What a Morgan Stanley partner and a gold medal dragon boat race taught this Millennial
The winning stroke
A gold medal dragon boat race is won when every single person on the boat syncs their mind, will and body to be one: paddles enter in the water at the same time, legs drive most powerfully at the same time, core muscles tense and rotate the body at the same time, and outside arms reach deep into the water at the same time. In a good stroke, you need to trust the water enough to throw your entire weight onto your paddle, knowing almost prophetically that the person in front and behind you will be doing the exact same thing.
This “one-ness” seals the deal to shoot your boat off out of the water at the start of the race, surging at each stroke before you finish the race giving your all. Just using your arms can’t make the boat move in a powerful surge. Especially if all your teammates are using their arms rapidly at a different tempo halfway through the symphonic race because they look at the other team. Rhythm wins all.
One theory, many wins
The same theory applies to a team in a corporation. You have to listen to each teammate and match their pace. Award-winning products have cross-functional departments working daily on their best A-game. Teamwork in any other sports or chess game with moving pieces is a no-brainer. Even bandwagon Golden State fans learned this lesson from the 2017 NBA championship team: more strong players make a stronger team. One all-star Cavalier doesn’t make a strong roster, strong boat, or strong IPO-gunning start-up. Even design thinking shows that many iterations based on user feedback ends up in better and better prototypes. There’s power in numbers.
Happiness achieved
One of the best phrases I’ve heard from a partner at Morgan Stanley is,
Happiness is a temporary state. It’s not permanent. Life is a journey. Know that when you’re unhappy, the train will move on from that station to the next stop.
In this epic 21st century tech epoch, we tend to change our lives quickly when we’re not satisfied. If we’re bored, it’s time to change.
That’s my career timeline every 1–2 years. Most peers say that’s normal, it’s just a case of high-achieving millennial syndrome. However, both dragon boat and design thinking have taught me to dig deeper.
The fastest stroke doesn’t get you to the finish line any faster. Nor does changing up your stroke every 20 seconds (talk about the worst technique ever). Rather, the most-practiced and solidified stroke that usually wins the long races involves:
- understanding the theory behind it in our mind,
- syncing our mental focus with the rest of the people around us,
- playing our role each day as if it were our last competition day where it really matters, putting the mental and physical into play.
