I recently returned to my native Norway to compete in the Holmenkollen Ski Marathon, a 42 KM classic cross country ski race. Accompanied by my 9-year old daughter Emily, we departed Denver on a sunny Wednesday afternoon in February. I am pretty sure we were the only travelers leaving Denver with skis. Most of the other travelers carrying skis looked to be arriving for a long ski weekend in Colorado. There was a part of me that wished we were headed west towards British Columbia and the opening of the Vancouver Winter Olympics. However, as Emily reminded me, better for your health to be in the race than to watch others racing.
Sprinting towards the finish line, Saturday February 10, 2010
The world famous Holmenkollen Ski Jump sits on a hill overlooking Oslo. As the host for the 2011 World Ski Championship, this legendary ski jump, as symbolic to the Oslo skyline as the Eiffel Tower is to Paris, has recently gone through a complete $300 million remodel which included tearing down the old tower, and building a new tower that meets the current International Ski Association's specifications of a "Large Hill" for ski jumpers. Likewise, a new Normal (70-meter) hill has been built as well. The 2010 Holmenkollen Ski Marathon took place on a sunny, but rather cold, Saturday morning. In my case I finished the 42 KM jaunt through Nordmarka, the scenic national forest surrounding Oslo, in 3 hour s and 50 minutes, roughly 30 minutes slower than my last race in 2008. Due to the construction at Holmenkollen, the finish area had been moved to Frognserseteren, a famous ski destination higher up on the hill above Holmenkollen, a change that didn't go unnoticed on attendees. Having the last kilometer of a 42 K race be straight uphill clearly separates those in good shape from the rest, yours sincerely falling in the latter category.
It has rarely felt so good to just collapse on the sofa as it did after this race. Making it even better, I caught the re-run of the opening ceremonies from Vancouver which had originally broadcasted at 3 AM Oslo time. You will be hard pressed to find a people more obsessed with the Winter Olympics than the Norwegians. The closest comparison I can think of is to our fascination in the US with the Super Bowl. If you are into watching the Winter Olympics on TV, there is no better place to be than Norway. Every minute of every event is covered. With NRK, the state operated Norwegian TV channel being commercial free, it doesn't get much better. As the Olympics wrapped up this past weekend Norway ended up number four on the medal count after USA, Canada, and Germany. The United States, a nation of 300 million, won nine gold medals. Norway, a nation of 4.7 million, also won nine.
This brings us to the core message that I want to explore. What creates great performance? Raw talent or the environment in which a person grows up? Are we pre-determined to become great at something at birth, or do we become great due to the environment we grow up in? I recently read the book "Talent is Overrated -What Really Separates World-Class Performers from Everyone Else?" by Geoff Colvin. In short, Mr. Colvin argues that world-class performance is achieved not through a birthright but rather through the environment in which a person is raised. World-class performers as diverse as Tiger Woods and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart were not pre-disposed to become respectively a great golfer or a great composer. Instead, it came from the environment in which they were raised. Being born and raised in Norway, it is not hard for me to understand why Norway has such a high per-capita number of Winter Olympic Gold Medalists. Oslo, where I grew up, is surrounded by no less than five national forests. The forest service maintains roughly 3000 kilometers of groomed ski trails. A typical winter Sunday in Oslo will see thousands of people take to the woods with their skis. As such, even though our population is 1.5% of that of the United States, I would not be surprised if the population of Norwegians who live close to ski trails is higher than what we find here in the United States . When I grew up, I lived 5 minutes from the nearest trail-head. As early as 8 or 9 years of age, I would come home from school, get my skis and head into the woods. With the possible exception of Alaska, I don't believe most American kids have the same opportunities.
After reading "Talent is Overrated" and putting the Vancouver Winter Olympics in perspective, I do believe the environment is a far more important factor for great performance than any type of pre-disposed gift from nature. Obviously, the second ingredient is practice, practice, and then some more practice. As for my own lack of performance in my recent ski marathon I can only attribute that to the latter. While we have a great environment for cross-country skiing here in Laramie, my life is too busy these days to find the amount of time required to be a truly great skier. Like the rest of the team here at Handel, our priority is being great at providing the best human services software possible. At Handel we have created the best possible environment for bringing up talent that can help us accomplish that mission. We also allow our team plenty of time for practice and hard work. I contribute the success of Handel and our RiteTrack solution to those key ingredients:
Surround our staff with an environment in which they can succeed.
Second, give the people the necessary time and tools to become great within that environment.
Environment + Hard Work = Success. Talent, I believe, is overrated.