Dear John,

Here’s a question: How would you feel if you lost an Olympic Gold Medal by two-thousandths of a second?

You probably wonder, "How can they even measure that closely?"

Mathematically speaking, the distance you can swim in two-thousandths of a second is about the thickness of a coat of paint, or about one-tenth of the time of a typical eye blink.

To have practiced for years and years and come so close to the ultimate prize — yet miss it by that fraction of time in a 400-meter individual medley — would be an unimaginably difficult pill to swallow, wouldn’t it?

American swimmer Tim McKee knows first-hand.

The event took place in the 1972 Olympics in Munich when Olympic swim timing had just converted from stopwatches to the use of electronic touchpads.

At that time stopwatches were still calibrated no closer than a hundredth of a second, but the just-installed electronic touchpads could measure to the thousandths of a second.

McKee had tied for first place with Gunnar Larsson of Sweden to the hundredth of a second, according to the stopwatch, but lost by two thousandths of a second, according to the electronic touchpad.

To add insult to injury, later at the Los Angeles Olympics in 1984, gold medals were awarded to two swimmers who had tied to the hundredth of a second.

I'm certain the disappointment was intense for Tim McKee, but in life we all experience many disappointments.

Leaders, and those who are on the success path, don’t let disappointment win the day. They will dwell on life’s disappointments only briefly, if at all, and then they move on.

Tim realized that his entire life was still in front of him, and whether he won or lost the gold medal, he would always have his innate ability, drive, character, determination, love, commitment, responsibility, and all of the other things that help make him successful in life.

Incidentally, he was later inducted into the University of Florida Athletic Hall of Fame and the International Swimming Hall of Fame.

Let’s all take a lesson from Tim, and use our disappointments as a springboard on our journey to the top.

You were Born to Win, so go ahead and Live to Win!

Tom

PS - Quote of the Day: “Don’t let the mistakes and disappointments of the past control and direct your future.” — Zig Ziglar