea of slowing Shaun down did the exact opposite.

Shaun’s career snowballed. He entered and won his first contest, subsequently earned himself a wildcard entry into Nationals, and obtained his first sponsorship all at the age of 7. The 17 year old Shaun soon became the first athlete to qualify for both the winter and summer X Games, where he won 4 consecutive gold medals in one discipline.

Seemingly reaching the peak of his sporting career, Shaun confronted one of his sponsors, Red Bull, with the notion of competing in a single event at the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver, the half pipe, with the goal of taking the gold medal. “You have to keep pushing yourself as an athlete. When you’re at the top of the sport, it means pushing into unknown territory,” says Shaun.

Shaun’s thought behind this was to focus on a single entity of the sport and improve, possibly change snowboarding as we knew it. Through focusing his attention, Shaun was able to put thought into motion. “I’ve had all these tricks in my mind I’ve wanted to try. I just needed a place to figure them out.” With this, Red Bull built a custom half pipe in Colorado, complete with a foam pit, so Shaun could fully execute his new moves, without risking injury.

Prior to his gold medal winning run at the 2006 Winter Olympics, Shaun spoke about the feeling of confidence and certainty in his abilities, and on visualising his goals. This approach is something we can all learn from, not only in our everyday lives, but in our businesses and careers. Through visualising your goals and focusing on you how you are going to achieve it, you will succeed.

Learning to focus on one task is an invaluable asset. By focusing your concentration on one specific task, and eliminating distractions, your mind will be energised to completing the task at hand until completion – and ultimate success.

Ambition is what drives us to succeed. Shaun White didn’t rest on his laurels, instead he chose to push the boundaries and confront a bigger challenge and something that would push him to focus on one task at a time. Mindset goes hand-in-hand with ambition. With ambition you have a goal to work towards. With the correct mindset, you accept what needs to be done in order to achieve your goals – which steps need to be taken, and what sacrifices need to be made.

As an entrepreneur, business person, employee, employer – whichever category you fall into, you need to establish and focus your goals and work towards it. In Shaun White’s case, it was focusing on landing the Double McTwist 1260 and creating 4 other never-seen-before moves that would take snowboarding to another level. You need to ask yourself… what is your Double McTwist 1260 – and how will you direct your focus in order to achieve your success?