Usain Bolt – “That’s just me”

I wrote this blog one year ago, after Usain Bolt’s amazing performance at the Olympic Games in Beijing. Watching him shatter his own world record in the 100m at the World Championships in Berlin yesterday – relaxed, joking, sparring, having fun – I was reminded that yes, Bolt is a mind-boggling athlete, but it is his thinking that makes the real difference. The more I watch him, the more I see how much he epitomises “free and laughing”!

“To me, I am a performer. I go out there to perform and let the people enjoy themselves. This is my work, my job, if you do not enjoy your job it does not make much sense. That’s just me. I will not change, that is myself, that is my personality,” Bolt said at a post-sprint relay press conference.

Usain Bolt is a very, very smart young man. In addition to being the fastest man alive, he also displays an amazing, intrinsic marketing genius! Puma, his major sponsor, must be beaming at their return on investment in Jamaican athletics in general and Bolt in particular. While IOC President, Jacques Rogge was lambasting Bolt for running barefoot, the Puma execs in Germany were revelling in the sight Bolt’s bare feet and his Puma spikes at his lips! What a dream come true! It is reported that Puma sales “spiked” by 2 million pairs in the HOUR after Bolt’s 100m victory! A look a www.pumarunning.com shows Bolt on the home page, with video clips of Jamaican school athletics, Jamaican scenes and Bolt from as early as 16 years. From then he was a media star. He has the “it” factor.

We need to understand that what Bolt is doing is not premeditated – he is simply being in the moment and enjoying his job. He says so. “That’s just me”. He is being his true, authentic self. It is a lesson all of us must learn. We bring our whole selves to our workplace. There is no such thing as a separation of self between “work” and “life”. The you you are at home, is the you you are at work. “If you do not enjoy your job it does not make much sense”. If your job is causing you pain, if Monday morning brings a groan and Friday afternoon brings relief, then you need to consider what you are doing to yourself. It is not the organization that is doing it to you – you are doing it to yourself. You always have a choice. When you are in the moment, being your true self and enjoying what you do, then all sorts of wonderful things, magic, miracles, start to happen. Being in the moment, you open to guidance on what’s right, and you do it. That’s why Rogge is so wrong – he is coming from the past, and not being present to the moment. You can’t be “right” in that place.

Bolt says something else that’s very wise – “I am a performer. I go out there to perform and let the people enjoy themselves”. He knows what his true job is – it is not running, it is entertainment. And so it is with us in our organizations. Our jobs in many ways are about performing, entertaining, banding together with our teammates to choreograph and perform incredible customer experiences – every time. That’s what the new world of work is – entertainment and performance, and enjoying what you do! Then work is easy, fun, joy! Bigup the fastest man in the world – and a very, very wise one to boot!