Scott Hamilton: Champion on and off the ice

Scott Hamilton is a retired figure skater and Olympic gold medalist. He won four consecutive U.S. championships from 1981–84, four consecutive World Championships from 1981–84 and a gold medal in the 1984 Olympics.  Since that time he has been a TV commentator, a motivational speaker, the founder of a skating academy, a cancer survivor and the founder of a cancer research center.  He is a New York Times bestselling author and his latest book is called Finish First: Winning Changes Everything.

 

Some interesting insights from this episode: 

• Finishing first doesn’t necessarily mean finishing first. Accomplishing whatever goal you set for yourself is a finish first moment. 

• “The only disability in life is a bad attitude.” 

• It was his mother’s passing that was the catalyst which woke him up and allowed him to take his skating to another level. 

• He gave away all his medals and trophies because he didn’t want to let them be an anchor to prevent him from moving forward. 

• All of the losing earlier in his career was actually great preparation for ultimately learning how to compete and win. 

• “Excellence is leveraging everything we have to live the best life we possibly can.”