Rai Benjamin, Sha'Carri Richardson, and The Turtle
Rai Benjamin after his 400m hurdle win, Paris 2024 (screengrab from NBC coverage)
Did you see Rai Benjamin race to victory in the 400m hurdles? For years, he’d been coming in second to Karsten Warholm of the Netherlands in big meets. Before the event, NBC had him design his own teaser. I couldn’t find it on the internet, but it was well done, showing him as the perpetual underdog who rises in the end.
After he decisively won, a commentator noted: “At last it’s his turn. [Benjamin] has waited so long to beat Warholm in a race of this magnitude.” He went on to anchor the 4x400m men’s relay, pulling ahead of the pack to cement a gold.
His story reminded me of another Olympian, whose mother called her The Turtle. After meets, her family would offer gifts of turtles as reminders of her mother’s advice: “Don’t worry that you are moving slowly. Just be sure of what direction you are going in.” In Tokyo in 2021, she was favored to win but dropped out. But in 2024, she was back and better than ever, winning multiple golds.
Speaking of better than ever, how about Sha’Carri Richardson, who faced big setbacks in the past? In Tokyo, she was disqualified after testing positive for marijuana use. In Paris, with can’t-miss-them nails inscribed with “I’m not back, I’m better,” she won silver in the 100m and gold in the 4x100m.
What do all of these athletes have in common, besides the gleaming gold medals around their necks?
They didn’t let setbacks become the story. They let setbacks reframe the story.
My work is to help people get unstuck on what matters most. For some, that’s how they evolve their careers. For others, it’s where they live, or how they rebuild a relationship or create a community.
The topics vary. But the way through is the same.
If there’s one secret to getting unstuck, it’s to treat mistakes, setbacks, or failures as information. If you can master the art of looking at something that didn’t go as planned with curiosity and an open mind, you can turn it into a path forward.
There's a common refrain that success consists of your failures as well as your wins. Yet often, a piece of the story is missing: it matters what you DO with those failures. Shoving them under the covers won't move you as far as figuring out what they're teaching you.
I began this story with Rai for a reason: he perfectly illustrates continually showing up, learning, iterating, and persistently redoing. Then one day, something that wasn’t possible becomes inevitable. Rai’s race to gold was ostensibly 46.46s, but actually comprised hours of trials, misses, and new strategies. Those flubs aren’t detours: they are the way. A hero’s journey indeed.
As for that athlete formerly known as The Turtle? The world now knows her by a different animal moniker: The Goat, Simone Biles. Her misses in Tokyo stemmed from “the twisties,” a dangerous phenomenon which can make a gymnast feel lost in the air. She attributed them to the immense stress of the world watching, which she actively addressed in the ensuing years. This time around, she included multiple therapy sessions as a part of her Olympics.
The world may be calling her The Goat, but I’m going to keep calling her The Turtle. Because it’s only by being a Turtle, going slow and steady and looking around to see what you can learn, that you find your way.
(I'm a big fan of structured experimenting as a means to learn from misses. Reach out if I can help you.)