6 Lessons from Lance Armstrong
“Pain is temporary. Quitting lasts forever.”
Lessons from Lance Armstrong
# 1 — Know what you should not be like.
Often in life it’s more important to know what and who you should not be, rather than knowing who you want to be.
# 2 — Integrity is subjective.
Having strong moral values and being honest is what we define as integrity. However, people in different countries might have different values and thus, a different perception when it comes to “integrity”. When your values are different from the values of a mass population, your integrity might not be considered as infringed when you cheat, lie or steal, if you genuinely think that those things are acceptable. It is well known that Lance Armstrong was charged with trafficking, possession and use of prohibited substances which he used throughout his career. During the 7 Tour wins, Lance Armstrong never thought that his behaviour of lying, bullying, doping etc. would be dishonest, bad or wrong at the time it happened.
# 3 — Determination is important, but to what extent?
Being determined is crucial in order to achieve success, be it in sports or in business. However, if determination means not shying away from anything (using any substance, method or strategy no matter what!) in order to win, it needs to be questioned if it is good or bad.
# 4 — Just using performance enhancing drugs doesn’t do the trick.
Using performance enhancing drugs might help you to improve your physical performance, but will not give you any guarantee in order to become more tenacious or mentally strong. You already need to have a strong mental frame of mind in order to achieve real success, just using the drugs will not do the trick.
When Lance Armstrong was diagnosed in 1996 with testicular cancer (stage 3) which spread to his lungs and brain, they told him that his survival chance would be small, to be precise just 40 %. In order to beat the disease Lance required a strong mental frame. As many know, in 1997 he was declared free of cancer.
If there is a culture among other sportspeople in which using performance enhancing drugs is considered as normal, one has to think whether they really want to be part of it or not. It’s again a matter of moral values.
# 5 — If you fool others, you will get fooled.
In 2012 investigations have been carried out and Lance Armstrong had to face his toughest time in his career. The loss of seven Tour de France titles, being banned from elite competition and the loss of his sponsors. All this happened in a time frame of one and half days. The case of Lance Armstrong clearly shows that if you are trying to cheat your way through, you will get punished and you need to take responsibility for the consequences. Lesson to be learnt? Don’t cheat, do unethical things or lie in the first place. No matter what the circumstances are, you need to realise that sooner or later the truth will be revealed. Once trust is being lost, it is often very difficult to earn it back, if at all.
# 6 — It’s not all negative.
No matter how bad Lance Armstrong’s scandal was, one should not negate the fact that his story as a cancer survivor (when his chances were very little) was very inspiring to many people all around the world. His book IT’S NOT ABOUT THE BIKE: MY JOURNEY BACK TO LIFE also taught them to aim high, to achieve their goals and dreams, to step up if required and to do something that otherwise they would have never done.
