Hi again!
I just got back from an awesome keynote speaker this morning, thanks to the Portage County Business Council. His name is Johnny Quinn. Johnny is a former NFL player and also competed in the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics. His speech is titled, “Think Like an Olympian” and he brought a TON of enthusiasm to the room this morning.
If you don’t recognize the name off the top of your head, he was the guy at the Olympics who ended up punching down his bathroom door because he got locked in. Not sure if you remember hearing the stories about the amenities and drinking water in Sochi not being the greatest quality for the athletes. His bathroom was one that wasn’t quite up to code. He got locked in and punched through the wall to get out. Afterwards he posted it on social media and it went VIRAL.
Anyway, his talk was great! He walked us through the ups and downs he faced in football and how that eventually led to the road to Sochi. I’m not going to steal his thunder or spoil the rest of his talk in case you ever get the opportunity to hear him speak, but I do want to bring up a tip he gave us towards the end of his talk.
This tip pertains to anyone–from a freshman to a senior, to anyone in the working world looking to advance. Are you ready for it? One of his actionable steps on the path to thinking like an Olympian is to BORROW WISDOM.
You can do this in many different ways. With modern technology we have so much information at the tips of our fingers that this step is easy and relatively inexpensive. There are so many blogs and social media accounts and eBooks and traditional books that have TONS of golden information nuggets for you to grab. Once you move into your profession, there are networking events and opportunities for you to meet someone and ask them questions about the industry. These opportunities can and will lead you to find a mentor.
Academics is so much more than the click and whirr of going to class, listening to a lecture, taking a test and repeating. There is a strategy involved in working to become your best. Yes the college classroom is your foundation, but the network of people that you will meet and have access to becomes the framework to constructing your career and life after college.
I know that I throw a lot of information at you in these articles, but none of this has to be overwhelming. You just have to want to be your best! So borrow wisdom any chance you can.
If you want to learn more about the OLYMPIAN Mindset, I strongly suggest checking out his website. He’s got some free wisdom you can check out and borrow if you want.
– Max T –
Max Trzebiatowski ’13 is the advising director in the UW-Stevens Point School of Business and Economics. He can be contacted at 715-346-2695, mtrzebia@uwsp.edu or in CPS 100.
