Business Lessons Learned from the Olympic Games: Passion and Grit

[blockquote text=’Here’s to the Olympic competitors that have triumphed through great adversity, who have faced defeat and who have gotten up each day to start again with renewed vigor. We will be watching. We will be cheering you on. We will be captivated by your stories, we will feel your losses and we will celebrate your wins. We share the belief that it is never too late to dream. Let the games begin!’ quote_author=’Vonda Dyer | Minerva Consulting’ text_color=” width=” background_color=” border_color=”]

4. Passion and grit. It takes more than determination.

Passion is the secret sauce. It is the key ingredient to defining future success for teams. We’ve heard it said that passion is whatever you are willing to sacrifice to see something happen. Athletes and great companies exhale passion. Businesses without passionate people can certainly produce decent deliverables, but will generally lack the flair that bears the mark of producing more brilliant “right answers” to client needs and industry problems.

At the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver, Canadian Joannie Rochette touched the world. Two days after her mother passed away from a sudden heart attack, Rochette had the skate of her life, in her mother’s honor, and won the bronze medal.