In my younger days I used to dismiss horse racing as a sport. What could be easier than having to sit on a horse that does all the hard work? As I've become older and just a little bit wiser I've begun to appreciate the demands placed on jockeys, both mentally and physically. And that's before they have a fall.
At the age of 18, a sprightly young jockey called Tony McCoy was riding a horse and had a terrible fall. It was one of those sickening ones where his leg snapped and the noise of the break could be heard from a great distance. As he looked down at his leg he could see the end of 2 splintered bones pressing against his jodhpurs. As he screamed in agony he had to endure a bumpy ride in an ambulance to the local hospital.
Once he recovered, he went back to the stables to resume racing again. His boss wasn't impressed. He told him that he'd heard him screaming like a girl when he broke his leg and that he wasn't tough enough for racing horses.
That would have been my cue to walk away but Tony saw this as a challenge. To cut a long story short, Tony McCoy has ridden more than 3600 winners, considerably more than any jump jockey in history. Since 1995 he has been the Champion Jockey (i.e. the greatest number of winners in a season) in every year he has been a professional. I could go on.
As you think about your career and the direction it's going in, what can you learn from A.P. McCoy?
What is your next step and when are you going to take it?
If you need help with your next steps, please feel free contact me for a free 15 minute consultation.