Brian Gubernick's daughter gave him a medal display for his endurance race finisher medals, which he'd been hiding in a closet. He realizes each medal represents not just his effort but also his family, coaches, volunteers, and the whole race community who made it possible. The display becomes a way to say thank you and inspire his daughters.
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Thank you for joining me today. It's Brian Gubernick, and welcome to the No Days Off podcast, where we believe that every single day brings a new opportunity to get better. Today I'm going to tell a story. I'm going to actually tell a story about this medal display that is right behind me here. If you're watching on YouTube or anywhere else, you can see— and you're watching the video— you can see this this metal display that is now just behind me to my right, uh, has not been there before. Today's the first day it's actually up, and I want to tell a story around this metal display that I think some of you may relate to, uh, and, and maybe what I share in terms of lessons may have an impact on you. So this display that's behind me, if you're listening, you obviously don't know what I'm talking about. This is a display that my daughter bought me for me to hang up the medals, the finisher medals that I've received at, you know, the endurance events and the marathons and the Ironman and Half Ironman and, and, and the random things that I do. And I've been doing— I've been in this, uh, endurance world, if you will, for about 7 or 8 years. And naturally, between all the races and things you accumulate these finisher medals. Well, these medals have sat deep in the closet. Every time I get one, I throw one in the bag that's in the closet and haven't done anything with it. For some of you, that may seem weird. For me, it's just kind of the way I think I am. I very much enjoy the event. I very much enjoy finishing. I very much enjoy competing and even accolade, but after those events. To me, it's kind of on to the next. And for whatever reason, maybe I've got something wrong with me, I don't know, but for whatever reason, I'm just not one to, to want to show off or showcase, you know, whatever it is I guess I achieved. Um, just hasn't been my style. Well, my daughter picked me up this metal display. She bought this for me as a gift. And she said, you really should display or hang up all those medals. I know how many are in that bag. And I was really reluctant. I was really reluctant to display the medals for all the reasons I just cited. I know the medals symbolize personal accomplishments for me. And I thought it kind of stopped there because I was good with not displaying things because I'm, you know, I don't need to show, display my personal accomplishments. But I got to thinking after she brought this to me, I think there's something much larger here that I'm not considering. See, every one of the medals, every single one of them, small race, big race, long race, short race, whatever it may be, every one of them involved so much more than just me. There was a collective effort. With, between, I should say, all those that contributed in some way to me getting the opportunity to go out and participate in these events and do my absolute best. My family had, has frankly sacrificed time. They've traveled with me. They've been encouraging at times. They serve as motivation for me. At the very least, my daughters being alive makes me— it makes me want to model a certain behavior. It makes me want to be better. So, the reality is the family has a stake in those medals. I've had coaches for most every type of event I've done. Maybe it was a full, like, full in-depth coach that wrote my programming or taught me nutrition. Or maybe it was someone that I was— I just had as a sounding board. But I had a lot of coaches and individuals that influenced me in all of these events over the past 7 or 8 years. I've had teammates, believe it or not, for, let's say, the New York City Marathon. I've run with the same team now for 3 years in a row where we're constantly texting or encouraging one another. Then we all go to the race together and meet up before and run and meet up after, and it's become this big kind of family affair for us. There's thousands of volunteers that have been at the, at the dozens, uh, if not maybe 100 races that I've done, that all work their asses off to put these events on. I guess what I'm trying to say is, when I thought about it a little bit, as silly as it may sound, I recognize that these, these medals, they are so much more than me. There's just so much more to them. There's a story behind every single one of them. There's a journey behind every single one of them. The bottom line is personal accomplishments rest on a foundation of support from others. And I think, you know, after reflecting a bit, there's a, there's a balance between pride and humility that, that I have to work on or that I'm thinking through right now. There's a balance between this pride and humility. You could have humility in achievement, but you should also be prideful or could be prideful about achievement, especially if you have others that contributed substantially in the accomplishment. This display, when I look at it, this display of medals, over the past, you know, couple days or so that I've been able to kind of glance at as I come into my office here, starting to think that this display just kind of serves as a silent, a silent sort of thank you. They're visible symbols of some degree of success. And I think that, you know, when my daughters come in here, they're visible symbols of success that maybe are hopefully inspire them or motivate them or just, just get something out of them that makes them think about how they can attack life and attack the world. I no longer am thinking that in putting these medals up, it's a function of showing off achievements. I think it's a way of sharing gratitude. And as I said, I think it's a way maybe to influence those closest to me. And I really hope that it inspires my daughters, my family to pursue their own challenges. So, I tell you this story because it's kind of been an interesting, brief journey. Granted, it's only been up a few days, but it's been kind of an interesting moment of reflection for me. And I wanted to share it because I want to encourage all of our listeners here at No Days Off. I want to encourage you to reflect on your own achievements. Think about your own achievements. Everybody listening, everybody part of the No Days Off Nation. If you've had an achievement or multiple achievements over the course of your life and your career. I want you to think about the people who helped you succeed. And I want to challenge you to find ways to honor those that played along, played a role along your journey. Maybe it's through visible displays, maybe it's through thank you notes, maybe it's through storytelling. I'm not quite sure how you go about doing it, but every one of us, and again, a lot of the entrepreneurs listening here, you have trouble recognizing accomplishment for many of the reasons that I cited. But maybe if we reframe these accomplishments, not as a celebration of our own achievement, but a recognition of those that helped us along the way, maybe it'll help inspire, influence others. So again, think around, your achievements. Think about the people who succeeded or who helped you with the— helped you succeed, and see if you can come up with some ways to honor those individuals. I think it would be a pretty meaningful thing to do. So on that note, uh, some thinking to do, but we'll conclude, we'll wrap up. Thank you for joining me here at the No Days Off Podcast, where every single day brings a new opportunity to get better. So let's get after it.
