On Tuesday the competitors in the short program men’s figure skating awed me with their power and determination. When the American Jeremy Abbot messed up his program, I felt his emotional pain.

Abbot said,

“I’m going to have to do a lot of digging in the next two days because I’m not going to give up, and I’m not going to leave it here,” he said. “I’m not going to leave my Games on that experience.”

What a lesson for us all! It’s easy to be jubilant in victory. It’s harder to be determined in the face of failure.

If we are in business long enough each of us will fail.  So on reconsideration perhaps I do understand why these Olympic athletes do what they do. In order to win we must risk.  This anonymous poem has held meaning for me for years.  Maybe Abbott knows it too.

The Risks

To laugh is to risk appearing the fool;

To weep is to risk appearing sentimental;

To reach out for another is to risk involvement.

To expose feeling is to risk exposing your true self.

To place your ideas and your dreams before a crowd is to risk their loss.

To love is to risk not being loved in return.

To live is to risk dying.

To hope is to risk despair.

To try is to risk failure.

But risks must be taken,

The greatest hazard in life is to risk nothing.

The person who risks nothing, does nothing,has nothing and is nothing;

They may avoid suffering and sorrow,but they cannot learn, feel change, grow, love, live.

Chained by their certitude, they are a slave,they have forfeited freedom;

Only the person who risks is free.