Last week we held our Professional Services Team’s H2 kickoff meeting. We were joined by Jeremiah Brown from Canada’s 2012 silver medal-winning Olympic rowing team.
Jeremiah offers lessons to audiences from his book, The 4 Year Olympian: From First Stroke to Olympic Medallist. The Toronto Star wrote of Jeremiah’s book, “[It] tells the story of what it means to train hard, really hard, and develop the mental and physical skills needed for success.”
Here’s a bit about Jeremiah’s journey:
He had never rowed even once before, but became intrigued by the sport in 2008.
Jeremiah received the blessing of Team Canada’s English-born head coach Mike Spracklen to work with the Canadian national team. Spracklen is a controversial figure. After the 2000 Olympics, where the British women took silver in the quad sculls, the first Olympic medal for British women, Spracklen’s contract was not renewed, with the BBC reporting discontent in the squad over his methods.
Jeremiah’s girlfriend became pregnant when he was just 18. Jeremiah’s dedication to rowing put a significant strain on his marriage, which eventually led to divorce when the couple’s son was just four.
He asked his wife to move back in with him, even while they were separated, just so he could balance training in the middle of the night, working at a bank, and sharing custody of his young son. To Jeremiah’s surprise, she agreed - although they never became a couple again.
The Canadian team performed poorly in the first qualifying heat of the 2012 Olympics, but made it to the final race, where they ultimately placed second to win the silver medal.
Have you recently heard from a motivational speaker? If so, let us know what inspired you. Or did their message fall flat? You can let us know about that, too!
So cool. My last company had the coach from the women’s US rowing team which has won a bunch of championships in a row. So cool to hear about how they push through!
Since our work is organ and tissue donation, we regularly schedule donor families or transplant recipients to speak at our team meetings. Their experience with donation is a real motivator to remind us why we do what we do and the impact we have on their lives.
A few year’s ago at our Great Clips convention we had Christine Holton Cashen speak, author of “The Good Stuff”. She was very inspiring! She had some great tips on life, love, work and happiness.
Yes, Les Brown is a speaker that I listen to frequently. I came across him while browsing Instagram and refer to the same video for inspiration til this day. He states" Do what is easy and your life will be hard. Do what is hard and your life will be easy." Every time I want to give I remember those words. It is a process embrace the struggle.
Silken Laumann.
“In 1992 I had my own high-profile Olympic story. While warming up for a World Cup Regatta in Germany, another boat collided full force into mine, driving hundreds of wood splinters into my lower right leg, smashing my ankle, destroying skin and tearing muscle from bone. I was told I would never compete at the Olympics’ again, and that I would walk with a slight limp. Ten weeks later I won an Olympic Bronze medal.”
Her Unsinkable site is a sharing platform filled with inspirational stories designed to support and uplift.
My company has a motivational speaker come in each year for our annual meeting. This will be the first year I am going. Looking forward to hearing some inspirational stories.
