My most recent birthday began with an amazing present: Lacrosse is officially an Olympic sport!
I decided to celebrate by doing something ridiculous. I'm going to publicly share an absurd goal I set for myself.
I'm going to play lacrosse in the 2028 Olympics.
Before I explain how, let me explain why.
The 3 Ps
My life is organized in three ways — physically, personally, and professionally.
I call them the 3 Ps — they're the buckets by which I orient myself. Together they all bring out the best in me because each one elicits a different aspect of my energy, expanding my overall surface area as an individual.
One of the ways I get there is by having big goals in each category that sharpen my gaze and help me allocate my time accordingly.
The intention is to choose goals that all feed into each other. In college that was academics, internships, and lacrosse.
Now some might argue that having 3 different buckets represents a lack of focus. I’d push back — finding balance is one of the highest leverage things we can do. For me, that means nurturing each of these buckets accordingly. That’s how I operate most effectively.
I’ve written about finding new goals on Embers. I started with my new personal story; I also shared my new professional mission. And I even talked about what it was like to fail at my prior physical endeavor too.
But I’ve been searching for a new athletic challenge. I briefly thought about the military at the end of college. I also thought about Iron Mans, marathons, and some other things.
But after more introspection, I realized that my love of lacrosse, while it was nearly extinguished, returned with a surprising vengeance. And then I remembered what was supposed to happen in 2023. This was the year when the International Olympic Committee was set to decide whether or not the sport would return to the grandest stage.
So I decided to say f*** it. I’m giving it one final shot.
Activation Energy
I’m not good enough to make team USA, and that’s okay. I have another potential route to the Olympics and I’m committed to giving it my best effort.
I’m not going to spell it all out here — that’s less relevant for this piece. But I have been slowly working towards getting myself ready over the past 15 months to physically operate at the level I need for the next 5 years. There’s an absurd amount of milestones I need to hit before 2028, and I knew that this would require a tremendous amount of sacrifice, devotion, discipline, and persistent resilience.
I’m ready.
There’s no formal start date to this type of training. In fact, I made the decision to go for this goal over a year ago; I just didn't officially know if it was viable until this week.
It’s taken a lot of gradual improvements and lifestyle changes. After 15 months of it, I feel like I now have a strong enough handle of my professional and personal commitments, and I have iterated enough on my physical training that I know I can give this the commitment it deserves. I know when to shift gears and Go Like Hell.
Some of the founders I’ve spoken to about this have understandably asked how I can balance everything between work and training. The reality is I already am. I’m making sacrifices to spend the little extra time I have to advance myself forward. And honestly this is when I feel most like myself.
It’s very possible that at some point I realize this is untenable. If that’s the case, then I have a clear understanding of what’s more important to me. But I couldn’t reach that point without at least trying. I knew that I owed it to myself and to all the people that I previously played with and for.
One of the reasons why athletics and entrepreneurship align so well is the insane amount of activation energy needed to pursue really hard goals. No one wakes up as the best football player in the world, just like no one can just imagine a company into existence.
You have to put in the work. To make sacrifices. To survive the lows in order to reach greatness.
Professional athletes and great founders are alike in the fact that they’re devoted to being the best version of themselves.
And most importantly, you can’t do that alone.
On Ambition
Normally I wouldn’t publicly share a goal like this. There’s not much upside to doing so! And yet I decided to publish this because I’ve seen how much people can influence each other. Over the past 15+ months I’ve been continually inspired by the founders and people I work with.
Having a front row seat to truly ambitious people is eye-opening. Ambition is one of the most powerful forces in the world. One of my many learnings from my first year in venture is that everyone benefits from elevated aspirations.
Now, there’s a difference between saying something ambitious, and actually working to make ambitious dreams a reality. No one disputes that. But the people I get along with the most have no issue putting in the hard work. Which is why helping someone increase their ambition is one of the most important things you can do for them. They were already going to do the work, so why not push them higher?
Surrounding yourself with ambitious people naturally will elevate your own goals. And that’s ultimately why I’m writing and sharing this piece. I know what I need to do. But maybe by reading this you’ll figure out what you need to do.
I’m not hiding from my other responsibilities, in fact, this is helping me. Because being in peak physical shape confers a level of mental performance that’s impossible to replicate.
I made a commitment to myself about giving this a proper chance, and I strive to be a man of my word; this is a very public way of doing that.
One of the most important things someone can do is help nurture and elevate people’s confidence, aspirations, and belief in themselves. Being around people that are ruthlessly focused on setting high standards and goals rubs off on you. I wouldn’t have decided to do this without being around other equally ambitious people. And I hope that by putting this out into the world, I can help elevate other people’s ambitions too.
Nothing to Lose
There is never any shame in trying to accomplish something monumental. Even if you don’t reach the peak of the mountain, you’ll still have a great view.
Ultimately the way I think about this is simple: the best case scenario is I get to play in the Olympics. Worst case I’m in the best shape of my life as I enter my early 30s. Either way I’ll be better off, especially if I’m content with the effort I put in. If I Control the Controllables, the outcome will take care of itself.
Sometimes audacious goals can be scary or frightening, but they don’t need to be. Break things down into smaller chunks and you realize most things are pretty feasible. The feasibility is on the other side of a mountain of effort, but it’s a (mostly) traversable landscape.
And all of what I’m doing physically feeds back to the rest of my life. Paradoxically, training for the Olympics has a nourishing effect — it’s inherently energizing and makes me more focused as I devote myself to my main goal.
I keep returning to what I wrote when I was starting my new personal and professional goals:
The personal one, What I’m Here For:
In the afterlife you are judged not against other people, but against yourself. Specifically, you are judged against what you could have been.
And then of course, from The American Dynamism Dream:
Earlier this year, I talked about my greatest personal failure, and how I always ask myself two questions now before I set out to accomplish anything:
What would I do if I knew I couldn’t fail?
Is this still worth doing even if I fail doing it?
I left doubts behind in college. And given this was my largest personal failure, I felt I deserved to give it one more try, albeit with the odds stacked even further against my favor.
But that’s why I’m going after it. I know so much more about myself, and I’m keen on leaving everything on the field. This time I won’t fail because I wasn’t mentally strong enough. If I fail it will be something else.
And I won’t know for sure unless I try.
Looking Before You Leap
Some people say you shouldn’t set goals because you’ll get distracted from making the systems needed to make them happen.
I always thought that was stupid. I’m sure that’s useful advice for some individuals, but I have yet to meet someone who’s accomplished greatness that hasn’t set big goals for themselves. Every great athlete always talks about how they visualized themselves on the big stage. The best founders always reference their original vision of the company they wanted to build.
I’ve been surprised how much my athletic journey has resonated with founders. But after more reflection it really shouldn’t have surprised me: both journeys require sacrifice and a Messianic commitment to excellence. You can’t fake that, in any domain. Athletics and entrepreneurship are worlds where there’s no place to hide.
I’ve always been at my best when pushing myself physically and mentally. I have the time and work ethic to make this happen, especially since I don’t have kids. This is my final swan song to my career as an athlete. And make no mistake, career is the correct word. I’m ready for this grueling challenge.
Imagination is often the missing ingredient for elevating ambition; visualisation helps make everything feel more real, which is why you should take a look before you leap. But you have to leap. Exceptional people take their imagination and turn it into reality.
And yet most people don’t take that step towards greatness because they find every reason to say no.
They won’t commit to it.
Committing
One of my favorite tweets is from Paul Graham:
I met a guy who spent several years jumping dirt bikes. I asked him, as I often do when I meet people with unusual skills, what was the key to doing it well.
His answer: “Committing.”
Few people have the confidence to make the leap into the unknown. But that’s the place where the most growth happens. It’s where we test ourself, where we figure out who we really are.
The people I truly respect are the ones that take that leap. I’d be lying if I said they weren’t afraid. Hell, I’m afraid about publicly posting this, and that’s arguably the easiest part of this whole process. That’s another secret no one tells you about — we’re all afraid of something. It’s not the absence of fear that makes you brave, it’s the confrontation of the fear.
Bravery cannot be faked.
One of my biggest fears is not becoming who I am meant to become.1 I’m fully intentional about how I want to spend my time here; I don’t make haphazard decisions. When I commit, I go all in.
Part of life is realizing when you need to create a new personal story. New stories breed new journeys, and those require constant course corrections when the facts and reality change. Right now, this is a feasible reality. And I’ll continue to see if that’s the case. If it suddenly isn’t, then that’s okay. I can live with that. I cannot live with not knowing if I could do this. I need to know if this is actually possible or not.
If there’s only one thing you take away from this piece, make it this: Don’t go through life with a big list of “What Ifs”. If you have a burning question, commit yourself to answering it. If you’re wondering if you have what it takes, then give it a shot.
A lot of people are fascinated with the Navy SEALs and other special forces teams because they secretly wonder if they themselves could survive the training required to become one.
That’s the beauty of the briefness of life — the brevity forces you to choose which questions to focus on. And there’s only one way to answer them: Committing.
I urge you to consider what questions you’ve neglected, which ones you secretly want to answer.
Those are what you should devote some of your life to. They don’t need to demand all of your time. But at least have something you’re working on; give yourself permission to have purpose.
Over the past year I’ve felt like this was a question I didn’t have a definitive answer to. So I’ve set off on a new journey with a clear destination in mind. I won’t answer it for a number of years. And that’s okay with me, because it should be a hell of a ride. And that’s all you can ask for.
That’s why I’m taking the leap.
I’ll see you at LA 2028.
From What I’m Here For:
When I think about my eventual death, I think of two quotes:
My biggest fear is dying and God (or whoever God assigns this task to) shows me a board with a list of accomplishments: physically fit, Navy SEAL, pull-up record holder, inspirational speaker who helps others, etc.
I say, “that’s not me.”
And God responds, “that’s who you were supposed to be.”
– David Goggins
In the afterlife you are judged not against other people, but against yourself. Specifically, you are judged against what you could have been.
These yous are not really you, they are better than you. They made smarter choices, worked harder, invested the extra effort into pushing on closed doors. These doors eventually broke open for them and allowed their lives to splash out in colorful new directions. Such success cannot be explained away by a better genetic hand; instead, they played your cards better. In their parallel lives, they made better decisions, avoided moral lapses, did not give up on love so easily. They worked harder than you did to correct their mistakes and apologized more often.
— Sum, 40 Tales from the Afterlife