We are right now in the midst of a pandemic, and the mental health that you need to get through this pandemic is what you need to become an Olympic athlete. You will be distracted. You will enjoy pain; you will enjoy pain, and I say “enjoy it.” Because if you don’t enjoy pain, do not become an athlete. You will be strained. You will have injuries. They’ll come at the worst time. You’re going to have to step back to come forward. All these things are part of business, and a part of life and the mental fortitude that you need to go through the distractions and the setbacks to just keep moving forward. “Forever forward” is something I always say to my past athletes.

No one has a perfect life plan that goes from A to B, whether it be you know, 0, 1, to 100, without there being some distraction for the path to be pushed to be turned. We want life to be a nice straight line to positivity and wonderful happiness, you know, but life is actually a heartbeat. It’s up and down. It’s up and down. It’s up and down. Andin the course of that up and down, you’re going to have a baseline that says, “Whatever happens, I have the mentality to take on what life has to offer.” So athletics, sports in general, teaches you that. It teaches that from an individual perspective, and it teaches you from a team perspective, because yes, athletics is a team sport. I’m a long jumper. I’m a sprinter, pole-vaulter. But it’s still a “team mindset.” Because you represent your country, and you want to do well on behalf of the country. Yes, you have the individual glories. But anybody who’s worth their salt in sport is a team player. Look at Michael Jordan, a great individual player. But you know how he got better? When he became a team player. LeBron, right? Same thing, great individual player. When does he get better? When he becomes a team player. When other people want to play with you because they know that you will help them get better, and together, you will win. That’s why people want to play with LeBron. That’s why people want to play with Michael, because he passed the ball. Right? He took 100 shots, but eventually he passed the ball. When he learned that he became a team player. And sports teaches you that.

Armando Sanchez, Longitude fellow, University of St Thomas:

I agree with Richard Rock’s take on the importance of mental fortitude. Distractions like the pandemic are often impossible to ignore, but it’s necessary to take a step back to see the bigger picture.

A successful stock trader must be able to see past the noise to accurately assess the value of a security. I think the same concept applies to daily life. You have to learn to ignore distractions in order to reach your personal goals.

From my experience with Longitude.site, I found that many professionals are mostly competitive against themselves instead of against their peers. For an Olympian like Richard Rock, he needed to have this mentality of beating his own standards. After all, he was so far ahead of his peers in high school, he could have easily settled and interpreted these wins as success, but instead he pushed through his limits and ultimately achieved his goal of competing in the Olympics.