“I don't want to leave this world and think what if I would have done this? What if I would have done that?”
“I want to give it all and I want to see what I can accomplish because it ended in sports, we all get old, and then there's so many new things to do. And I just want to continue to use what sports gave me: that mentality to really succeed in other areas as well.”
You might not expect the hot climate of Texas to be the home of a Winter Olympics champion. Chad Hedrick won gold in speed skating at Turin 2006 and grew up just outside Houston.
Hedrick’s family owned a roller rink and instead of hiring a babysitter, his parents kept him up to eight hours a day at the rink. He learned to walk on a pair of skates at just 16 months old. On the Best in the World podcast, the American revealed how his work ethic and passion led him to an Olympic gold medal and two World titles.
These days you’ll see Chad around Houston working in real estate with his company ‘Gold to Sold’. His attitude to daily goal setting for selling houses is the same as he used for speed skating.
“The key to it all, is being able to understand how I used my schedule, and how I structured my training schedule to succeed in sports, and transfer that over into the real world to provide a future for myself and my family professionally,” said Hedrick.
“It's simple little things that a lot of people overlook. But I have a contact list of almost 1000 people that I contact throughout the year. And each morning, the first thing that I do is I call 10 people.
“Every morning I call 10 people and let them know what's going on, what the markets do and how their family is. Just to open up conversation. That could be a lead to me selling another home. And it's those little things, that structure, that persistence, that is key to the difference between what I like to call gold and silver.
“In sports, some of the events can be separated by .02 seconds. Well, in real business, it can be very similar. You can lose a business because you decided to wake up and call 8 people rather than 10.
“These are 10 people that I've met at a happy hour event, 10 people that I've met in my road to the Olympics, 10 people that, it could be my dentist, it could be a guy who I run into at Starbucks, it could be anybody.
“You never know who you're running into. You just never know. Your mind has to be thinking about the goal at hand, all day, every day and my wife hates that about me. Sometimes it's hard to turn that switch off. But it's the difference between being good at something and being the best. I handed a card to somebody at Starbucks yesterday. Didn't think anything of it. She's now wanting me to show her a million-dollar home, out here in Houston. I just got off the phone. And you know what? It's that persistence.
“I try to hand 20 cards out a day, I try to make 10 phone calls a day, I try to have this structure where every day I wake up, I give my best, give myself the best chance to cross that line first. And it's that attitude. If I lose that fire, if I lose that focus, I won't be able to succeed and accomplish my goals.
“To become a champion, in my opinion, you have people that can accept losing, and you have people that refuse to lose. And I've seen many talented people all around me in many sports that really don't have that killer instinct or they had a lot of talent but when everything doesn't go their way they fold and it takes a really unique person who perseveres through those times in order to become a champion.
“I think you see a lot of great athletes, but the athlete is complemented by what's inside your head. And that really distinguishes the difference between a really good athlete and somebody who sets themselves apart from the rest.”
You can listen to Chad's full interview on the Best in the World with Richard Parr podcast on Apple and Spotify.
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On the ‘Best In the World’ Podcast, Richard Parr talks to sports stars who have reached the pinnacle.
World Champions, Olympic Champions, World Record Holders & World Number Ones.
The show reveals what these athletes do differently from the rest of us to be the best. This includes training techniques, nutrition, relationships, sacrifices, mental health, time management, home environment and much more.
Richard wants to know what they do so we can improve our own lives.
Connect with Richard on social media @richard_parr.