Natalie's Winning Direction

Went along to a swish sports awards bash last night in Cape Town, where the guest speaker was Natalie Du Toit.  Now (somehow) I’d not heard of her before, and it turns out she’s a total hero.  A potential Olympian swimmer already aged 16ish, a woman in a car ploughed into her 5 years ago, as she was on her way to school on her scooter (I think from a swimming session).  Natalie was at a Stop sign and the other lady was taking a short-cut out of a car park.  Natalie consequently lost a leg from the knee.

She’s since been a beacon to us all, and hopes to qualify for Beijing, amazingly competing against able-bodied athletes.

Being a local girl and already such a humbling legend, the audience were captivated by her every word.  She explained her life story and detailed her motivations.  Her material was excellent of course, and without trying to, easily inspired.

The link to sales for me came from two things.  Generally, she reinforced the mantra that hard work pays off.  And you need to be aware it takes an awful lot of hard work.

And secondly, she signed off with words along these lines, which I loved, and made me vow to re-focus around my day-job in selling:

“the tragedy in life is not in missing your goals, the tragedy is in not having any goals to aim at,

the disgrace in life is not failing to reach a star, the disgrace is in not trying to shoot for a star”