TRIBEathlon Podcast
Season 5, Episode 2 – Iain Hamilton founded OSB Events as a college project and has built a business renowned for its brilliant and accessible races. A former Elite triathlete himself, he won a lifetime achievement award in 2015 for his work developing the sport in the UK.
As organiser of the award winning Outlaw Triathlon Series and the Cambridge Half Marathon (which Claire and I have raced in ourselves), we wanted to chat to Iain about the positive changes that COVID brought to the sport, the highlights and challenges of running events that are both popular and profitable, and what it feels like to build a brand where people tattoo your logo onto their skin.
What I’ve Been Reading
When I interviewed Louise Minchin from the BBC breakfast sofa on the TRIBEathlon podcast, we discussed her next book prior to its release. I loved Dare to Tri, her first book; she is a brilliant writer, but describes as well as anything I’ve read the feeling of doing those first few triathlons. So when Fearless: Adventures with Extraordinary Women was released, I was eager to dive in. It is a very different book to her first, but is again beautifully written. What I love about it is that is does an excellent job of showing how ordinary people really can achieve amazing things. A book I will definitely adding to my teenage daughters reading lists; whether they choose to read it or not!
What I’ve Been Watching
Having praised Arnie’s book, Total Recall, in a previous Friday Footnotes issue, Arnold – the new Netflix docuseries – was always going to grab my attention.
Arnold, delves into the life of Arnold Schwarzenegger, tracing his journey from a small-town boy in Austria to a global icon. Narrated by Schwarzenegger, the series explores his roles as an athlete, actor, and politician. The first part, “Athlete,” focuses on his early life and bodybuilding career. “Actor” examines his transition to acting and the success of the Terminator franchise. The final part, “American,” discusses his political career and personal challenges, including his infidelity. It offers a compelling portrait of Schwarzenegger’s relentless pursuit of success and tells the story of a really extraordinary human being. Well worth watching.
TED Talk I’ve Found Interesting
Bill Gross has founded a lot of start-ups and incubated many others – and he got curious about why some succeeded and others failed. So, he gathered data from hundreds of companies, his own and other peoples, and ranked each company on five key factors. In his TED talk The single biggest reason why start-ups succeed he discusses how he found one factor that stands out from the others…and it surprised even him.
Quote of the Week
“The mind is the limit. As long as the mind can envision the fact that you can do something, you can do it, as long as you really believe 100 percent.”
– Arnold Schwarzenegger
The Trusted Team
Do you have a ‘bucket list’? It may sound like a corny American idea taken straight out of Hollywood, but it is an incredibly powerful tool when used well. As with goal setting, it is important to write down what’s important to you, to share with others, and to continually revisit it, but unlike goals it can be an open-ended list of to-dos with no specific timeframes or measures.
The reason it is so powerful is because by annually revisiting it you can find inspiration for your goals, travel and free time when planning the year ahead, plus also reflect on what you’ve ‘ticked off’ in the previous year. Whether it’s places to visit, races to enter, dive sites to explore, golf courses, restaurants or random things like doing a TED talk, I add to it regularly but annually assess it thoroughly. If you don’t have a bucket list, I would make a start and let it evolve. It can be a lot of fun and, after all, writing it down is the first step in making it happen.