But BEFORE I share those key insights, I’ve got a confession …

Even though I’m a very active guy, ran track in high school, etc. I was not running in this marathon this past Sunday. I was with the rest of my family, at Mile 25 Marker (ie, very close to end) watching all the runners and waiting to cheer on my younger sister who WAS running.

There. Now that THAT’S out of the way (and people ask about my times), let’s keep going to the 5 Key Insights I got from observing ALL the various runners there at Mile 25 Marker.

Even though I’d not ever run a marathon, watching everyone made me realize that we ALL run crazy with some things some times. Before we learn better.

And then, we can run crazy smart.

Tweet: You can run crazy OR run crazy smart -> http://ctt.ec/bbcJ6+ via @_sean_omeara

5 Key Insights For Marathon (or Entrepreneurial) Success

As I stood there cheering & watching everyone come by Mile 25 … nearly to the finish around the corner, here were the 5 Key Insights that showed up as I watched the marathoners. They also apply to entrepreneurs …

1 – Age is just a number

I saw very young runners with parents and I saw senior citizens running. And everything in between. The smile, amount of energy left or physical posture was all over the map and had nothing to do with age.

2 – The expected advantages are NO guarantee

I saw marathoners of all shapes & sizes. You’d assume that someone relatively short, thin and apparently in good physical shape would handle the marathon well. Nope! This expected (physical) advantages were no guarantee for great success for the marathon.

3 – Vision only WITHOUT action isn’t enough

You could tell that some marathoners probably had had a vision of running a marathon but didn’t take the training action to actually prepare for the goal. Any difficult goal will require both vision AND action to truly achieve.

4 – Always Solo = Struggle

Okay, let’s be honest and say that this is probably STILL my biggest stumbling block to not recognize this insight. I saw some people running with groups, some running solo but with cheering them on. And some that looked to be very alone, very closed off from everyone & everything else. The people with the MOST energy at Mile 25 were doing their own work but connected with others somehow.

5 – Public victory may be small token – inner victory felt is HUGE

The medal for finishing the marathon is rather small BUT what it represents both in preparation, training, work and inner victory is HUGE. Many times, the physical representation is just that – a small physical token that represents way more.

So … have you been tripped up (like me!) by ignoring AT LEAST one of those key insights above?

You’re not alone. Comment below which insight you’ve grabbed from this post to START running your life crazy smart from now on.