If you’re a coffee fan, you may already know of Bonnie St. John. In 2006 she was quoted on a Starbucks cup during its “The Way I See It” campaign: “I was ahead in the slalom. But in the second run, everyone fell on a dangerous spot. I was beaten by a woman who got up faster than I did. I learned that people fall down, winners get up, and gold medal winners just get up faster.”
That anecdote refers to St. John’s Paralympics run in 1984, when she became the second-fastest female amputee skier in the world and the first African-American Olympic ski medalist. “That’s a powerful metaphor for today’s business world: There’s change, there’s competition, there’s technological shifts, and we will get knocked down,” says the upstate New York resident. “The prize often goes to the team that can get up the fastest and get back in the game.”
To read the entire article on St. John, click here.
