When asked what I think would make the second half of MSBA better than the first, all I could think was, “How are we halfway through the program already?!” This past month has been such an exciting whirlwind that I haven’t had a chance to notice the time passing.

“How are we halfway through the program already?!”

Part of this excitement comes from doing something new every day. Although our program and its speaker series are based specifically on sports business, we have had a wide variety of speakers with diverse backgrounds who have different perspectives on the industry. Today, we got to hear from the Associate Director of Marketing Activation at the United States Olympic Committee, David Giglio. He gave us amazing insight into what goes into planning for the Olympics and the marketing that leads up to it. Road to Rio, the marketing tour for the 2016 Rio Olympics, kicks off this weekend. Yes, that is over a year before the games begin! Before the end of the night, David had us all proudly wearing USA hats and starting random “USA” chants, demonstrating his expertise in Olympic marketing.

My biggest takeaway from the night was how much work has to be put in before you see the final product. David explained how years of planning go into this 3-week event in order to make it a success. I then applied this thought to my career pursuit. As we’ve been reminded several times, it takes a lot of work and time to be successful in whatever field we choose. It will be years before we can even begin to think we’ve “made it”. To be successful, we essentially have to do the same thing as David and his team: work really hard but be patient because we can’t speed up time (even if it feels like it sometimes).

#RoadtoRio #RoadtoSportsBiz