- You don't need to be the best at any one thing. Be above average at the five that matter most.
- AI is moving faster than anyone can follow. Stop chasing every tool and get good enough at the few that move your business.
- Run your own race early, and relax when it gets hard late.
At the Mayor's Tech Lunch that kicked off Invest Fest Gold Coast 2026, Steve Solomon shared a lesson that's up there with the greats. It came from the running track, not from AI.
Steve is Director of Go To Market for OpenAI and a two-time Olympian in the 400m. He learnt this lesson the hard way, missing out on the 2016 Rio Olympics by four hundredths of a second. He says it was one of the best things that could have happened in his athletic career.
Losing is where the learning happens
When you win, you celebrate and barely reflect. When you fail, you learn. So Steve went hunting for an edge. He dug into sleep, recovery, nutrition and different types of training.
Above average at five things
What he found was simpler. He didn't need to be the best at any one thing. He needed to be a little better than average across the five that matter most for a 400m runner, such as stride, strength and pain threshold. That was enough to race the eight fastest men in the world at the 2012 and 2021 Olympics.
The business version hit me straight away. You don't have to be the smartest, fastest, most disciplined or best-connected founder in the room. You just need to be above average at all of them.
Above average at all of them.
Why it matters with AI
That matters right now, because AI is moving faster than anyone can follow. Steve said it himself. It's impossible to keep up, and the industry still isn't stable.
So stop trying to master every new model and tool. Get good enough at the few things that move your business, and keep adapting.
The first 100m and the last
His other lesson was about the start and the finish. In the first 100m, it's your race to lose. Run your own race and don't get distracted by what's happening around you.
In the last 100m, when your body is screaming, the instinct is to tense up. The runners who win are the ones who relax and run the race they trained for. That's good advice for anyone leading a team right now.
So what are the five things you need to be above average at?
If AI is one of your five
You don't need to master every tool. You need to be good enough at the ones that move your business. That's what a 1:1 AI Coaching session is for. Half a day or a full day with Chris, on your own work.
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