Pulse : Flipping that perspective , what lessons from your career as an elite athlete do you apply to your business leadership ? AP : One of the biggest lessons I ’ ve learned as an athlete that also applies to leadership and business is the importance of failure . Much of the time while training , we are making mistakes and failing , but what that means is we are trying something new , we are expanding and growing . If you aren ’ t failing at times then you ’ re not trying hard enough , you ’ re sticking too much to your comfort zone . Being an athlete is all about expanding your boundaries and that ’ s exactly what we need to do in business as well .
We need to allow ourselves to try something new and fail and use it as a learning lesson to move forward . We often get so scared of failure that we don ’ t even try , when failure is the greatest learning lesson we have .
On that same note , the ability to reset is important as an athlete and also in business . Shaking off the things that aren ’ t going as planned and going back out there to give it your all again and again is a skill you learn as an athlete that applies directly to business . Some days are hard and you question if you are good enough to even do what you are doing , so it ’ s important that you ’ re able to reframe your thinking from I ’ m not good enough to I ’ m not good enough yet . Adding “ yet ” allows you to grow and find out just how good you really are .
Also , even though snowboarding is considered a solo sport — like entrepreneurship — you won ’ t go far if you try to do it all alone . It ’ s taken an incredible amount of teamwork to achieve what I did as an athlete , especially having two prosthetic legs , from my leg makers , to my trainers , to my coaches and sport psych to everyone who believed in me . I simply couldn ’ t have done any of it on my own and the same goes for running your own business . You have to build a team around you of professionals who all have the same vision as you but who all bring something different to the table . As Michael Jordan said : “ Talent wins games , but teamwork wins championships !”
“ We ’ re so excited to welcome back Amy as part of our 35th anniversary . Her journey is incredibly inspiring , and we know our ISPA members will leave her session with newfound motivation and the confidence to achieve goals they once thought impossible .”
— LYNNE MCNEES , PRESIDENT OF ISPA
2025 ISPA CONFERENCE
DECEMBER 2024 / JANUARY 2025 n PULSE 35