In the 1968 Mexico City Olympics, Ethiopian Mamo Wolde won the marathon gold medal with a time of 2 hours, 20 minutes and 26 seconds. This was only Ethiopia’s second gold medal at that time. As he crossed the finish line, he was mauled by his Ethiopian brethren. With no obvious signs of fatigue, he wrapped himself in the flag of his home country and began his victory lap. Crossing the line to their own cheers were Japan’s Kenji Kimihara in second and Mike Ryan of New Zealand in third. The first America crossed the finish line at 2 hours, 29 minutes and 49 seconds. In all, 55 marathoners crossed the finish line and the cheers diminished with each one. At 3 hours 25 minutes and 17 seconds, Enoch Nwemba of Zambia was the last to finish the marathon – or so everyone thought.
Just as the crowd began to disperse and approximately one hour after Mamo crossed the finish line, John Stephen Akhwari entered the stadium. Every step appeared labored and painful. His right leg was bloodied and bandaged. Earlier in the race he had fallen, hit his head and badly injured his knee. To make matters worse, he was trampled during the fracas. As the last lone runner hobbled and limped to finish line the crowd erupted in thunderous applause. They congregated at the finish line and watched as he slithered by. After stumbling across the finish line, a reporter asked him why he didn’t just retire. After all, he had no chance of winning and risked career threatening injury by continuing. Exhausted and confused, John bluntly replied.
“My country did not send me 5000 miles to start the race. They sent me 5000 miles to finish it.”
What we can learn from John is this. Success cannot occur just by starting your success pursuit. You have travelled too far not to finish it. Starting is necessary, but it simply isn’t enough. We typical have the inertia to start, but rarely do we have the fortitude to continue. Even though he had no chance of winning, even though he had no chance of placing, he was determined to finish his goal. He had come too far to stop. Irrespective of the result, the pursuit had to continue. Your success pursuit is no different. You should never quit. Even if you fall, get trampled or bloody your knee, put that bandage on and continue forward to the finish line. That finish line will come eventually. You didn’t come this far to start your success pursuit. You came this far to finish it.
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