Diego Hypólito is a gymnast who represented Brazil in three Olympics: 2008, 2012 and 2016. He was Brazil’s biggest hope at the Beijing Olympics in 2008 for the Floor Exercise, having won the 2005 and 2007 World Cups.
Unfortunately, he didn’t make it in 2008. He didn’t give up though, kept working on himself to take another shot at the routine he’s the most famous for in the 2012 Olympics. He failed again.
That didn’t stop him from starting all over again (from a training perspective, and as a recreational athlete, I can tell you… it’s not easy) and keep at it until he won the silver at the 2016 Olympics.
What he said in the interview after winning gave me goosebumps, though:
“In Beijing, I landed on my backside, in London, I landed on my face… this time, I landed on my feet, with my head held high!”
I’ve always felt that our obsession with success (or failure, now that failure-porn has become a real thing) is highly misleading. And that we grossly underestimated hard work and the power of resilience.
Eventually, it all boils down to one thing — how do you fail, and how do you choose to get back up and get after it again?
How would you?