An Open Letter to Mr. Usain Bolt

August 3, 2012 by Paul Hoffman 9 Comments

This article/letter is guest blogged by Paul Hoffman from My Two Cents: Thoughts of a Small Town Therapist. His previous article was titled Notes from Underground: A Rookie Master’s Sprinter Diary and Asafa Powell is NOT a Choker.

Dear Mr. Bolt,

There is a very fine line between confidence and overconfidence. Confident people are certain of their abilities and expect to succeed. Overconfident people take things for granted, border on a kind of arrogance, and lose sight of important details by virtue of assuming infallibility.

You are a very confident guy, as well you should be. But at the World Championships last year, your overconfidence and complacency probably contributed to your loss of concentration, your casualness, and the resulting false start. You learned the hard way.

Matthew Bothner is a German professor and business consultant. He has done research focusing on “the exact point where extremely high status begins to foster complacency, diversion, and potential failure.”. He goes on to say that “ if you look at your sprint times since 2009, you’ll observe a distinctly downward trend that coincides almost exactly with dramatic increases in sponsorships, prize money, commercial endorsements, and worldwide fame. Could it be that your increased status will contribute to a big upset in London?”

Mr. Bothner offers some interesting advice:

Don’t surround yourself with people who inflate your ego. This helps to maintain humility and perspective.
Never be content [complacent], no matter how successful you are.
Display the perfect mix of confidence and humility that inspires continuing performance while reminding yourself of your own humanity.

Shakespeare said: “A fool thinks he’s a wise man, a wise man knows he’s a fool.”

You have a chance to achieve penultimate legend status. Try to reproduce the same mindset as the FIRST big race of your life. Take nothing for granted. Be humble. Maintain inner confidence.

Oh yeah….. and WAIT for the gun.

Regards,

Paul Hoffman

About the Author

Paul Hoffman is a Masters sprinter, psychotherapist and musician in East Greenwich, Rhode Island. He writes a blog entitled My Two Cents: Thoughts of a Small Town Therapist.

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Paul Hoffman

Paul Hoffman is a psychotherapist, musician, and sprinting enthusiast in East Greenwich, Rhode Island. He writes a blog entitled My Two Cents: Thoughts of a Small Town Therapist.

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I have to disagree with his opening paragraphs, I would not say it was Mr Bolt’s overconfidence that got to him. Actually I think the only thing that got to him was excitement. He was competing at the World Championships, which is an outstanding achievement and does cause excitement and also nervousness even for athletes who hold the world record in their respected events. He wanted to break his old record, which is what every athlete wants, right? He jumped early, which the last time I checked shouldn’t give someone the right to blame arrogance for his mistake, he is human after all.

Paul Hoffman says:

August 3, 2012 at 7:18 am

I certainly agree that excitement and nervousness are possible explanations for the false start. All of these possible explanations are conjecture and unmeasurable. There’s no judgment here….just an awareness that being too cocky can make you careless sometimes. He’s a young guy, and like many young superstars, struts his feathers. We’re all a package; he’s the fastest man on earth and his personality style is what it is. Everything we are works together. Maybe the occasional false start is worth the speed! Except on Sunday!

Reply

Hi Travis,
I understand your reason for disagreeing with Mr. Hoffman’s opening paragraphs but one would have to give substantial weight to Professor Bothner’s statement, “… if you look at your sprint times since 2009, you’ll observe a distinctly downward trend that coincides almost exactly with dramatic increases in sponsorships, prize money, commercial endorsements, and worldwide fame.” It’s very difficult to argue with facts.

One obvious consideration is that perhaps Mr. Bolt reached his peak in 2009 and there’s nothing to be regretful about that. I still believe he can realize finer execution combined with ideal track conditions which hopefully translates into even lower personal times for his events. Undoubtedly he will focus on winning which does not necessarily translate into record numbers.

DID BOLT SIGN A COMMITMENT WITH YOU GUYS!?…HAS HE UNKNOWN OBLIGATIONS…

Confident or not, Usain Bolt is still the holder of the world record. Nobody has matched his world record. It was a shock when he got beaten twice by Yohan “The Beast” Blake at the Jamaican Trials in June. But Sunday is when it all counts and that’s when he has to prove himself to the world. We’ll just have to wait and see…

Bolt certainly is fast, says me, stating the obvious….I know.
However, I have to say, I can’t make up my mind if he is just simply confident or arrogant. Nonetheless, he is the fastest…for now.
I wasn’t fond of his remarks last night but hey, who am I, just a member of the audience of millions.

The word “penultimate” does not mean “very good” or “great” or “super excellent” or anything like that. Penultimate means second-to-last or second-to-top or second-in-hierarchy. It is misused in this piece.