apparently I was at boarding school in
England and this is what they hope I
turn into the reality was a little
different if you look to the far right
that’s me with the red circle that was
reality of boarding school in England
there’s more like Lord of the Flies than
gentlemen’s tennis you have three sports
every year to choose to play it’s
football cricket and field hockey so
doing what they call spring term and
spring is January through March you can
imagine springtime in London cold rain
cold fog cold mud it’s not very springy
we were told to go out and play field
hockey so we did I played it a couple
times and I thought I was getting into
this this is the reality of field hockey
in England needless to say I wasn’t very
motivated to stay out very long so I
took up fencing not this kind this kind
and I’ll come back to it and it’s
interesting story i fenced here 20 years
ago at the Helms Olympic bakery so it’s
very easy to come back full circle here
and be here in this wonderful place so
for me fencing is my constant to say
it’s a central and focal point of my
life and it’s something that I’ve always
been very determined to do and a little
bit about what I’ve learned as a leader
between motivation and determination for
me largely motivation is a state of mind
its emotive and expressive that’s why
you’ve got great motivational speakers
right all those posters I googled
motivational speaking and all this came
up determination is something internal
and deeply personal haven’t heard of a
determination on speaker yet but maybe
someday somebody will create one I want
to share a quote that I found very
useful from John Lewis in his book
walking with the wind some people like
firecrackers kind of that that
motivational type they come in to make a
lot of noise and they leave a lot of
ashes John Lewis went on to say I prefer
a pilot light it’s nothing fancy but
when it’s on it’s always lit it doesn’t
go out
so that really resonated with me and I
researched a little bit more about John
Lewis and I found two very moving
pictures from him here he is in 1965 at
the front of the march to Selma for a
cause he believes in and here he is 51
years later sitting in for a cause he
believes in imagine what his pilot light
is like and how that still burns
brightly and inspires others we all have
that inside of us I’m going to share
another story coming back to the fencing
world and this is a person person who I
compete with continuously we trained
together Gerrard Moreno and Gerrard was
a high school standout athletes in 1981
while he was protecting his family from
a robbery he was shot point-blank in the
chest
when Gerrard woke up later he realized
that he was paralyzed from the waist
down and part of his right lung was
missing after I can only imagine was a
very dark and lonely time Sherrod
decided to live his life on his own
terms
he started downhill skiing downhill
racing scuba diving he rediscovered the
sport of fencing started his own company
and launched a nonprofit to help
wheelchair athletes get more exposure
determination this is where I trained
laif see this is we move to the west
side once this place closed down you can
see it’s a big club lots of space lots
of strips to choose from I can pretty
much offense wherever I want if one air
is crowded I go to the other side this
is where Gerrard trains and trains and
trains Gerrard changed so much that it
took him to four Paralympic Games and
five World Championships what I learned
from Gerrard is that the right kind of
motivation will strengthen your
determination so as a result of changing
with Gerrard I set my mind that I’m
going to compete at the veteran World
Championships first I have to make the
team so in addition to fencing I also
run and then when I turned 40 I ran a
marathon great feeling and I don’t know
if it was the lack of oxygen or
something got to my brain I just said
I’m going to
ten before I turned 50 I was very
motivated to do that after I ran my
seventh and crossing that finish line
with both my brothers and having our
parents welcomed us with this sign my
father’s very clever with words you’ll
see and that desire was gone
III no longer want to run marathons I
said this was a moment it’s not gonna
get any better than this I stopped so
what’s next go back to fencing
I found that discovering an inner drive
and matching it with real-world
activities and requires time and
commitment and I wasn’t putting the time
and commitment to run marathons and I
want to go back to something that I was
I was good at go back and play to my
strengths so as part of a plan and part
of chaining with Gerard was basically
with a national championship on route to
getting to the World Championship and
it’s a little fuzzy there bad scam but
anyway that was my plan one of several
plans a year over year I put together
I’m injured here I’m healthy here this
works this doesn’t work and I just I
just kept at it every year what I
learned is that you have to set your
intent you have to know what motivates
you you have to understand your
determination know why you’re doing it
in the first place
and then for me the link between the two
is discipline this opinion is your link
between motivation and determination
because again discipline is emotional
and determination is a set of mind if
you set your mind to it then you can
move forward these are the three things
I can control every morning when I get
up my mindset my energy and the time
that I get up so that was part of my
plan I went from getting up at 7:00 in
the morning to 5:30 in the morning
day after day month after month maybe
not on Sundays I built a support team
I became accountable to this support
team and I shared my progress so my
support team considered my mentor sports
doctor my coach Okawa like care for him
greatly great man
my fencing club the CEO group I belong
to my family and my spouse I said my a
lot because I own the experience it was
my ownership I’m a
accountable to these people and talking
about motivation determination I just
want to give a quick shout out to the
American sensors that are going to Rio
next week imagine putting everything on
hold for one day
that’s determination that’s motivation
that’s accountability and I just want to
wish them the best and I’m actually
going there to watch them fence in a
couple of days so one of those items
that if you’re determined go and support
people that take you along their journey
with them so for me it took a few more
than it took more than a few attempts to
to get to this national championship
from 2009 to 2014 I went to every single
major tournament for the over 50 I fence
in every single national championship I
went from a low of 17 to a high of
second a couple of times and my pilot
light was on I just kept going I just
kept going I was determined what the
lessons learned was basically accept and
grow from your losses be determined just
as determined the next time because for
as long as you’re in there game in the
game there’s always the next time so
it’s July 1st 2015
I’ve made it to the gold medal bout it’s
a big opponent he had just taken fifth
in the World Championships where I had
flamed out and taken 33rd and that World
Championships that year and that gold
medal bout in fencing you go to ten
touches so I’m up for two two I blink
I’m down six four at the break I’m down
86 so coach comes over says what’s going
on where’s your mindset I that
motivation was leaving me and I felt
okay this is the time to come determined
I’m gonna be determined more than
motivated I tied the score at eight all
he went up nine eight and I said this is
it this is that moment that we all look
for it’s not the Olympics it’s the over
50 national championships it’s 10:30 at
night we start at 4:00 in the afternoon
it’s probably 20 people watching us but
it’s that moment that mattered we’ve all
been there right so what happened next
was I launched an attack at the attacker
because I knew he’s an aggressive fencer
he’s bigger than me tied the score up at
here’s the final touch it was over
Demitri me back needle dancing lesson
for me next time but that’s all that
mattered was that moment ten nine
I was national championship champion
finally what did I learn from that
experience celebrate your wins and build
on your wins good feeling huh not the
same tournament but a great feeling and
since there Nike shoes I think it’s got
to be the shoes so basically build on
your wins express gratitude recognize
and thank those who have been with you
along the journey when you’re motivated
others are along for the ride when
you’re determined they share the journey
with you so the next year my parents we
were in Hungary and there was my brother
again and my wife took the picture she’s
a great photographer that’s why she’s
not in there in everything and we shared
that journey together too in Hungary
just a special moment so bring others
along the journey with you and lastly
imagine where the road less traveled
will take you when you are determined
and have the discipline thank you very much