Aaron Hoos

In 3 days, the 2010 Winter Olympic athletes will compete to be the best in the world. Entrepreneurs compete for a similar pinnacle of success every single day. This series of blogs will countdown to the Olympics with 31 ideas about what it takes to achieve gold in your business.

To be an Olympic-level entrepreneur, you need to trust your teammates to perform at the expected level.

Many Olympic sports are individual competitions. But there are several sports in both the summer and winter Olympics that are team sports. In the winter Olympics, events like bobsled, curling, figure skating, and hockey all are team sports. This adds another element that can make or break your success. You can have a couple of superstars on your team but if the entire team isn’t working together then they won’t win. Teammates rely on each other to perform the way they are supposed to. Teams probably won’t win, or even get to play in the Olympics, if there are a few Olympic athletes and a few remedial-level athletes.

In the same way, Olympic-level entrepreneurs who are part of a team need to make sure their teammates are also performing at an Olympic level. If you are performing at an Olympic-level (or you’re headed there) but you’re carrying your partner, you need to cut them loose and either work solo or replace them with someone who can operate at the level you need. Yes, it seems cold but you won’t achieve Olympic-level entrepreneurial success if your entire team isn’t competing at the level it needs to be.

In 4 days, the 2010 Winter Olympic athletes will compete to be the best in the world. Entrepreneurs compete for a similar pinnacle of success every single day. This series of blogs will countdown to the Olympics with 31 ideas about what it takes to achieve gold in your business.

To be an Olympic-level entrepreneur, you need to pick yourself up after failure.

Dozens of athletes compete in a single event. But there is only one gold-medal winner. Silver and bronze are notable, but not gold. And then there is everyone else. Every athlete who participates in the event knows that there can only be one gold-medal winner. And the rest? After the event, they have a decision to make: They can wallow in their self-pity as yet another person who competed and lost in the Olympics or they can go back and try again in 4 years.

Olympic-level entrepreneurs do the same thing. Not everything they touch will be dramatic successes. Some things will sputter and do okay. Some things will fail. The athlete who truly competes at an Olympic level brushes off defeat and continues forward.

In 5 days, the 2010 Winter Olympic athletes will compete to be the best in the world. Entrepreneurs compete for a similar pinnacle of success every single day. This series of blogs will countdown to the Olympics with 31 ideas about what it takes to achieve gold in your business.

To be an Olympic-level entrepreneur, you need to sign up for the whole package.

When an athlete goes to the Olympics, they sign up for the entire package deal. They accept the hard work and training that leads up to the Olympics, they accept the effort and pressure that they face when they represent their country during the opening and closing ceremonies and during the events themselves, and they accept whatever comes after (often depending on their win or loss), be it endorsements and lucrative book deals or speaking careers or be it getting a job as a bank teller in an obscure regional bank.

Olympic-level entrepreneurs sign up for a similar package: They agree to the hard work leading up to their “competition”. They accept the stress and pressure of competing at a higher level. They accept the win-or-lose consequences at the end. They realize there is no fast track; there is no way to bypass one aspect of success. They know that deciding to be an Olympic-level entrepreneur is a big decision that changes how they play the game.