ï»żI'm going to be reading a letter that was publicly published because this was the letter that led me to this concept. It's not from a Founder but an athlete.
I have met this person many many years ago, I'm not friends with him but I think this letter has some great lessons that we can draw parallels between being a business owner and being an athlete.
This is a letter to the Rookies going into the 2025 CrossFit Games and was written by Cole Sager.
Cole is an American Athlete who is one of very few people who has competed at the Games more than 10 years. So he definitely has the experience to be sharing these lessons.
Here is the Letter:
âLetter to the Rookiesâ:
âTime will stand still this next month. Youâll pack your days with more work and deeper mental engagement than you probably ever have.
Youâll feel the urge to obsess over everything, analyze every detail, and dial in every 1%.
You donât need to. Honor the hard work you are doing, and all that will follow.
Whatâs far more important is being present and enjoying the journey.
Eleven straight CrossFit Games went by in what felt like a few short years. So be where your feet are â be present.
Donât carry the weight of pressure. Itâs not real.
You are capable â know that. Youâll perform to the level of your preparation, so prepare well and be content with that! If youâre proud of your preparation, then you should undoubtedly be proud of your performance at the Games.
Enjoy Games training. Itâs a season like no other.
Nobody is actually training as much as social media makes it seem. Trust your gut. Take your rest days. Donât overdo it. Let your body come into the Games healthy and eager to compete.
Do your best to make the most of every moment. Laugh. Connect with the judges. Thank the volunteers. Take every picture with every fan that asks.
And when you step onto the competition floor for the first time, look up. Take it all in. Very few people get the honor of displaying their craft in front of thousands.
Itâs a privilege to feel those butterflies. Youâre ready to unleash them.â
What a letter.
I actually got my wife to read this because she competed at the CrossFit Games herself and could really resonate with what he was talking about. She started crying because it brought up so many emotions about her days competing. I also think it partly had something to do with it being Cole because she has always fancied him.
Now, I've never competed at the CrossFit Games but I have coached athletes there multiple times. And let me be very clear here, I was never their Main Coach. I wasn't writing their programs. I was more there for their headspace.
I'll tell you a funny story about one time I was at The CrossFit Games, I was there to help Coach Hannah. She was a Masters athlete and would get so unbelievably nervous before events.
We were warming up and she started to go silent (not a good sign) she was going internal and not saying much. She is usually bubbly, smiling and having fun. This is when she is at her best but the nerves were getting the better of her. I tried my best to get her into the state she competed at best but nothing was workingâŠ
Then a guy started warming up next to us, African American master athlete, wearing the tightest shorts I've seen in my entire life. I looked across and while he was in a âInteresting stretching positionâ I couldnât help to notice he was packing HEAT! Almost like a foam roller was shoved down his pants. Hannah must have spotted the shock in my eyes, asked me âWhatâ I motioned with a nod in the other athleteâs direction. She saw what I saw. We both started smiling and laughing at the scenario⊠This. This is a pattern interrupt. Snapped her from nervous wreck to smiling and laughing again.
Soo I tell you that, to help you understand that when I say I was a coach at the CrossFit Games⊠This was my role.
Now back to the letter, I noticed that Cole didn't mention the workouts or physical strategies? And I think it's because he knows the Mental Game is just as, if not, more important than the physical.
Presence, detachment from outcome, regulating emotion, managing comparison, showing gratitude â these are the things that separate elite performers.
Thatâs true in CrossFit. Itâs true in business. And itâs probably true in whatever arena youâre walking into right now.
So here are the lessons:
1. Perfectionism is seductive - but distracting
âYouâll feel the urge to obsess over everything, analyze every detail, and dial in every 1%. You donât need to.â
Something important to understand here is that over-optimising can become a coping strategy to mask fear.
And the business parallel here is: Founders obsess over launch details, branding, every word on the sales page, often because it feels safer than actually doing what is going to move the needle. This is âbusyâ work. Making sure everything is ABSOLUTELY PERFECT before pulling the trigger.
âPerfectâ becomes a hiding place. And founders love hiding. But growth lives in action.
2. Presence beats pressure
âBe where your feet are... Donât carry the weight of pressure. Itâs not real.â
Most of the pressure youâre feeling?
Itâs not from the world â itâs from you.
Your own expectations. Your imagined judgments. The invisible scoreboard in your head.
Founders carry a mental load no one sees:
* The Team looking to you for certainty.
* Clients expecting results.
* Family needing time.
* Government wants their tax
* Marketing plans half-done.
* Emails stacking up like bricks.
And under all that, this quiet voice:
âYou should know what to do. You should be better at this by now.â
The more pressure you stack, the foggier it gets.
Clarity doesnât come from sprinting harder â it comes from stopping just long enough to think clearly.
Presence beats pressure. Every time.
Breathe. Zoom out.
Solve this problem, not the 12 hypothetical ones waiting around the corner.
Thatâs how you lead.
Thatâs how you last.
3. Comparison is an illusion
âNobody is actually training as much as social media makes it seem.â
You're not behind. You're just seeing a distorted highlight reel.
And in business?
Comparison kills confidence.
Letâs take content creation as an example.
You scroll for 30 seconds and see ten founders posting slick, punchy, high-performing videos or carousel posts that look effortless.
And your taste develops way faster than your skill.
Meaning, you can spot great content now.
You know what works.
You feel whatâs missing from your own posts.
But actually learning how to write like that, show up like that, speak like that?
That takes reps. It takes time.
So what happens?
You start judging your early work with an advanced eyeâŠ
And the result? You stop posting. Or you try to skip the learning curve by copying others, which just makes things worse.
You canât compare your behind-the-scenes to someone elseâs tenth take with a paid videographer and a content coach.
Stay in your own lane. Post the rep. Build the muscle.
4. Rest is strategic, not weak
âTrust your gut. Take your rest days. Donât overdo it.â
Overtraining isnât discipline â itâs disguised fear.
Fear of slowing down.
Fear of being behind.
Fear that if you stop⊠itâll all fall apart.
But hereâs the truth:
Fatigue doesnât just drain energy â it clouds judgment.
Tired founders make reactive decisions, misread signals, and chase the wrong fires.
In business, rest doesnât always mean a hammock and a mojito.
It might mean:
A phone on airplane mode for 24 hours
A full afternoon to think without agenda
Saying no to that âquick collabâ or âone more sprintâ
Recovery is part of performance.
If youâre never pausing, youâre not building â youâre burning.
And no one scales from survival mode.
5. Soak it in â or youâll miss it
âLaugh. Connect with the judges. Thank the volunteers. Take every picture with every fan that asks.â
This wonât last forever. Donât let the peak moment pass you by because you were too busy chasing the next one.
Business parallel:
Youâre in your mores.
More revenue. More meetings. More pressure. More moving parts.
But hereâs the thing:
You only get this version of the business once.
This season. This team. This chaos. This growth spurt.
If youâre always sprinting toward the next milestone, youâll miss the meaning in this one.
The pace youâre keeping might be necessary.
But presence is still a choice.
Look up.
Take the call from an old mentor.
Acknowledge the moment youâre in.
Because the irony?
What feels like grind now might become the memory you cherish most later.
A letter written for CrossFit rookies â
But packed with lessons for founders who feel like rookies every time they hit a new level.
What I took from this letter:
Presence matters. Rest matters. Progress isn't always loud.
And the pressure?
Most of itâs just noise we created ourselves.
So if this episode gave you something to think about, please share it with someone whoâs in the thick of building.
Someone who might need the reminder that theyâre doing better than they think.
And if youâve got a letter you think more people need to hear, send it my way.
Thanks for listening.