No one could even remember someone so highly skilled and ranked failing to even qualify. Yet, Dan O’Brien did just that.

It’s history now—but when sitting on Delta flights #1862, from Salt Lake City to Spokane, it was real. It was Monday, the day after watching Dan O’Brien win the 1996 Olympic Gold Medal in the Decathlon event and earn the title “The World’s Greatest Athlete.” It was exciting, if you remember the event and the media hype:

•         “Will Dan O’Brien crack like he did in ’92?”
•         “Will the past haunt O’Brien?”
•         “Can Dan O’Brien do it after his world class failure just four years ago?”

The negatives appeared in newspaper and in television commentaries. Rightly so, because this young man was so highly touted to win in 1992 – only to fail to even qualify for the Olympic team. No one could even remember someone so highly skilled and ranked failing to even qualify. Yet, Dan O’Brien did just that.

After the shock and devastating embarrassment subsided, Dan decided to reset his goal, and began training in 1996 in Atlanta. He sought help from an expert, Milt Campbell, the U.S. Decathlon winner from 1956 in Melbourne, Australia. Milt was conducting a seminar for athletes. Dan attended with 14 others – all world class losers! Milt opened the seminar with three questions: “How many of you have a goal?” All 15 raised their hands. ”How many of you have that goal written down?” All 15 raised their hands. “How many of you have that goal written down and with you right now?” Not one did!

That, Dan O’Brien said four years later in an interview with Bob Costas on national television with the Gold Medal around his neck, was the turning point for him.

“I went to my room at the first break, wrote down my goal and carried it with me everyday, no matter where I went.”

Wow! What a Story! Little did I know that in less than 24 hours I’d be sitting right across from Dan O’Brien as he flew home to the Spokane area.

What would you have done? Smiled at him? Asked for an autograph? Ignored him? As I debated all three, he glanced across and made eye contact… my opening for, “Congratulations, Dan, I saw your interview with Bob Costas and your receiving the Gold. It was inspiring.” A few minutes of chatting and we got to specifics—he was relaxed, open and seemed willing to talk. Interesting, not one other person recognized him—not the other passengers on the flight or the flight attendant. He was all mine! He asked what I did, and briefly, I told him I was a professional speaker, on my way to address a group of sales people, and one portion of my four-hour seminar would be on achieving goals. I said, “Dan, if you were going to speak instead of me, what would you tell them to do to achieve their goals?” Dan told me, and hearing it directly from “The World’s Greatest Athlete” was thrilling—and so impacting. Then I said: “One more favor, Dan, would you be willing to write that down so I could put it on a visual and show it to my audience?”