How many times should you try before rationally quitting? Intuitively, you would think there is a number that most people will attempt before the survival instincts kick in. What is that number? Apparently, it is much higher than one would think.

Many people believe that the startup world is seemingly full of instant successes but reality is, that is few and far between. As our CEO has said before, in order for a startup company to have long-term, sustainable success, you need to be in “marathon mode”, not “sprint mode”.  

Persistence will always make impossible things possible. Tenacity and determination always wins.

Here are some great examples: 

300 times the founder of Pandora.com approached investors before he got funding.

400 times Richard Branson launched companies before he finally founded one that is out of this world [Virgin Galactic] pun-intended.

1,009 times Colonel Sanders, who started KFC, was turned down when he tried selling his fried chicken recipe.

1,500 times Sylvester Stallone was rejected when he tried selling his script and himself as what would become the film “Rocky”.

5,126 times James Dyson created failed prototypes of his vacuum cleaner before succeeding.

10,000 times Thomas Edison created failed prototypes of his electric bulb before succeeding.

An admitted "Moonshot", Nike had been planning the #Breaking2 race event for over a year and dreaming about it for many more years before that. Early last Saturday morning in Monza, Italy, three legendary Nike distance runners lined up at Monza's Formula 1 racetrack to try to achieve the impossible: break the 2-hour barrier for a marathon. Until then, the fastest marathon on record was 2:02:57, set in 2014 by Kenyan runner Dennis Kipruto Kimetto at the Berlin Marathon.

Kenya's Eliud Kipchoge, Ethiopia's Lelisa Desis and Eritrea's Zersenay Tadese were the three runners handpicked by Nike to attempt the feat. The runners were actually paid by Nike to forgo the London and Berlin Marathons this year in an effort to save their legs and fully invest in this one single feat, where they would need to run an average of 4:34 per mile...for 26.2 miles.

Nike accounted for every variable they could influence: the location was picked for ideal weather conditions; the track was chosen for easy curves to negate any extra energy expenditure on hard turns; shoes were designed to each runner's exact measurements, foot patterns, stride length, etc.; a fleet of motorized scooters was on hand to bring the runners water as needed so they wouldn't need to slow down to hydrate; world-class Nike runners, Olympians in their own right, were there to flank the three runners throughout the race so they wouldn't have to fight drafts or headwinds.

Assuming no one is going to go back and re-watch the 2+ hour livestream to see how it ends, *spoiler alert* - none of the three runners broke the 2 hour barrier. The closest was Eliud Kipchoge, who clocked in at 2:00:25...a mere 25.1 seconds short of achieving a sub-2 hour marathon. Heartbreakingly close? Undoubtedly. One giant leap closer to achieving the Moonshot? Absolutely. 

Kipchoge beat the previous world record by a whopping 2:32 - a lifetime in world record standards. After his history-making race, Kipchoge said, "Today, I have learned that the impossible is possible...Let all generations from all the world have hope, because the hope of when we first came here, the hope of running under two hours, was two minutes and 57 seconds. Now we are only 25 seconds away.”

Moral of the story? Dream your Moonshots and go after them fully and unabashedly because you know how the saying goes, "Shoot for the Moonshots, because even if you miss you'll land amongst the Starshots."

Last night the San Antonio Spurs played the Houston Rockets in Game 6 of the Western Conference Semifinals, in which the Rockets were favored to win by 9 points.  Just an hour before tip-off the Spurs announced devastating news, their star small-forward Kawhi Leonard would not be playing in the game.  This news practically guaranteed a win for the Rockets.  However, despite playing on the road, and without their best player, the San Antonio Spurs would go on to defeat the Rockets 114-75. 

 What I like about this Spurs win (aside from James Harden losing) is that it reminds me of our SlideBelts team. Being that everyone here is a key player in how we operate, every time someone is gone it can make completing a days objectives difficult.  What I love about us is that even when we’re down a player or two, we are still able to come out on top, even when the cards are against us!

Anyway, I hope you all have an awesome weekend as I will be studying for finals! On the bright side, after next week I will be back full time! Happy Friday!