PHOENIX–Michael Phelps, the most decorated Olympian in history with 28 medals, didn’t arrive accidentally on all those podiums. He was fixated on goals, overcame a dark period in his life, and for anyone who ever doubted them, sought to jam their doubts “down their throats.” In all of that, he found some lessons for credit union execs as both leaders and as individuals.
During CO-OP’s THINK18 Conference here, Phelps shared his thoughts on everything from the goal-setting that helped drive his successes to what is driving him today. The Q&A with Phelps was conducted by Jean Chatzky, emcee of the THINK18 meeting and a financial author and finance correspondent for the Today Show.
Chatzky: The theme of conference is race to excellence. How do you define excellence?
Phelps:I think each person can define it in their own way. When I started this journey, it was with a goal of breaking a world record and becoming an Olympic medalist. Once I got there I had to redefine what excellence would be. Goals have played a huge part in my life. From the moment I got up until I went to bed the goals were there for me to see them.
Chatzky: Your race to excellence started at the family pool. Why did swimming become your favorite sport?
Phelps:My two older sisters (Whitney and Hilary) who are five and seven years older than I am were swimming all the time. We were always at the pool. I watched my sisters get better and better and travel throughout the world. My middle sister was third in the world and first in the nation at 13 and I thought that was really cool. When I sat down with my coach (Bob Bowman) at 11 he said I could be an Olympian in four years if I wanted to. At that time I was playing baseball and soccer and other sports, and he said if you want to make the Olympic team, you need to do just swimming. For some strange reason I trusted this guy. And four years later he put me on the Olympic team. Since stepping away I think I’ve been able to understand more about what happened in my life and he was someone who trusted in me and believed in me and I think right there and then was something I was looking for. My father wasn’t around, and he was something of a father figure to me. We did it together. From that moment forward we decided we could do anything we could put our minds to it.
Chatzky: Is it hard to wrap your mind around being an Olympian at age 11?
Phelps:At age 11, it’s hey, that’s cool, let’s go, without fully understanding how hard it is. I had faith in my coach that he could take me there and I made my first Olympics at 15 in 2000. But I wanted to do more.
Chatzky: Tell us more about your coach? How did your network help you?
Phelps:I remember meeting him for the first time and thinking there is no way I am ever swimming for that man. He is crazy. He was whistling in different ways and running up and down the pool. So, we started working together and he had different pitches for whistles. One was ‘Pick it up,’ and another was ‘What the hell are you doing?’ and another was ‘You’ve got to be kidding me.’ It took me awhile to get used to him and how he works. We had so many head-to-head battles throughout our careers. We are both pushing ourselves to the max; we had these massive, massive goals. We knew how each other worked and which buttons to push. We had an arrangement where we didn’t speak to each other before eight in the morning because I am not a morning person.
Chatzky: You and your coach managed to work through your differences. It’s an interesting exercise in how people or even companies can grow?
Phelps:If you look in sports, it’s hard to find an athlete with the same coach for 20 years. There were some hard times we went through together. We decided we would bite the bullet and get through it, because we saw what we could do. For six years we worked out every single day. Never missed a day. It’s what I had to do to set up for 2008. I was a professional athlete at 15; I had an agent. I wanted to show something that the globe had never seen. I couldn’t do it like everyone else. If you take one day off, it takes two days to get it back.
Chatzky: Your coach put “WR” (World Record) in front of you. Why is visualization so important?
Phelps:When I get to a swim meet there is nothing I can control at that point. I can’t control everyone else. It all goes back to preparation. If you are not preparing yourself before a meet you’re not getting the (race) time you deserve. When I get into the blocks I don’t have to think about anything else. I started visualizing at 13, 14 just so everything around me was taken care of when I got to a meet, so I could be completely relaxed. When I put the headphones on all I am thinking about is the music. That’s what all those hours staring at the bottom of the pool were all about. Visualizing just mentally prepares you and you can check that box off.
Chatzky: How can we use the losses and frustrations we face every day to get ahead?
Phelps:If we get everything we want every step of the way, would that really be that fun? No. You want to be able to get the work and time in to accomplish a goal you have. For me, my goals were times. If I didn’t get the times, I went back to the drawing board. I wasn’t racing anyone else, I was racing myself. I didn’t care about anyone else. I’m the first one to admit my life and my career were not a smooth and easy road. I had a lot of ups and downs. If you can’t get there by yourself, you can ask for help, you can ask teammates. When I learned I could ask for help, my career became much more enjoyable.
Chatzky: Do you still have goal sheets?
Phelps: With Coach (Bowman), we have always had a theme of ‘Dream, Plan, Reach.’ They were broken down in to splits and I would put them next to my bed and I would see them every day. There were days I didn’t want to get out of bed; I was tired and sore. My goal sheets for so long were all about times; now I have different goal sheets. My agent said, ‘Where do you want to be in five, 10 or 20 years?’ He asked me this five years ago and I had no idea. For me now it’s about making that transition from the pool to having a family and working and it’s different now. In 2012 I went through a retirement spell. I found myself in a dark place in 2014; I wanted to find the real me. I felt like I had a mask on. Now it’s not just about me; it’s about my family (Phelps just had a second son, Beckett, joining his two-year-old son, Boomer).
Chatzky: How have you overcome obstacles?
Phelps:My sixth grade English teacher told me I wouldn’t amount to anything. I was picked on and made fun off because of my big ears, because I shaved my legs for swimming, because I wear tiny little bathing suits. But you are able to fight through because the goals are there. People who have doubted me, I have always jammed their words right down their throats. And there is nothing more enjoyable than doing that.
Chatzky: What is typical day for you now?
Phelps: There are times when I will be on the road for two weeks straight and a lot of it is international travel, or I’ll do number of cities in a short span. I’ve been fortunate to stay home lately. I wake up early with Boomer and we start our day together. I cannot be retired. Staying in one place drives me crazy. I need to travel, I need to be busy. I have to have a structured life, which I’ve had since age 10.
Chatzky: What is the challenge now? What are your goals?
Phelps: Ten years ago, I started (the Michael Phelps Foundation) to help kids lead active lives and to teach water safety. Drowning in the U.S. is the second-leading cause of death among kids under 14. We are now in every single state and Boys & Girls Club and Special Olympics. I’m on the board of a company that manufactures a device you wear that uses the circadian rhythms that works on different forms of mental health illness.
In 2014, I had serious, serious spells of depression. In 2014 wanted to commit suicide. Just had a friend of mine yesterday commit suicide. I allowed myself to become vulnerable. I was a person who could stuff things away and not deal with them and then at any moment I could explode, and that’s not healthy. For me, it was just about opening up. For others, if we see someone isolating we need to do what we can to help them.