Apolo Ohno - Making It Happen Despite the Odds

What can we do to achieve our utmost in all we do? Well, first of all, we might ask ourselves: Is it even possible to always accomplish all we set out to achieve? Can we hope to be our best all the time and in all we do? As unreasonable as it may sound, most of us deep down do actually strive for such lofty and consistent achievement from ourselves in our daily lives and in the life goals we are aiming at. The sense of over-achievement is part of American culture, and is pretty common in Europe, too, as well as in Asian countries like South Korea and Japan. We identify with our achievement, and so does our family and friends. 

Be that as it may, there is one person who seems to represent a rarity in this world, someone who has reached what seemed be his maximum potential time and again only to discover there was always something new to conquer, to learn, to tackle, and in a variety of fields of endeavor. This person is Apolo Ohno, former Winter Olympic champion with a record-setting eight medals to his name, and countless world championships to boot, all in the sport of speed skating. So, at this point we might as well as the question: What does it really take to be a world champion? Perhaps only someone like Apolo Ohno knows the answer to this query. 

Ohno began life with a certain handicap. His mother was not present for the entirety of his childhood and he was therefore raised and reared by his father, a Japanese immigrant to Canada who started his own hair salon business. In fact, when you see images of Apolo Ohno in news footage or elsewhere, you will notice that his hair is always styled with the utmost taste and sensibility. 

Despite the challenges he faced as a child, very early on Apolo Ohno showed a budding and clearly remarkable talent for sports, and with a specific penchant for skating, speed skating. His father found for him the best coach available and immediately young Apolo began training. By the age of 14, he was already competing and winning championships. Even as a young teen, Ohno made it to the Winter Olympics and began his stellar career. He retired at 33 and is now a pioneering entrepreneur.