Posted by “When I was a little girl, I learned that you can never quit on a bad day.
“I remember coming home from training some days and telling my mother that I wanted to quit.
“And because my parents never pushed me or made my do gymnastics, she would say, ‘That’s fine, you can quit, but not today.’
“And she would make me go back to the gym the next day, and the next day, and the next day, until I had one good day.
“And finally, after a good day – because moms always know when we have a good day – she would say, ‘Okay, great, now you can quit. We’ll enroll you back into public school and you can find another activity, you know, that you’re passionate about.’
“And I would always say, ‘I don’t know what you’re talking about. I never said I wanted to quit.’
“And this happened multiple times. And so basically, it saved me multiple times. Because at the end of the day, the most important thing is to find something that you love and you’re passionate about.
“And that, to me, was gymnastics for so many years.
“And so, what I realized from that simple message of never quit on a bad day, was that regardless of what career path you decide to take, whatever it is that your job is, we’re all going to have bad days.
“We’re going to have days where we wanna throw our hands up in the air and say I quit, I don’t wanna do this any longer. It’s too hard, I’m frustrated, I’m injured.
“And it’s okay to go in a different career path or on a different avenue, but not after a bad day.
“And so, I feel like that’s kind of what has helped me now, through business and through life in general, is that not every day is going to be easy, or exciting, or you’re gonna feel fulfilled.
“But getting through those hard days, and going back to, ‘What is my goal?’
“For me, that was always the Olympics and winning a gold medal. And so, on those bad days, I would visualize and look ahead.
“And now, being able to do the same thing in life, and also in business, that’s what helps me to get through those bad days.”