[00:00] John Naber: Well, there’s a real difference between I screwed up and I’m a screw up. That if you look at the failure and personalize it and say, that means I am a failure, then you’re dead in the water. You don’t have the faith that you’re going to get better. Whereas a learning mindset, a growth mindset would say, yeah, that was a screw up, but how can I benefit from it?

[00:23] John Naber: How can I improve from it? How can I make it better?

[00:28] Jim Harshaw Jr.: Welcome to another episode of Success for the Athletic Minded Man. Real talk on harnessing your athletic drive for clarity, consistency, and focus in business and life. This is your host, Jim Harshaw Jr., and today I bring you John Nabor. John Naber is a Olympic gold medalist.

[00:47] Jim Harshaw Jr.: He won four Olympic golds in 1976 at the Olympic games in Montreal, as well as a silver. He also led the USC Trojans to four undefeated seasons and four NCAA national championships. He’s one of those guys who has succeeded at so many different things. And I love getting inside the heads of guys like this because there are men and women like this who have succeeded in multiple things because He really reveals to us how people like him think he’s achieved in the swimming pool, or obviously world class.

[01:19] Jim Harshaw Jr.: And he’s also a published author. He’s written three books and actually four books. And he talks a little bit about those during the end of the interview and where you can find those. He’s also a keynote speaker. He’s been master of ceremonies, a workshop facilitator, panel moderator. He’s addressed over 1000 audiences.

[01:37] Jim Harshaw Jr.: Worldwide, including many of the Fortune 100 companies. And he has achieved success not only in the pool, but also as an author, also as a speaker, and and for his accomplishments. In 1977, he won the Sullivan Award. So I remember when I was a kid seeing John Smith, the wrestler win the Sullivan Award. big deal.

[01:59] Jim Harshaw Jr.: It’s awarded to the top amateur athlete of the year. John was actually won more Olympic medals than he was the most decorated Olympic athlete from the United States of any sport in 1976. So, um, incredible interview and incredible, incredible conversation. He’s also on the board of directors, by the way, Paralympic Committee.

[02:18] Jim Harshaw Jr.: So absolutely fascinating individual. Here we go. Let’s jump into my interview with John

[02:22] John Naber: Naber.

[02:25] Jim Harshaw Jr.: When did your Olympic dreams start?

[02:29] John Naber: I’m the second of four children. My father was a management consultant. We lived in Europe for seven years. Every summer, we’d go on a vacation to a different part of Europe.

[02:39] John Naber: When I was 10, we went to Olympia, Greece. And I met the tour guide who explained that the origin of the Olympics is not all about honoring the athletes. It’s about honoring the gods. It’s about character and sportsmanship. And if you were caught cheating, they would carve a statue in your honor. And there is literally a hall of shame in the tunnel that leads to the Olympic stadium.

[03:01] John Naber: And I was so impressed with it, with the concept of a sport for the good of mankind, that I said, mom, I want to be an Olympian someday. She said, really, what sport? I didn’t know. I didn’t start my swimming career until three years later. But my Olympic dream was born when I was 10.

[03:17] Jim Harshaw Jr.: Wow. When did you believe you could do it?

[03:20] Jim Harshaw Jr.: Cause you know, you’re 10 years old. You’re like, I can be one of the best in the world at what I do. What did you believe it at that moment? Or when did the belief set in that maybe, maybe actually could do this?

[03:29] John Naber: The belief, the faith that I was going to be an Olympian someday occurred in 1972. I started swimming in 1970 and by my third year, I made the Olympic trials.

[03:40] John Naber: I almost made the team and I said to myself, wow, I got pretty far pretty quick. If I just stay healthy for another four years, I could do really well. So, uh, that was when I really believed it was going to happen.

[03:54] Jim Harshaw Jr.: And so talk to us a little bit about your, your journey into college at USC and becoming an Olympian.

[04:01] John Naber: To get there, I, I really needed to do a couple of chapters in my high school year. My freshman year in high school, I got the most improved award in the sport of swimming because I had started so late compared to others. I mean, in Europe I played cricket and soccer. Never started a swimming career until high school.

[04:17] John Naber: And was improving quickly, but I also got myself hurt going on a Christmas ski trip. I tore the ligaments in my knee, so I was out for a few months. And then my junior year, 1972, I was a big upperclassman showing off on the diving board, and I missed the water. And I broke a collarbone, put a dimple in my cheek, and was out for the 1972 high school season.

[04:40] John Naber: That’s when the college coaches are recruiting high school juniors. I recovered in time to go to those trials in 72. Watch Mark Spitz. Qualify for seven events where he would go on and win seven gold medals. And that’s when my faith began, my faith in my swimming career. I was recruited, but because I’d been out for my junior year, not a lot of college coaches knew about me until my senior year.

[05:03] John Naber: And by then I’d already narrowed the field to three California schools. I wanted to stay on the West Coast. Stanford, UCLA, and USC were my preferences. And I chose USC because I lived in Menlo Park, which is a stone’s throw from Stanford, and I didn’t want to go home every weekend and have mom do my laundry.

[05:22] John Naber: So I wanted to go to Los Angeles, and then USC eventually won that battle. And I was proud to be a part of the Trojan Dynasty that won four national championships from my freshman year through my senior year.

[05:35] Jim Harshaw Jr.: Yeah, incredible team, incredible program, and you had a very successful career as a collegiate athlete, but in the middle of your college career, not in the middle, I guess towards the end of it, you were 20 years old, 1976, you qualify for the Olympic team.

[05:50] Jim Harshaw Jr.: This is a childhood dream come true.

[05:53] John Naber: Absolutely. And in retrospect, had I not injured myself on the dining board, it’s possible that I would have gone to the Munich Olympics, and it’s possible I would have won a bronze medal, and it’s possible that would have been enough. I would have been satisfied with that, but because I was denied that opportunity, I think my focus, my passion, was amplified.

[06:14] John Naber: And so for four years, I was really drilling on getting to the Olympics in Montreal. Those games occurred the summer between my junior and senior year at USC. And, uh, I was lucky because a lot of USC Trojans went on that team, and so rising tide lifts all boats. The temperature in the workout pool at USC was high, and we were all racing each other all the time.

[06:37] John Naber: My USC teammate Bruce Furness would tease me because my nickname was Snake. He took the nickname Mongoose. And instead of being Competitors or Predators, we called each other Com Predators. We were each other’s competitor. We were making each other better. And at the Olympics, he was the only guy to beat me.

[06:58] John Naber: My silver medal came at the hands of my USC teammate, Bruce Furness. So my point being is that everybody in that pool helped us get better. I owe my success to every member of my team. People think swimming is an individual sport and it’s not. And, uh, I just, I loved the experience and had a marvelous time.

[07:17] Jim Harshaw Jr.: It’s a great analogy for life and for our listeners who are, they’re not athletes, maybe they were athletes in high school or in college and maybe they’re weekend warriors now, but the idea that you have to have people around you to challenge you, to push you, frankly, to make it harder. Absolutely.

[07:37] John Naber: I tell a story in a chapter in my book about when I came back to the United States after seven years in Europe, mom said, is there any American food you’ve been craving for seven years?

[07:48] John Naber: And I remember tasting root beer. They don’t sell that over in Europe. So we went down to the supermarket, bought a six pack of mugs, good old fashioned root beer, put the brown glass bottles in the styrofoam ice chest. I began to drink. By the time I got to the third bottle, the bottles were bobbing in a mixture of ice and water, and the water melted the blue that held the paper label to the bottle.

[08:11] John Naber: So when I pulled out bottle number three, there were only four words still visible around the neck of the bottle that taught me my life changing lesson. They basically said, if you’re not willing to pay the price, you’re not entitled to enjoy the flavor. If we’re not willing to invest in our dreams in advance, We don’t deserve to see the dreams come true.

[08:31] John Naber: You may be too young to remember, but around the neck of the bottle, the four words were no deposit, no return, pain, no gain. Now the bottle is thinking California redemption value. I’m thinking, wow, you know, diamonds in diamonds out. So all of a sudden delayed gratification became my mantra. And that, you know, as well as anybody in order to get stronger, you must damage your muscles.

[08:58] John Naber: By lifting a barbell 10 times, you’re unable to lift it 11, you’ve damaged your muscles. But overnight, they grow back stronger, and tomorrow you can do 12 or 13 reps. So that’s the idea, the, the, the pay the price in advance, work hard, endure the pain, and you will get better. And so it’s the damage that produces results, it’s the failures that teach us life lessons, and that’s what I learned through sport.

[09:27] John Naber: One of those many lessons that I learned through sport.

[09:31] Jim Harshaw Jr.: Well, let’s talk about that. Failures. You’re a guy who hasn’t had very many failures, at least from the outside looking in, right, we, I get to talk to world class performers like yourself and, you know, four Olympic gold medals and a silver, like, Oh, well he, okay.

[09:43] Jim Harshaw Jr.: He, he lost that one time. He had that one failure. That’s the only failure. It’s the only blemish on your record, right? As far as. We know from the outside looking in, you’ve gone on to be, you know, an international speaker and an author and a broadcaster very successfully for, for dozens of sports, you know, even outside of swimming.

[09:59] Jim Harshaw Jr.: So, very successful guy for for us, it can be easy to look at you and say, boy, things just come easy for John. Were there failures along the way? I mean, let’s just start with swimming alone. Were there, were there failures in your collegiate career, in your journey to becoming an Olympian and Olympic gold medalist?

[10:18] John Naber: Well, let me begin by contradicting your point of view. My silver medal was my best swim in Montreal. It was by far and away faster than anybody thought I could do, and it occurred 45 minutes after I won the gold medal in the 100 backstroke. So for me, that wasn’t a failure. It’s a silver medal, but, and there’s nothing wrong with a silver medal unless you think you could have won the gold.

[10:43] John Naber: I didn’t think I was going to win the gold, so I was very, very happy with the silver. But I’m happy to report that there are a lot of failures in my life. And all of them, each of them, taught me an important life lesson. Give me a moment, I’ll run through a couple. As a freshman water polo player in high school, I was on the bench.

[11:02] John Naber: I was not a member of the starting squad, but I was watching the action take place, and there were a couple of swimmers in the pool. One of them was a guy who was named Bill, and I thought Bill was struggling. And my coach calls me over and says, Neighbor, you’re going to go in for Steve over there. And I said, Don’t you mean Bill?

[11:21] John Naber: And the coach looked at me and said, Go back and sit down. Don’t you ever contradict me again. And I lost my voice. I was like, And I realized that I had challenged his authority to make those decisions. And I sat on that bench, humiliated, embarrassed, embarrassed. Ashamed and sad for all of maybe five minutes.

[11:41] John Naber: By then the coach had realized, okay, he’s learned his lesson. Come on back, neighbor. You go in for Steve. And I went in and Steve came out, and I played really well. Would you say that my mouthing off was a failure? I, it was treated as if I had failed, as if I had screwed up royally. But look at the lesson I learned, and I was able to grow from that.

[12:02] John Naber: Diving off the diving board and missing the water, that’s a failure. The loss of the season is a failure. But what I learned is that now I really wanted to focus on staying healthy. I didn’t clown around as much for the next four years. I had a teammate who played basketball in the offseason and he twisted his ankle and he was out for the season.

[12:22] John Naber: I didn’t do that. I learned of my lesson. In 1973, the U. S. National Championships selected the team that would compete in the first ever World Swimming Championships. And if you win the 100 meter backstroke, you are automatically placed on the U. S. medley relay. And the U. S. medley relay was really strong, so if I won the 100 backstroke at the Nationals, not only would I swim the 100 backstroke at the World Championships, I would also be a virtual lock for a gold medal on the medley relay.

[12:55] John Naber: And in the 100 backstroke, I led the field going into the wall. In the 1970s, the rules were different than they are now. In the 1970s, backstrokers had to touch the wall with their hand before they turn around and go the other direction. And most backstrokers would bend over backwards, putting an arch in their back.

[13:15] John Naber: It would allow their legs to spring out of the water and turn around. Being as tall as I am, 6’6 I did it differently. I folded up like a jackknife in the middle of the water and I spun on my rear end. I called it a sit and spin turn. I didn’t need to use the wall to execute the turn, but I needed to touch the wall to be legal.

[13:36] John Naber: Well, I came off the turn coming to the surface and the stroke and turn judge is waving. A signal of an infraction. Halfway through the race, I was looking at the official telling, telling me you’re going to be disqualified. I was so angry, I swam hard, I touched the wall first, everybody applauded, and I shook my head and did a thumb snap, and I pointed at the official at the other end of the pool.

[13:59] John Naber: My coach jumps out of his chair, runs over, and he’s having a debate with the official, and the meat referee comes over, and he’s trying to adjudicate this dispute. And they have a conversation. My coach runs back around to me and he says, John, the turn judge saw you miss the wall. The meat referee didn’t see an infraction.

[14:18] John Naber: What happened? Did you touch the wall? And I said, Coach, I didn’t touch the wall. She was right. I had missed the turn. I had executed a turn. I was still fast. I touched the wall first. But I didn’t follow the rules and I had to admit it to my coach who admitted it to the mean referee. I was disqualified and I did not swim the 100 backstroke or the medley relay at the world championships.

[14:43] John Naber: That taught me an important lesson. Is that a failure? Yes. Was my admitting to the failure a problem? No. It’s one of the decisions about which I’m most proud by being able to fess up to deal with the fact that I was disappointed. And I moved on with my life and I made sure to touch the wall every time thereafter.

[15:04] John Naber: You got time for one more?

[15:05] Jim Harshaw Jr.: Yeah, let’s hear it.

[15:07] John Naber: My freshman year, Conference Swimming Championships for USC. You have preliminaries in the morning. The top six times swim in the final at night. The first day event was the 500 yard freestyle. I’m in shape. I’m ready to go. I figured I would back off a little bit to save some energy.

[15:26] John Naber: I hoped I could qualify relatively easily. And I swam a relatively good distance. Swim in the prelims. Sadly, there were six other people who were faster than me in the prelims. So now I’m swimming in the consolation finals at night. I’m not swimming for the gold. I’m swimming for seventh place. My time at night would have won the gold medal in the championship final.

[15:50] John Naber: I learned my lesson. I failed. I didn’t get into the final. I didn’t score the points for the team. But I learned an important lesson. That you don’t want to back off too much in the prelens, otherwise you don’t get a shot at the finals. I learned that lesson really hard. So yeah, those were failures that produced a better result.

[16:11] Jim Harshaw Jr.: Yeah, what do you have to say to the listener who’s sitting there saying, you know, hasn’t made that connection yet between your story In their life. They’re in the real world. They’re trying to grow their business, grow their career, get the promotion, make more money, uh, have a great marriage, lose the 20 pounds, whatever it might be they’re trying to accomplish, but they’ve experienced the failures, the setbacks, and maybe they’re sitting there saying, yeah, but here’s my adversity.

[16:40] Jim Harshaw Jr.: Yeah, but here’s my challenge that nobody else has. What do you have to say to that person?

[16:45] John Naber: Well, there’s a real difference between I screwed up. And I’m a screw up. That if you look at the failure and personalize it and say, that means I am a failure, then you’re dead in the water. You don’t have the faith that you’re going to get better.

[16:59] John Naber: Whereas a learning mindset, a growth mindset would say, yeah, that was a screw up, but how can I benefit from it? How can I improve from it? How can I make it better? My wife and I have been married 42 years. Our premarital counselor said, you’re going to be like two rocks in a tumbling stone polisher, and for the next 50 years, you’re going to be knocking pieces off of each other, making each other smoother and shinier and prettier.

[17:27] John Naber: You know, doesn’t feel good to get that piece knocked off. But the outcome is gonna get better. And just like lifting weights, you’re gonna get hurt. You’re gonna, you’re gonna be tired, you’re gonna damage things. But if you have a growth mindset, you’re gonna say, okay, if I look for the benefit, if I look for what, what did I learn today?

[17:46] John Naber: Now I’m a better person. I have more, more, uh, assets, more ammunition, because I, I, I benefited from the, from the downside. Let’s talk about growth mindset more.

[17:57] Jim Harshaw Jr.: Think about in the moments when, you know, you’re in the biggest races of your life, the biggest moments of your life, is it just pure focus or are there elements of fear or doubt that ever crept in?

[18:10] Jim Harshaw Jr.: And if so, how do you, how do you face those? How do you manage those?

[18:13] John Naber: I liken the Olympic final as approaching opening night on Broadway, the day after a really good dress rehearsal. I knew I was capable of breaking a world record, but I also knew there’s the possibility of a screw up. And I wasn’t saying, I wonder, can I win?

[18:32] John Naber: I was saying, how can I make sure I don’t screw this up? If you’ve done the work, you have a reason to be confident. I mean, the guy in the outside lane didn’t think he was going to win. He’s the last qualifier. But I was in the center of the pool. I figured, okay, I trained hard in workouts. I did certain repeat sets that implied that I was on my way to a world record.

[18:56] John Naber: So I was confident. Don’t want to be overconfident, don’t want to assume anything, and I also have absolutely no control over what happens in the lanes on either side of me. I cannot make another swimmer go slower than he can, and in fact, I don’t want him to go slower. My definition of sportsmanship is trying to beat the other swimmer.

[19:20] John Naber: The opponent on his best day. I want him to be at his best. I just want to be a little bit better. You don’t want to, you know, hit him with a pipe in the leg. You don’t want to, you know, encourage them to false start. You don’t want them to have a sleepless night before the race. You want them to get their best.

[19:37] John Naber: You just want to be at your best. And I do believe that every athlete who marches in the Olympic winning ceremony can be at their best. They can do a personal best time and you can leave the Olympics being proud of your performance, regardless of the finish place.

[19:55] Jim Harshaw Jr.: I want to point out for the listener, John is a competitor.

[20:00] Jim Harshaw Jr.: This is like, he’s simply sharing the idea that. I want to beat you on your best day. And I hear this in my world of wrestling. I heard a great clip from, from a really good wrestler talking exactly about this, like sometimes in wrestling, you know, you hear your name called, your opponent’s name called, and you show up at the head table to report, to check in.

[20:22] Jim Harshaw Jr.: And then you hear the second call for your opponent because he hasn’t showed up yet, and maybe the third call and you’re like, Ooh, maybe I, maybe I get out of here with a free win. Maybe I get to maybe get the forfeit, right? And you know, there’s a sense of like, Ooh, this could, this could be great. And it’s like, wait a second.

[20:35] Jim Harshaw Jr.: Like, no, I want to compete. Like you have to want to compete more than you want to win. You have to want to compete. And that’s what, that’s the, the mindset that is coming through from you, John. I think it’s fascinating. And I think for the listener, you have to take this and embed this into your life as well.

[20:52] Jim Harshaw Jr.: You want to get the promotion. You want to get the job. You want to. Build your business. You want to close the deal, make the sale on the other person’s best day. When the thing, things may be hard for you on, you know, this is going to require you to be at your best. Like that’s, that’s what brings out the best in us.

[21:07] Jim Harshaw Jr.: And John, it was fascinating to hear your best race. When, when you got your silver in Montreal. That was your best race.

[21:15] John Naber: That was the one I performed at the best, in that copper metal finish. But I wanted to share with you, a lot of people ask me, what makes Olympic champions different or unique?

[21:24] Yeah.

[21:24] John Naber: You know, every Olympian I’ve ever met, they’re not all smart, they’re not all fast, they’re not all strong, they’re all different, but they’re all the same in one particular area.

[21:33] John Naber: We are all very competitive. You put Olympians at a trivial pursuit table.

[21:38] You

[21:38] John Naber: put Olympians in front of a video game. We’re just so competitive. Because not only do we love to win, everybody loves to win. We hate to lose. And that drives us. But I will say, the word competition reveals something. And if you take Latin from competition, it’s a combination of the word com, meaning together.

[21:59] John Naber: And petition, meaning to seek. A competition is where two people come together to discover something. And I’m thinking the analogy of kids standing back to back to see who’s the tallest. They want to find out who’s the tallest. If I stand on my tippy toes, I’m not learning the truth. Right? I’m not really discovering anything.

[22:20] John Naber: So if I cheat and win, I haven’t really discovered anything. And if you were to sit on an airplane and found a gold medal under the seat in front of you, you would have an Olympic gold medal. Would that mean that you’re a champion? No. No. Having the medal is not the same as earning the medal. And the earning is what I think is so remarkable and wonderful about sport.

[22:43] John Naber: The original purpose of sport is to prepare people, to prepare athletes, for life after sport. If it doesn’t do that, if it doesn’t teach us that, then frankly it’s a waste of time, because the ability to swim quickly while on your back is a skill with limited value in society at large, right? I mean, that skill doesn’t really help anybody.

[23:07] John Naber: Uh, it is exciting at the moment of time, but nobody goes to swim meets in non Olympic years. It’s not that thrilling, but doggone it. If you can learn something and use those skills later in life to provide greater value at work, to inspire others, I, I realized very shortly after my resignation or retirement from swimming, I had invested eight years of my life to become the best in the world at something.

[23:32] John Naber: How can I add value to that experience by sharing it as inspiration? What you and Ruben Gonzalez and other Olympians do to share their experience in sport. To inspire other people to excel in their line of work. And frankly, those lines of work are probably more valuable to society at large than doing a sport.

[23:58] Jim Harshaw Jr.: Yeah, agreed. You said the, the, the common theme between all Olympians is they’re competitive. You’ve done a lot of speaking at, at Fortune 100 companies, and you’ve worked with a lot of teams and executives and leaders. What are the comparisons? If you were to compare and contrast the highest performers in sport and the highest performers executive, who are executives or leaders in business, what are the similarities that you see?

[24:28] Jim Harshaw Jr.: Well,

[24:30] John Naber: let me first by talk, talk about the difference. The difference in sport versus the difference in life. The difference in sport, it’s a win lose proposition. For me to win, you gotta lose. In life, in business, it’s a win win proposition. For me to win, you have to win. Now, I’m going to beat some other service provider, but there has to be a, an exchange of value in order for anybody to be successful.

[24:57] John Naber: Now, most companies wisely will hire an applicant who’s got some experience in sport because they understand that sport has already taught them the work ethic. The following the rules, the listening to coaches and growing the growth mindset. All of these skills are developed through sport and people in business realize that’s going to be valuable.

[25:21] John Naber: And I want that person on my team.

[25:24] Jim Harshaw Jr.: Well, you mentioned a coach, right? The people who, who have been, have been coached before, was there a particular coach or mentor that you had that inspired you, that challenged you, maybe pulled the best out of you that was, um, that was pivotal in your career?

[25:40] John Naber: I think I’ve had six different coaches in my career, and each one of them was perfect for that point in time.

[25:49] John Naber: My very first coach in high school taught me how to have fun in the pool. If I didn’t learn that lesson, I might not have returned for season number two. My second coach taught me the fundamental mechanics of each of the four competitive strokes. My third coach taught me to think outside the box and to try to be excellent, not just in one, but, but try to be excellent in multiple events, not just freestyle or backstroke, but both.

[26:17] John Naber: My fourth coach taught me how to put aside distractions and focus on the task at hand. Each coach came along at the right point in my career. I was very fortunate. They were all good. They all taught me something different and they all filled a need in my life that was perfect for that point in time.

[26:36] Jim Harshaw Jr.: You were on what is widely considered the greatest men’s swimming team of all time in 1976 and you’ve been part of a lot of other teams, broadcasting teams, and you’ve worked with a lot of teams through the speaking that you do and other being on the U. S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee board. What makes a great team?

[26:56] Jim Harshaw Jr.: What are the components of a great team? I guess start with what did you experience in, you know, maybe in one or any of these examples of different teams you’ve been on that were instrumental for success? And what do you coach people? What do you tell people is required to, to create and be part of and to lead a successful team?

[27:17] John Naber: What defines a team is a common goal. It’s not just a gathering place, it’s not just a workout, but we share a common goal. A band of brothers wants to capture the Omaha beach, right? They have a goal. And we’re willing to sacrifice our individual comfort In pursuit of this goal. If you have those things, that, that willingness to sacrifice and a common goal, you have yourself a team.

[27:45] John Naber: And that’s what I really noticed in my experience. Our common goal at USC was to win the national title, and our swim coach inspired in us the belief that it was possible. He said, if everything goes right, we can win by one point. My final score in my freshman year NCAAs was USC 339, Indiana 338. Wow. One point.

[28:09] John Naber: And all of a sudden, like, wow, I’m going to believe whatever the coach tells me. So that was a real epiphany for me. And once you begin to trust the coach. Then he can have much more, he or she can have much more of an impact because you’re now willing to try things and do things. I believe that faith in the coach is more important than the competence of the coach.

[28:33] John Naber: If you believe in the coach, if you say there’s going to be some good to come out of this conversation, if you look for the benefit, you’re going to find it. Whereas if you’re skeptical of the benefit, you’re looking for reasons for failure, then you’re not, you’re not going to find benefit. You may be right.

[28:49] John Naber: You may find the incompetence, but what good did that do you? Didn’t do you any good?

[28:54] Jim Harshaw Jr.: That is such a good point. I just want to, I want to point listeners to, if you’ve listened to my interview, my most recent interview with Ruben Gonzalez, we’ll have a link to that in the action plan. His, his most recent book, The Shortcut is about this.

[29:07] Jim Harshaw Jr.: It’s like the short, essentially boiling it down, not to be a spoiler, but there’s a lot of great content in this book. The shortcut is find a coach. Trust in the coach, do what they tell you, and that will be your shortcut. And that’s what, that’s what you’re saying here.

[29:22] John Naber: Yeah. Many coaches will say, trust the process.

[29:25] Jim Harshaw Jr.: Yeah.

[29:26] John Naber: Trust the process. And one of the ways to do that is to find out whoever your role model might be, the defending Olympic champion, the current vice president of sales, whoever you want to emulate, find out what they did and do the same thing. That’s the easiest way. That’s the easiest way to find a path and not the only path.

[29:46] John Naber: Yeah. But a path to success is to mimic your role model.

[29:51] Jim Harshaw Jr.: You’ve written some great books over the years, John. You, one of them is, uh, Awaken the Olympian Within, and it focuses on helping people achieve their own dreams. What is one piece of advice from your Olympic journey that you think every person here listening should take note of?

[30:10] Jim Harshaw Jr.: And should apply to, to their lives.

[30:13] John Naber: Well, I have to be honest. I didn’t write the whole book, Awaken the Olympian Within. It’s a compilation of chapters, each chapter written by a different Olympian. I asked them, what did sport teach you? What lesson have you learned that will benefit you later in life? And Rowdy Games talks about the importance of details.

[30:32] John Naber: Terry Schroeder, the water polo player says, ignore the elbow. Keep your eye on the ball. Dick Fosbury talks about how to innovate. The, the Fosbury Flop. So every Olympian has got a different life lesson. I told you the one that I learned, the no deposit, no return lesson. That to me is the lesson I learned before I went to the Olympics.

[30:51] John Naber: What I learned at the Olympics, and here’s, here’s probably the takeaway. People at the Olympic Games want to find common ground. We want to share. A set of rules. We want to agree on what, what is valuable, what, what is a worthwhile result. So when you get people of different political philosophies, different religions, and you put them in the athlete’s village, they can still find common ground.

[31:22] John Naber: We may not speak the same language, but I’ll exchange a lapel pin out of respect, and we will both agree that the rules of this sport are this, that, and the other. And so now we’re looking for things that we can agree on, and agreement provides a groundwork for friendship. And I know that Pierre de Coubertin, who created the Olympics, was not an athlete.

[31:42] John Naber: He was an educator. He believed that by putting the world’s best athletes into a environment where they could talk and share, it would create bonds of friendship and understanding that would create a better, more peaceful world. That’s a pretty lofty goal, but that’s the, that’s the movement that I signed up for.

[32:00] Jim Harshaw Jr.: And that gets back to education, right? This is the real value of sport. It is the education that you get by doing all the things that are required to be your best, right? Whether your best is second Olympic silver medal, or your best is breaking the starting lineup, or your best is being third string.

[32:17] Jim Harshaw Jr.: Whatever that is, there’s an education gained in that.

[32:20] John Naber: Yeah, one of John Wooden’s greatest champions was one of the players who rode the pine Never started, very rarely played, but he learned life lessons from Coach Wooden, and he thinks Coach Wooden hung the moon, because it changed, improved that man’s life, and went on to write books and do wonderful things, because you don’t forget.

[32:42] John Naber: Somebody who teaches you things. Daughter still talks about how my dad taught her how to tie her shoelaces. Somebody who teaches you something, that’s, that, you keep that. You own that and you are better.

[32:55] Jim Harshaw Jr.: John, you’ve taught us a lot here today. What is one thing you can leave us with? What is one action item for the listener that they can take away from this and maybe they can apply to their lives in the next, say, 24 to 48 hours?

[33:12] John Naber: Well, I would challenge the listeners to think about an Olympic story, an anecdote that’s famous and noteworthy, and it’s very rarely the story of an individual who coasts to victory, who has an easy win. It’s always People who overcome adversity who triumph. Greg Louganis hits his head on a diving board and comes back to win gold.

[33:35] John Naber: Simone Biles, the greatest, has to overcome her mental illness issues and she comes back to succeed, but she doesn’t win at all. Then you’ve got swimmers like Mark Spitz, who in 1968 was criticized and failed in the eyes of the world. Four years later, he comes back to win seven gold medals. I mean, the stories that resonate with us are not stories of mere victory, but stories of triumph over adversity.

[34:03] John Naber: So now when we encounter an adversity and when we encounter an obstacle, we can either say, I wonder if I can overcome that. Or we can say, I wonder how I can overcome that. You know, Olympians look at obstacles as riddles or puzzles. There’s got to be an answer in here somewhere. Let’s find it. Whereas most people say, Oh, I don’t know.

[34:24] John Naber: It looks like it’s impossible. So I would say the takeaway is look at every obstacle as a, as a riddle or a puzzle and look for the benefit. What are we going to learn as a result? And the outcome is going to be always better than it was before.

[34:39] Jim Harshaw Jr.: Incredible. Change one word. I wonder if, I wonder how I can overcome this.

[34:45] Jim Harshaw Jr.: John, thank you so much for your wisdom here today. Where can the listeners find you, follow you, buy your books, jump on your website, etc?

[34:53] John Naber: You know, I do have a website, johnneber. com, but I’m, I’m of an age with the white mustache. I’m technically not seeking employment. But I’m seeking to make a difference.

[35:05] John Naber: If I can benefit somebody, fine. Uh, Awaken the Olympian Within might be available on Amazon. I used to sell it at corporate meetings. My book on innovation was published in house and it might be available. Eureka! How innovation changes the Olympics and everything else. And my last one is a book of Olympic trivia, which is available through the U.

[35:26] John Naber: S. Olympic and Paralympic Museum. And that one is called Olympic Trivia Challenge. And, uh, that’s a fun one. If you, if you ever get to the Olympic Museum in Colorado Springs, Colorado, anyway, so you’re welcome to contact me anytime.

[35:41] Jim Harshaw Jr.: We will have links to all of those, uh, resources. The website will, of course, and, uh, any books we can find, we’ll, we’ll put the links in the listener.

[35:49] Jim Harshaw Jr.: John, thank you so much for making time to come on the show.

[35:52] John Naber: I enjoyed it. Thank you for your questions.

Note: This text was automatically generated.