Newsletter: What makes success?

Dear Newsletter-Reader,

I had a rather unusual experience last night. A friend of ours gave my wife and me free tickets to Zürich’s “Sixday-Nights.” The Sixday-Nights event is on the one hand a huge cycling competition in an indoor velodrome. On the other hand, the Sixday-Nights is a kind of huge party in Zürich.

I am not much of a partygoer, yet I totally enjoyed the Sixday-Nights event. Why? I loved the energy. One aspect is that I enjoy being among professional racing cyclists. The friend that invited us is one of them. He has won the event a number of times. Cycling is my favorite sport, and I enjoy being among people who are successful in this sport.

What can I give you from my words in this newsletter about the world of professional cycling and success?

I can tell you what makes successful professional cyclists different from other people and what you can learn from them, if you are interesting in having a successful life.

What makes success?

First and foremost is your attitude about life. You need an attitude of joy and discipline in order to succeed. Absolutely clear goals are important. In the Sixday-Nights event team spirit and caring for others is also important. There are no individual winners. Teams of two win. Velodrome cycling is no place for ruthlessness, either. Such an attitude would only result in accidents. You have to watch out for the others and still win.

Can you just take on an attitude and win with it?

Yes and no. You cannot take on a winning attitude and use it to cover up the attitude of being a loser or of someone who is secretly searching for misery in life. Do you secretly consider yourself to be a loser? Is your secret attitude to life one of misery and suffering?

If  you wish success, the core of your being must be the winning attitude of joy, success and camaraderie. An attitude is something you radiate to the world. It is the center of your being. What you radiate to the world is what you create. Your creation is like a crop that you harvest when your innermost seed manifests in the world around you. Your life attitude is this innermost seed.

What if you see yourself as a loser or a creator of misery? How can you change your life so that it becomes success manifested?

Joy and winning are a passion.

Passion is a choice. One of the secrets of life is that you can have anything that you want. You simply have to want it deeply and need the appropriate tools to achieve it.

If you want to be a successful professional cyclist, you will need the correct attitude and discipline. You will also need “tools.” These will include a lot of time, the appropriate equipment, the right coach and sponsors. 

If your innermost attitude has been that of a loser most of your life, you will most likely find it very difficult to believe that we or anyone else could help you become successful in your life. Most people I have met with the attitude of a loser believed that they were beyond help. If you believe this, I ask you here what is impossible.

Cycling has been one of the passions of my life. When I was 22 years old I made a serious error of judgment in my training program. It was winter in the Midwest of the United States, where I was a student in a large university preparing for a career as a linguist. The master’s degree program was stressful, and I decided to train hard on my racing bicycle to compensate for the stress. I had a clear goal of doing long cycling tours in the Alps in the coming summer. Since the Midwest has no mountains, I substituted speed for the long climbs that I would be doing in the summer. I tried to do too much too quickly and destroyed the cartilage on the inside of my kneecaps. 

I could not ride again for 18 years. The orthopedists in the university’s hospital told me that I could expect not being able to even climb stairs in the future and should get used to the idea of a sedentary life. I am not the kind of person to take no for an answer. When I finished my master’s, I moved to Seattle, where I entered a Ph.D. program. During those years I devoted half of my time to mountain climbing and ski mountaineering.

It took time to rebuild the cartilage. But I did it. Cycling is again my passion. The second time I had to rebuild my cartilage it took less time. At that time I had a career as an underwater photographer. A diving accident destroyed much of the cartilage in my wrist and put an abrupt and painful end to my diving career. Again, the doctors told me that it was impossible to heal the cartilage. At that point I knew better. Two weeks later I had new x-rays taken. My wrists were fully healed.

So, I ask again: What is not possible in life? 

We have tools that work. Our tools have the potential of changing the life attitude you carry in the core of your being. You still remain in the driver’s seat with our tools, though. You decide if you want to use them. And you decide if you want to keep them and make them the center of your life.

Once you have the tools and you have learned how to use them, we can even coach you to success. One of us, Erich Walker, coaches professional athletes and helps them become successful in their chosen field of activity. Whether you are a professional athlete or not, we can help you make your life successful. 

The choice is yours. If you are interested, we cannot invite you to the Sixday-Nights event. It is going to be over shortly after you read this. But, we also have events. Our events give you the tools that you need for a lifetime of success. If you wish to try them out, you may wish to take a look at our offerings.

Yours sincerely,

Andrew Terker