Improving Performance: The Importance of Dedication and a Single-minded Focus
Every time we go to a race, or to Lake Placid, NY, to visit the team’s training facility, I am impressed with dedication of the athletes to continuous improvement. They are never satisfied with good enough. They realize this is a world defined by competition and that there is always someone in another country trying to outperform your best effort. Sure sounds a lot like the business world we compete in every day. In that world you either improve or you lose ground. You can always feel the hot breath of the competition on the back of your neck. This fact of life, and the degree to which the sliders understand their competitive environment, is a source of inspiration to me.
The other thing that really impresses me is these young men and women make a superhuman effort purely for the love of the sport. When they retire there is no million-dollar contract waiting for them. There is no pro circuit for them to join and make a fortune. When they are done sliding, they have to complete their educations and get a job like the rest of us. When you are training to be an Olympic athlete it’s a fulltime job. I mean seven days a week, year around. It does not leave time to have a job to earn money. The athletes are helped by the USLA (United States Luge Association), but they can by no means cover all their expense, especially if they are going to night school to get a degree.
In response to this reality, the USLA developed the “Adopt an Athlete” program. This program provides an opportunity for businesses and individuals to donate to an individual athlete thru the USLA to help offset some of the sliders’ educational expenses.
In 1995, Vulcan GMS adopted two athletes, Mark Grimmette and Brian Martin. Each year we would invite them come out and meet all our employees. For us, this was a time to celebrate their efforts. We would have a big party and Mark and Brian would tell us about the sport of luge and show video of the previous year’s races. It has been great fun watching these two young men grow up and succeed. “Adopt an Athlete” is one of most beneficial things a business can do.
Mark and Brian formed a new doubles team. A doubles team means there are two people on the sled. They lay on their backs, one on top of the other. The man on the bottom steers and the one on the top sees were they are going and tells the guy underneath him what to do. As you might imagine, the need for coordination is tremendous when you are going down an icy track at 90 mile an hour.
In the early days, Brian and Mark crashed a lot. But over time they got better and better, faster and faster. Back then, they had less income than church mice. And due to the difficulty mastering the sport, they were slow to make the senior team. However, Mark and Brian were convinced they could make the team if they had a fair chance.
The team offered them a slot in a race in Germany. The catch: They had to get there on their own. They pooled all the money they had to buy two one-way tickets to Germany. There was no financial safety net for them. Nonetheless, they were convinced they would make the team. W-e-l-l, that’s dedication; that’s determination!
As the luge history book shows, they were the number one US sled at that race and were put on the team. This kind of commitment to a goal is what we think characterizes the team at our company—Vulcan GMS. I could see a lot of us in them and I try to use the competitive spirit of the USA Luge Team as a mirror for us to recognize and develop the same spirit within ourselves.
Fast forward to the Olympic games in Nagano Japan. Mark and Brian were the first American athletes in history to win an Olympic Medal in Luge. They received the Bronze Medal, beating out all but two other nations to stand in the limelight. Never before had any luge athlete made it to the podium at the Olympics. It was a first for America and we all glowed with pride. One more time, it confirmed for me what commitment and a single-minded focus can do. Today Mark and Brian are retired. Brian is going to school in California and Mark is the new coach of the entire USA Luge Team.
Learn more at www.usaluge.org. and sign up to receive news about our team’s accomplishments.
Luge is one of the most exciting sports at the Winter Olympics most exciting sports. Keep up with your team.
You can also find out more about Vulcan at www.vulcangms.com