4 Life Lessons from Cool Runnings
As the youngest child in a Jamaican family, it probably won’t come as a great surprise that one of my favourite movies growing up was Cool Runnings — the underdog story of the first ever Jamaican Bobsled team. What might surprise you though is that as an adult, coach, entrepreneur and now business leader I often find myself returning to the movie’s deep and profound life lessons. Though the movie strays from the historical account, I often recite these lessons to those unfortunate enough to be under my tutelage or direction, and now I want to share 5 of my favourite hidden gems from this wonderful family movie with the world.
Lesson 1 — I See Pride…
When Junior, the son of a wealthy Jamaican businessman, feels great shame about his participation in the Bobsled team, he fears that his father won’t respect his career choices. After a small disagreement with the villainous East German team, Yul takes Junior to the bathroom for a motivational speech. But the force of Yul’s words are not magic. Instead, Yul explains that when he looks at Junior he sees pride and power, but what Yul sees doesn’t matter. What matter is what Junior sees. It’s only when Junior believes in himself that he can truly begin to lead his own life and stand-up to his father.
There is a lesson in this for anyone who acts as a mentor, coach or friend. The antidote for low self-esteem is to help others to see their own strength and skill and uniqueness; that’s when fortunes change.
Lesson 2 — I can’t teach you to stay loose out there
After Junior contributes the funds to send the team to Calgary to attempt to qualify for the Olympics they immediately find themselves in difficulty. While in practice the team had been flying (defying everyone’s expectations), when they walked on the Ice in Calgary, their performance didn’t measure up. During a post-run de-brief in the hotel, Coach Blitzer (played by the brilliant John Candy) reminds the team that they know all of the turns, they’ve practiced sufficiently, but the one thing he can’t teach them is how to “stay loose out there”.
Anyone who has taken part in any competitive sport knows that the difference between training and competition can be huge. In sport and life, practice is a necessary pre-condition to success, but it’s not sufficient. You always need to be ready and flexible enough to ditch whatever you had planned as circumstances change. Coach Blitzer reminds the team that the purpose of diligent practice is to give you the comfort and certainty that when it really matters you have the skills and the judgement to perform. So you gotta stay loose out there.
Lesson 3 — I didn’t come all the way up here to forget who I am
Throughout their time in Canada, Derice (driver and captain of the team) draws inspiration from the professionalism and tradition of the Swiss team. But after several embarrassing performances on the ice, Sanka identifies the issue: The team are trying far too hard to emulate the Swiss. Sanka confronts Derice and explains that the only way the team will perform at their best is if they stop acting like the Swiss, and instead “look, walk, talk [and]… bobsled Jamaican”.
I am certain that anyone who knows how it feels to be a minority, or to be the only women in a board room, or the only person of colour in a company knows the deep temptation to imitate others that imposter syndrome can trigger. Derice in his pursuit of excellence succumbed to exactly that temptation. But Sanka’s right. If you strive to be successful, it makes sense to emulate the behaviours of those we aspire to, but never let that compromise your identity, and never forget who you are.
Lesson 4 — If you’re not enough without it…
After the team find their identity, they report a time that shocks the world and positions them in 8th place. That evening, Coach Blitzer and Derice share a quiet moment together, and Derice asks the Coach why he chose to cheat when he won gold competing at the Olympics for the US team. Coach explains that his compulsion to cheat came from his compulsion to win, and that craving the validation of the gold medal consumed him. But in explaining (and taking responsibility for) his ways, Coach teaches a profound lesson: Though a gold medal is a great and valuable thing, “if you’re not enough without it, you’ll never be enough with it”.
Throughout my career I’ve seen people subject themselves to significant pressure and tasks and jobs they don’t enjoy in the vain hope that when they achieve some status, or win some award, or get some promotion all of the sacrifices and comprises will be worthwhile. But they won’t. Sure, accolades and victories and successes are nice, but they’re also fleeting, and they won’t make you whole. And while it’s true that no success can come without enduring some hardship, if you don’t enjoy the journey, you’re on the wrong path. Put another way, you should strive in everything you do to have Cool Runnings.
