Lessons From a Swimmer

Published by admin on August 20, 2008

Michael Phelps is a name the majority of us are now familiar with, especially in the US but worldwide he is now known for his amazing performance at this Summer Olympics. It was very exciting watching him win each of his Gold medals and make Olympic history.

I did some reading on the life of Michael Phelps and discovered some facts about his swimming career that can be related to not only life but our Internet careers as well.

Michael’s parents recognized his talent and passion at a young age and brought him to a professional coach at the age of 11. His coach told him at age 12 that he had Olympic potential. He is still with that coach today. Despite setting numerous world records over the years, he qualified for only one event in the 2004 Summer Olympics and came in 5th.

Just these few facts can teach us so much.

When concentrating on making Internet Marketing your career you should have 2 qualifications. Talent and passion. Obviously we all have different and varied talents and there are just as many options available for a career in Internet marketing.. Identify your talents. If you don’t think you have any, ask a family member or a close friend.. sometimes they recognize things in you that you don’t see yourself.

Once you identify your talents, you’ll very likely realize that you knew  it all along.. What you think is just an activity that you like to do in your spare time is probably a way you’re expressing your talent.. your passion. You might like to scrapbook and while you might not think of that as a marketable talent it encompasses many talents.. creativity, organization, an eye for design etc.

Think about what you like to do and then think about what talents it takes to accomplish it.. you might be surprised at the list you come up with and what you truly are passionate about.

Now that we have discovered our talent and passion, we need a mentor. Someone to coach us in our career, someone we can look up to and trust and know that they have our best interest in mind.

Unfortunately  anyone can hang out a coach shingle in Internet Marketing and we all get emails from dozens of wannabees every day.. and it’s not always easy to find one that is right for you. But research and contact, doing your homework, will really pay off here. It may take some time, but in the long run it will save you much more.. remember, your mentor will be with you for a long time.

Your huge success, your long term goals, will not happen overnight. Michael Phelps coach saw Olympic potential in him at age 12 and he is now 23. That was 11 years of keeping his eye on the main prize.. the long term goal. Yes he had successes along the way, as we all will, but perseverance and focus brought him his ultimate success.

He also had failures, or what he perceived as failures, along the way.. but he didn’t quit or he didn’t fire his coach and start fresh with someone else.. he remained focused on his training and his goals.

Obviously these have just been a few, brief highlights of some important lessons learned from a swimmer… hopefully you can extract something that will start you thinking and help you along your Internet Marketing path.