Aaron Hoos

In 10 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 slow down only after you’ve crossed the finish line.

Olympic athletes in speed-measured sports (like speed skating, as opposed to judged sports like figure skating) know that competing in a race means two things: (1) Getting up to speed as quickly as possible; (2) Maintaining that speed through the finish line. Racers in every sport know that you shouldn’t slow down in front of the finish line. Slowing down ahead of the finish line lets others speed past you. It’s like fighting in martial arts: The most effective punch is one that tries to strike 6 inches behind the subject. And, it’s like an effective swing in golf: The greatest distance is achieved when the player has a good follow-through.

Olympic-level entrepreneurs have a similar opportunity for greater success by charging full-speed ahead and not slowing down. When you sit down to work, your focus should be on a few key things that you do well and you need to work on doing those things with excellence throughout the day. It can be tempting, as you cross off goals throughout your day or as you reach a certain level of success in your career, to pull back a bit. But dialing your effort down isn’t the best thing to do until after you’ve surpassed the goals you’ve set for yourself.

* Disclosure: I was traveling recently and didn’t always have access to the internet, so I missed a couple of publishing dates. This blog has been published and back-dated to keep the countdown sequential.

In 11 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 control as many factors as you can.

You don’t always notice this in some sports, but in other sports it becomes much clearer: There are millions of little factors that can improve or take away from an athlete’s ability to win. For the 2010 Olympics, external factors include temperature, snow cover (and the type snow), elevation, and humidity; while internal examples include health, nutrition, rest, oxygen intake, and more. Athletes will do whatever they can to control as many of these factors as possible, or to allow for them. They can’t control the temperature but they can bring different types of clothes and they can decide what to wear according to the forecast. They can’t control the elevation but serious athletes can train at the same elevation as the one in which they will be competing. Where you really see this happening is in the biathlon, where shooters control their breathing to reduce their heart rate and the impact it can have on hitting a target.

Olympic-level entrepreneurs need to do the same thing: Identify as many factors that influence their business and figure out how to control (or mitigate) them. External and internal factors are as relevant here and include the economy, customer trends, competitors, as well as health, nutrition, and rest.

This week, why not take some time and list every factor that influences your business (yes, it will be a huge list) and then figure out how you can control as many factors as possible.

* Disclosure: I was traveling recently and didn’t always have access to the internet, so I missed a couple of publishing dates. This blog has been published and back-dated to keep the countdown sequential.

In 12 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 recognize that things will be different after… then prepare for it and leverage it.

After an athlete competes at the Olympic level, everything changes. Their future course takes on a new perspective. They may or may not end up becoming professional athletes (it depends on the sport and whether there is adequate sponsorship). They may or may not end up working in an office somewhere. This realization hit me a couple of years ago when I did some writing for a business owner who had been an Olympic athlete and now ran her own real estate investing firm. Although her medal-winning efforts in the Olympics had been over for nearly a decade and she was busy with her real estate business, she was still doing related activities like speaking in schools or doing philanthropic work.

Olympic-level entrepreneurs face the same opportunity. When they reach a certain level, their future takes on a new perspective. While not everything will be a guaranteed success, they will more likely be successful because they know what it takes AND because they’ve already achieved a position that will ensure a certain level of automatic response.

If you’re aspiring to be an Olympic-level entrepreneur then your best choice is to focus intently on that goal and achieve… and then build on that success. (And committing to some additional philanthropic work afterwards is probably a good idea, too).

* Disclosure: I was traveling recently and didn’t always have access to the internet, so I missed a couple of publishing dates. This blog has been published and back-dated to keep the countdown sequential.

In 13 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, all of your life centers around this moment.

You can be sure that athletes who are planning to attend the Olympics have a great big red circle around those dates on their calendars. Aside from a serious emergency, very little will keep them from attending the games. They know that they probably only have a couple shots at competing at the games so they’re not going to screw it up by also planning other things – like a weekend of binge-drinking prior to their departure. Olympic athletes put other things on hold in their lives for the brief period of time leading up to and during the games.

Olympic-level entrepreneurs need to make a similar decision. I’m not suggesting that they can’t enjoy themselves or have to ignore family and friends. But the principle is the same: The opportunity to compete at the Olympic-level means filtering all decisions by asking: “Will this help or hinder my brand?” This decision-making process will guide all business decisions and help Olympic-level entrepreneurs as they consider new business opportunities, product endorsements, and whether or not to accept a new client. It also influences what entrepreneurs do in their off-time. A weekend of binge-drinking may affect an entrepreneur’s success in the same way it would affect an athlete’s success.

Olympic athletes have the games circled in red on their calendars. Olympic-level entrepreneurs have every single day circled in red on theirs.

In 14 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 play fair to win.

It seems like every year there are various doping allegations — which sometimes are revealed to be nothing and sometimes turn into scandal. Olympic athletes are rightly expected to compete fairly and rely on their skill and training rather than on pharmaceutical enhancement. Those who are caught are disqualified and shamed.

Olympic-level entrepreneurs will find the temptation to cheat as well: From “black hat” SEO to fake testimonials on websites to content ripped off from uncredited sources. The fiercer the competition gets, the more tempting it is for entrepreneurs to adopt these practices. Although it may seem naive of me, I believe that unethical business practices give short-term wins while ethical business practices provide a true foundation for long-term success.