Challenges Create Champions

Last month, the Pipeline Masters took place on the North Shore of Hawaii in huge surf. The event is the world's most prestigious surfing contest and features the world's best surfers competing for glory. For the past 50 years, the event has been exclusively a men's only show, because the wave was deemed too dangerous (it’s seriously sketchy). This year for the first time ever, they also had a women's draw.

On the second day of competition in the women's draw, local Hawaiian legend Bethany Hamilton scored one of the “Drops of The Day”. Just to make a drop at Pipeline requires lots of courage, a ton of talent, super strength, expert timing and a bit of luck. The thing that made Bethany's wave so special (apart from the epic drop), was that she only has one arm!

At the age of 13, Bethany was surfing with her best friend when she got attacked by a 14- foot tiger shark. She lost her left arm and she almost lost her life. For most people, just seeing a shark while out surfing would keep them out of the water for life. Not Bethany.

One month after the attack, Bethany faced her demons and was back out in the surf. Within two years, she won her first national title and went on to enjoy an impressive professional surfing career. When she tells her story, she is almost grateful that she got attacked by the shark. For Bethany, the challenge of getting back into the water and entering surfing competitions made her the champion that she is today.

In the last two years, many of us have faced significant challenges in our professional and personal lives. Like Bethany, I think that we can use these challenges to get back on our boards, dig deep and become the champions we were born to be.

PS - This article is my salute to women for International Women's Day.

Mark Windust is an influential Thought Leader in the areas of Sales Strategy, Sales Leadership and Sales Performance. Since launching his consulting practice in 2007, Mark has worked with 1000's of business leaders, salespeople and entrepreneurs’ to help them transform their sales results.