Dr. Wayne Diesel: What World-Class Athletes Teach Entrepreneurs About Performance

What if the reason most high-performance careers end early isn’t effort, but how performance is managed over time?

In this episode, Dr. Wayne Diesel, elite sports physiologist and long-time performance leader across the NBA, NFL, Premier League, and international rugby, and Ray Walia explore how founders can apply elite athlete principles to build sustainable, long-term performance.

After decades inside the world’s most demanding sports organizations, Wayne has seen firsthand why even the most talented athletes break down, and why a small minority build careers that last. His work focuses on load management, recovery, mental resilience, and decision-making under pressure.

Wayne has worked with championship teams and elite athletes across three continents, helping design performance systems where longevity is a requirement, not a bonus.

He breaks down the exact frameworks used in elite sport to prevent burnout, manage stress, and sustain peak performance, and why founders who ignore these principles pay the price over time.

Dr. Wayne Diesel

- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/wayne-diesel-3012122a/