On Thursday evening, GrepBeat kicked off a new speaker series with a panel discussion titled “From Elite Athlete to Leader.” Devised in partnership with the Harvard Club of the Triangle, the discussion was meant to highlight “what sports teach us about performance, resilience, and success.”
Grace Ueng of Savvy Growth was on hand to moderate, and our athlete-turned-business leader panelists were:
- Sean Murphy, who was an NCAA Champion swimmer at Stanford and is now CEO of Blue Spruce AI
- Tyler Rullman, who was a star basketball player at Harvard and is now a Partner at Schedulefly
- Tim McLoughlin, who parlayed a standout prep hockey career into a spot on a Harvard team featuring 14 eventual NHL Draft picks, and who is now Managing Partner at Cofounders Capital
Following a brief welcome from the GrepBeat Godfather, Grace introduced the panel and gave each member a chance to speak to his sports background. From there, she ran through a series of prompts generating discussion both on sports in general and on how lessons learned in sports can inform one’s growth, career, and understanding of team dynamics.
These were some of the main takeaways (with quotes from our panelists):
- Progress that is incremental, or even unnoticeable on a day-to-day basis, is still progress.
- “I was put in a system that went from step to step to step that created improvement; believe it or not I think that’s very similar to what happens in entrepreneurship or in business” – Sean Murphy
- “One success point compounds the next success point” – Sean Murphy
- “Imperceptible [on a daily basis] progress turns into something very nice over a decade…. One day you’re out there shooting and everything starts going in.” – Tyler Rullman
- Focusing on yourself won’t always get you as far as building up your team and/or focusing on your larger mission.
- “There’s so much more to gain through team members than by just focusing on yourself.” – Sean Murphy
- “It’s about team and the little things.” – Tim McLoughlin (re: a new hockey coach arriving, working on the little things, and drastically improving a team)
- The right process can matter as much or more than immediate progress or success.
- “We may not have success this year, but we are going to do this the right way and hold our heads high.” — Tyler Rullman (re: shouldering responsibilities amidst injuries and an unfortunate down year for Harvard)
- Building humility and self-esteem through sports carries over.
- “Hockey, for me, was just a tool to get all of these other things that I got in my life…. If [young athletes] build self-eseteem… it’s going to make them a better person in their life.” — Tim McLoughlin
- One job of leadership is to instill belief.
- “The number one thing you have to communicate is belief; does your team have belief?” — Sean Murphy
Beyond these main lessons, there were plenty of additional takeaways. The athletes discussed burnout (the advice being, as per David Epstein’s famous book “Range,” not to over-specialize); they discussed the benefits of playing early-’90s UMass without Marcus Camby (okay, that was just Tyler); and, in a Q&A session, they covered everything from steroid issues, to nature versus nurture, to the growing prominence of analytics in sports.
This event was capped at 50 attendees to maintain an intimate experience and allow for engaging Q&A. Of those 50 available spots, 25 were reserved for Harvard Club members and 25 for GrepBeat attendees.
Attendance was complimentary for GrepBeat supporters. You can read more about becoming a supporter here and join us at our next speaker series event!
See more photos of the event below:
