What Swimming Has Taught Me About Business, Product & Life

I was a competitive swimmer in high school, but 17 years after my last race, I wondered if I was still any good. Could I be in the top 100 in the US?

There were a couple of things going in my favor:

1. There were a lot of people faster than me when I was 18. But it’s a war of attrition and I’ve kept in shape. Not so for many of my former peers.
2. The competition was going to weak in 2020–2021 due to the pandemic. People couldn’t practice as much but I’m lucky enough to have a pool in my backyard.
3. I’m 35 years old and the youngest of the 35–39 age bracket.

I had a window of opportunity. I had a competitive advantage.

So I decided to jump in the pool and see how I liked doing a swim workout. Willpower is your most precious resource and if I wasn’t enjoying it, there was no way I could motivate myself for months on end.

I give myself permission to try something and quit if I don’t like it. But I try a LOT of things. Some last for a day. Others a week. Others a few months. And others…a lifetime.

I did end up liking it. So now, I wanted to get good again. But how?

The plan wasn’t anything more than getting into the water every day — rain or shine. If I was busy all day and couldn’t get a workout in until 11PM —then that’s what I did. With each workout, the areas of opportunity were progressively revealed to me. Let me explain.

In the first few weeks, I just wasn’t strong enough. I couldn’t pull through the water with a clean, powerful stroke. So I focused on that. And I got stronger.

Then, strength was no longer the limiting factor. Endurance was.

So I trained for endurance. But it’s not the normal type of endurance. In a 50 yard sprint, I didn’t want to breathe at all so it wasn’t about the exchange of carbon dioxide for oxygen. Rather, I needed to store more oxygen in my lungs, blood, and muscles.

To do that, I practiced how I was going to compete. If you’re doing a sprint, you sprint in practice. And it’s not an 80% effort sprint — it’s a 100% effort sprint.

After my raw strength and endurance were no longer the limiting factors, a new problem became apparent — drag. Here’s the formula to calculate drag:

You can ignore everything except the velocity squared part. In short, drag increases exponentially the faster you go.

So I started optimizing my stroke. I slowed down. I took lessons. I drilled. I practiced with intent.

And when it came time for the official swim meet, it paid off. I got 14th place in the US.

See the guy in 14th place (for men that are 35–39 years old)? That’s me!

So in short:

1. Just start. See if you like it. If not, it’s OK to quit and find something you enjoy.
2. If you do something enough, you’ll naturally discover ways you can improve. Do the most apparent thing first until it’s no longer a limiting factor.
3. Put in the hard work. There are no shortcuts.