How have your experiences as an athlete shaped the way you approach business and investing?

Question

Ed Baker · Answer

So the question is, how have my experiences as an athlete shaped the way I approach business and investing? There are three things that come to mind here. The first thing I remind myself is that it's a marathon, not a sprint. It's important to have consistency, whether it's in training, where every week I just put in the work and do a little bit more each week. Or in business, it's all about just showing up and executing every day and every week. Also, related to that, sleep and recovery is super important. If you don't give yourself the time to sleep and to recover, you're not going to perform at your best each day, whether it's in business or in sport. The second thing is champion's mindset. When you get knocked down, you've got to get back up again, whether it's getting injured in sport and having to take some time off, but then getting back into shape and competing again, or if you get knocked down in the business world and something doesn't go well, you've got to get back up and go at it again. Finally, whether in business or sport, it's good to have competition. I think competition is what makes you be your best. So I always raced better when I had strong competitors I was racing against. And in the business world, whether at Facebook or Uber, we did better when we had competitors we were competing against.

Swimming

Strength

Triathlon

Photography

Track & Field

Nutrition

Physical Therapy

Running

Pets

Cycling

Podcasting

HealthCare

Musculoskeletal

Hockey

First Responders

Integrative Medicine

Chiropractic

Cross Country Skiing

Adaptive Sports

Climbing

Mental Health

Surfing

Tennis

Military

Mind Body

Scholars

Criminal Justice

Liquor

CrossFit

Golf

Soccer

Pickleball

Hunting

Public Speaking

Venture Capital

"How have your experiences as an athlete shaped the way you approach business and investing?"