Be like Mat: Go big

Comas :: 2

Broken bones :: 21

Surgeries :: 23

Concussions :: 100+

Stitches :: 300+

 

You don’t become the greatest vertical ramp BMX rider in history without practicing. When you practice for big air, you learn from big crashes. 

 

I recently watched ESPN’s 30 for 30 documentary about Mat Hoffman, “The Birth of Big Air.” He is fearless. This characterization is unsurprising when watching someone sit on a bicycle being towed by a motorcycle going 55 mph so he (the bicycle-sitter) can be launched four stories into the air. 

 

 

To do this you need to be fearless - and then some.

But moreso than the jumps, Hoffman’s thinking was fearless.

 

 

Mat refused to succumb to the pragmatism that often plagues businesses and individuals: incremental improvements.  

 

 

He refused to accept incremental improvements in his craft.

As he was jumping 15 feet, he didn’t spend energy developing a ramp to 16. 

 

 

He was making plans to reach 25. 

 

 

Then 35.

Then 45.

Then…. who knows?

 

 

Combined with his fearless thinking, Hoffman practiced harder than anyone else. The broken bones and the comas and the concussions were a testament to doing whatever it took to be prepared when the time came to go real big. 

 

 

A guy this fearless in thought and action can do anything.

When you’re not afraid of failing (or dying, evidently), who knows what can happen? 

 

 

 

 

 

Go big.