Bob Bowman (Michael Phelps' coach) on success

Some motivational thoughts from a speech given by Bob Bowman, one of Michael Phelps’ swimming coaches. I don’t know anything about swimming, but the advice in universal and surprisingly thoughtful despite the cliché “Secrets to Success” title. A few snippets to highlight:

worrying is negative goal setting

Let’s say Michael (Phelps) comes in late. Everybody is swimming, and Michael comes in. I am faced with the decision of what to do. Probably for the first ten years I would just go NUTS; now, I just say: “Just get in. Let’s go.”

In my head, however, I am saying: “Michael is late to workout. He is not going to get this whole thing done. He is not taking this seriously. He is probably going to do it again, if he did it one time; and if he does this a hundred more times, he is not going to be able to do what I want him to do in the next meet, and that will carry over — and just forget what is going to happen in Beijing.” I can do that in about two seconds.

Michael’s mind, however, is: “I am here at practice; I am getting something out of it; I am going 1:51 in the 200 fly.” A lot of our conflict comes about because sometimes I am holding him back with negative thinking. So that is one of the things that I think all of us could do better.

the grass is almost never greener

I think the thing that is most important to realize is that we all make the decisions which determine our futures. WE make the decisions. Whenever I hear somebody sitting around talking about: “Well, if only somebody would have done this…or, I can’t do this because somebody else… we don’t have this… we don’t have a 50 meter pool… we don’t have the resources you have at Michigan… We don’t have that…, etc.” Everybody has limitations. Everybody looks and thinks the grass is greener [somewhere else]. It almost never is. You have everything that you need right here. I think that you are in charge of your attitude, which is the most important thing that you will ever have.

story about Frank Lloyd Wright is followed by…

…the inspiration didn’t happen before the perspiration. I notice today, particularly with a lot of young coaches, that they want to get to the end. They want to have the thing that is exciting and inspiring and makes us all want to get up out of bed in the morning to see and be part of. What they don’t realize is that the road to get there is much longer, and much more tedious, and much more frustrating than it appears from the outside. So, I think that it is very important to know your facts, to know the details, and to have a plan to get there, and a way to get there.

story about Beethoven and not giving up

Success is a marathon; never give up. That is very motivating, and we all know that, right? When I think about persistence … well, I will tell you a little story, and it will be weird because I think about weird things, but you just have to go along with me.

I want you to visualize to yourself that all of us are going back in time. We are going back to 1824, and we are going to be in Vienna, Austria, where we are going to be present at the premiere of Beethoven’s 9th Symphony. This was an eagerly awaited event. People were really anticipating it. (Now, if you don’t know anything about Beethoven, he pretty much revolutionized music over the course of his career — taking it from the Classical Period and basically being the forefather of the Romantic Period. A pretty big job, but somebody had to do it. And here is, arguably, the best musician ever, certainly the best of his day, and his 9th Symphony was very much anticipated because it was supposed to be something really special).

So, here we are in a packed house. And Beethoven himself is actually going to be here too – his first public appearance in 12 years. Nobody had seen him. The orchestra is on the stage. We are watching. The music starts, and oddly, Beethoven is sitting in a chair just in front of the conductor. He has his own score and he is beating time with his hands and his feet, kind of following along… but there is a conductor behind him who is actually leading the orchestra. The music starts — and it is un-believable! It is an incredibly thought-out piece … it is so hard to describe… It is a miracle, okay? If you hear it, you are changed.

After the fourth movement, we are looking down. When we see Beethoven, we start to notice something strange. The people had stopped playing; the Movement is over; the Presto [name of the 4th movement] is over; yet, Beethoven is still turning through his pages and still beating time. We are wondering if the guy is crazy. We have heard that rumor forever, so we decide not to pay attention to him. The Symphony continues — and it ends with a Finale. The Finale, if you do not know this work, ends with a chorus. It is Schiller’s “Ode to Joy,” and it is unbelievable. You have got to hear it. If you haven’t, go out and get the CD and listen to it. The Symphony comes to its big finish. (If you have ever heard Beethoven, you always know when it is over because Beethoven always had a big finish. He always beats the tonic chord right into your head for about 16 bars). So we are going through and Beethoven is still going through like this [turning pages, and conducting] — and the orchestra has this unbelievable finish to the Movement and the applause is incredible. Only… Beethoven is still going like this [same conducting motion]… and all of a sudden, we in the audience realize that the rumors are true: He couldn’t hear the music. Arguably the greatest piece of music ever written was written by a guy who never heard it! He was deaf. Then, the really incredible part: the soloist comes over and asks Beethoven to stand up and turn around, because he couldn’t hear the applause. The applause, by the way, was so great that the police were called in fearing that people were rioting.

Do you think there was some problem solving involved in Beethoven’s life? Maybe, some frustration? Some dealing with frustration? Whenever I get to the end of my rope, and I feel like I can’t take any more, and I am just fed up, and I can’t do any more… I go in and I put on that symphony. And then I realize that I haven’t even scratched the surface of what is possible.