Every champion needs a rival
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Every week, I sit down to reflect on the events of the week, extract their lessons, and gameplan how to apply those lessons toward greatness and growth. It’s a system that has always worked for me, it can work for you too.
July is a slow month for sports in America, but over in Europe, where I was this past week for E1 Monaco with our E1 electric boat racing team, two epic matchups took place. Jannik Sinner vs. Carlos Alcaraz in the men’s final at Wimbledon, and Tadej Pogachar vs. Jonas Vingegaard at the Tour de France.
These elite athletes are the best in their respective sports, and they each have a chance to go down as the best to ever do it, thanks in no small part to the way they push each other. It got me thinking about the power and importance of rivalry in the pursuit of greatness and the gift that is high level competition.
First was Michigan-Ohio State, which goes back over 125 years and has produced so many legendary games. At Michigan, we could lose every game but beat Ohio State and people would consider it a successful year. Conversely, we could win every game and go to the Rose Bowl, but if we lost to Ohio State those same people might consider the season unsuccessful. That’s how much the rivalry meant to the folks in Ann Arbor.
