“To achieve success, I needed to be much more than a ski racer,” Lindsey Vonn, winner of 4 World Cup total championships and the gold medal in downhill on the 2010 Winter Olympics, tells Entrepreneur.
It was a tenet Vonn’s father harassed all through her ski racing profession, throughout which period she labored on herself “as a enterprise,” in the end making ready for when she’d should retire as knowledgeable athlete and chart a brand new course.
That day got here in February 2019 when Vonn was 34. She’d simply received the bronze medal in ladies’s downhill on the 2019 World Championships held in Sweden and have become the primary girl racer to obtain medals at six completely different world championships.
Picture Credit score: HEAD Sportswear
“The transition from snowboarding to enterprise wasn’t that tough.”
Like {most professional} athletes, Vonn’s retirement and profession pivot got here sooner than it does for folks in different fields. However because of the robust relationships and model Vonn constructed over time, “the transition from snowboarding to enterprise wasn’t that tough,” she says.
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Armed with the contacts she wanted to “get by this subsequent chapter of life,” she landed a venture-capital-focused internship by her “expensive buddy” Paul Kwan, who acted as a mentor, and began making her mark on the enterprise world.
Vonn’s since been an advisor to a number of firms and funds; created a skiwear assortment with American-Austrian manufacturing firm HEAD; launched a ski goggle line with Swedish model YNIQ; based full-service manufacturing home Après Productions and The Lindsey Vonn Basis, which is dedicated to empowering underserved women; and continues to be an energetic investor.
“There are such a lot of issues that straight correlate from ski racing to enterprise,” Vonn says.
“I do not know the whole lot, so I am simply all the time hungry to study.”
Continuously striving to “develop and be higher” is one precept that readily interprets over. “The problem is all the time data,” Vonn explains. “I do not know the whole lot, so I am simply all the time hungry to study. Whoever I meet, I am attempting to select their mind, ask questions and discover new methods to not simply study, but in addition new avenues of entrepreneurship or enterprise or investments.”
“Enterprise isn’t for the faint-hearted.”
A rock-solid work ethic goes hand in hand with that ongoing data constructing. “It is a mixture of studying and being very diligent, decided, hardworking,” Vonn says. “Enterprise isn’t for the faint-hearted.”
“I all the time attempt to be assured once I’m getting into any room.”
Confidence is one other must-have. “You must be assured in what you are doing,” Vonn says. “And I feel my preparation, understanding who I am speaking to, understanding what I am doing to the extent that I can know what I am doing, [is important]. I all the time attempt to be assured once I’m getting into any room, it doesn’t matter what room that’s, if it is a boardroom or a enterprise.”
Vonn’s numerous ventures hold her busy today, however she nonetheless manages to strike a contented work-life steadiness. One of many greatest shifts making it attainable? Her prioritization of sleep well being. The entrepreneur has been outspoken about her previous struggles with insomnia, which started after she had surgical procedure in 2013.
“I used to be all the time an excellent sleeper earlier than that,” Vonn says, “and simply with the ache and the nervousness of understanding that to get well I wanted to sleep, all of these issues acquired in my head. And I’ve struggled with sleep ever since.”
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For Vonn, taking doctor-prescribed sleep medicine helped remedy the problem. She additionally finds that journaling earlier than mattress and maintaining an “unplugged” routine assist get her “into the mindset that it is bedtime.”
Vonn’s canines additionally play an vital position in serving to her calm down and unwind. “At any time when I can simply get a second to take a seat on the sofa and watch some Legislation and Order with my canines and perhaps have some Ben and Jerry’s, that is all the time a great way for me to de-stress,” Vonn says.
“Going again on the mountain jogs my memory of why I began snowboarding.”
Snowboarding nonetheless has a spot in Vonn’s coronary heart too. “Since I retired, going again on the mountain jogs my memory of why I began snowboarding. I really like simply being on the market with family and friends and being with nature. My cellphone’s away. I’m very current. Hopefully it isn’t too chilly as a result of I hate the chilly.”
Picture Credit score: Claire Abbe
Vonn is aware of higher than most what it appears like to show the web page on one profitable chapter and open to the subsequent, and her finest piece of recommendation for anybody who’s struggling to determine their subsequent steps? “Discover your ardour and what challenges you.”
“Lots of people make modifications as a result of they suppose this new factor goes to make them completely satisfied, however they do not actually perceive what makes them completely satisfied,” Vonn explains. “If you happen to can determine that out, it doesn’t matter what job you select and it doesn’t matter what path you select, you will be in an excellent place. However discovering what makes your self tick is a very powerful factor.”
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