Tea Tray-Tastic
Barely does a sporting success arise without a heralded backstory accompaniment.
Akin to tearjerking moments manipulated by tv talent shows, it's almost as if unless you've relied solely on, yunno, making the most of your talent through hard graft and application then, despite subsequent garlands, you are unworthy.
Yet the latest from the land of my birth pulls on the heartstrings for perhaps more apt reasons without those usual pathetic tugs.
In Milan-Cortina, 28yo Matt Weston won Winter Olympic Gold.
He was highly fancied. Currently a two-time World Champion, and won 5 of the 7 world cup races this season. Yet that's no guarantee. As the event immediately following showed. It saw the frontrunners collapse. Literally. All three podium sitters in the Men's Ice Dancing fell away in the final free dance round. With the hottest pre-Games favourite astonishingly putting in the worst routine of his career to drop out of sight from far ahead first.
Matt Weston did not succumb. His Skeleton runs were easily the smoothest slides. Easily the most effortlessly in control. Owned it like no other. Gracing the track at one with it. Seldom do you see a winner triumph so visibly superior to all-comers. The 90mph speedster achieved the feat so tricky to attain; just when your body naturally tenses up you must be super-relaxed to go faster.
To that backstory. He switched sports nine years ago. After breaking his back through taekwondo. Apparently, he 'kicked too high'. Then was told he'd never walk again.
Already you can smell the headlines. That scent only strengthens when you hear his next choice had not a single ice-track in England, merely one concrete slide centre.
Within three years he'd won a world cup race. His nation's first victory for fourteen years. Then broke his back again.
That giddy aroma now all-consuming, right?
His Olympic dream was nearly shattered for good after a lowly 15th finish four years ago. Frustration stemming from coaches making him experiment with equipment not of his choosing meant he got so low he almost quit the sport.
One arduous re-focus later, and he earned his first World Title the next year.
Breaking track records. Second biggest margin of victory on record. Crowned Gold.
Lizzy Arnold was watching on from an adjacent television studio as Matt joins her as Skeleton Winter Olympic gold medal winner. Clearly emotional, among her instant remarks, touching on the team program ethos overall, was this gem;
"we want people that want to win, not need to win".
The two are distinct. To want is to have the high-performance mindset. To need is to feel the trap of pressure.
Want here is underpinned by ambition and joy. Need though is driven by external validation.
In the medallist's own first words upon wearing his gold, amid the jubilation, he said;
"That last run felt pretty nice. There's still things I want to clean up. I'm very much a perfectionist! It's kind of what's driven me to get this far and to have the success I've had. The constant picking up of little things."
I'd like to say the difference between this want and need is to me clear. To need thinks of the title as the be all and end. Goal of accolade pervades. To want is to live and breathe the journey. Process is what drives every moment.
A classic systems > goals, process > outcome frame.
The champ clearly exhibits his focus on process that homes in on refining ('perfecting') his craft. Giving him the mental edge of knowing as he stands ready to make his final run, he is 'complete'.
He has cut the shackles of 'need' that bring fear of failure and a tightening up that comes from outcome obsession.
As you may have heard real winning sales leaders say, they want salespeople that are 'hungry, not starving'. By removing this drag of 'need', chances of the 'want' coming true are hugely lifted.
Orientate yourself this way and you too can claim your own Sales Gold.