The Difference between Gold and Silver

Olympic champion swimmer Michael Phelps.

The other night I was watching a 60 Minutes interview with Olympic Champion Michael Phelps.

During the interview, the host Anderson Cooper showed pictures of Phelps winning the 100-

meter butterfly final at the Water Cube in Beijing by ONE-HUNDREDTH of a second over

Serbia’s Milorad Cavic.

Phelps admitted that his winning margin of one-hundredth of a second was almost impossible to

see but it was because of ONE small difference, on the final stroke Cavic lifted his head up just

slightly which “acted as a mini speed bump and I kept my head down streamlined”. Small stuff

matters a lot.

It’s important to keep in mind that high achievers in every vocation turn over all stones,

understanding and exploiting to their benefit the fact that the critical difference between

merely acceptable versus excellent results lies in the smallest of details.

They acknowledge and accept that the difference between Gold and Silver at the Olympics can

be traced to the tiniest of details in training or execution; as a result, they make everything

count.