How tearing 4 ACLs prepares you for the ups and downs of business
I have a love-hate relationship with sports. On one side, it brought me life long friends, helped me get into an incredible school, and taught me the importance of teamwork. On the other side, it led to 4 ACL tears, countless hours of rehab, and being medically retired from the Air Force. So why do I look at it as one of the best things I had to go through?
It taught me how important the ability to deal with adversity is in the business world.
The first setback always hurts the most
The first ACL tear I had was in the first lacrosse game of my senior year of high school. I was devastated. To make matters worse, I got a call from a rep at the Air Force Academy saying because I wasn’t going to be healthy in time for basic training, I was disqualified from attending the school…
Shit. Let’s just say I did not handle it well. I felt sorry for myself and instead of trying to find solutions, I just sulked and blamed others. A couple of weeks after the injury, my dad busted into my room saying, “ Stop feeling bad for yourself, suck it up and call the Air Force Academy coaches to figure out a way to make it work.” (changed the words a little bit).
That motivated me to hassle the coaches into finding a way to get me into the Air Force Academy prep school which fed into the Academy. After thinking my dreams were crushed, with the help of others, I was able to get back on track.
Dealing with adversity is learned
After the second one, something occurred to me. I’ve done this before, and it’s not the end of the world. Suddenly, that year-long recovery didn’t seem as big of a mountain to climb. I knew what to do and that it was possible to get to the finish line. I just have to grind it out.
After the 3rd and 4th ACL tear, that mountain got smaller and smaller. My perspective changed from self-sabotaging pity to focusing on improving the things I can control.
This is a skill that is extremely valuable in business. There were plenty of days where I thought the whole world was coming down on me. Instead of throwing in the towel — which no one would have blamed me — I just said hey, no use in dwelling on things I can’t change. How can I make a positive out of this?
How someone deals with adversity is relative
There’s a reason why I was better at dealing with my ACL tear each time. It’s because I’ve already gone through it. This is important though as a leader to understand that not everyone is equally equipped at dealing with adversity. You have to understand everyone’s threshold to know how far to push them.
Even from my first ACL tear to my 4th, my threshold for dealing with adversity is completely different.
The same goes with hiring. Sometimes, the most talented people aren’t the best fit for the role. The problem you can run into with extremely talented people — and it’s not their fault — is that they spent their entire life winning. That means their threshold for failure is low and they are more likely to throw in the towel when it gets hard.
The Reset Button
I can’t take credit for this, but it is a great way to look at things. I heard it first from my brother’s Harvard lacrosse coach Chris Wojcik. He said that whenever you make a bad play, you have to have a short memory. He coined the Reset Button that said, “ So what, next play, Reset.”
At NativX, we did this all the time. When we didn’t hit on a partnership or launched a feature that flopped, we hit the reset button. So what, next play. What it did was help us focus on what we could control vs. dwelling on what we couldn’t. As soon as a failure hit, we immediately turned around and figured out what we learned from that failure and how can we do better the next time. I’m better prepared to deal with the ups and downs of a startup because I know the downs won’t last forever.
Consider these blogs my personal diary detailing all the mistakes I have made and how I’ve learned from them. I know what I don’t know — which is a shit ton — but hopefully, someone can get something out of my ramblings.
