Olympic Skier Jeremy Bloom Uses a’Beginners Mindset’ in Sports and Business Leave a comment

Jeremy Bloom is the youngest of three siblings but despite a competitive lineage, his performance in both the sporting and business realms is the stuff of legend, and while he may be the brother of Molly Bloom, who wrote the movie Molly’s Game 2017, (centered around her illegal poker empire and subsequent paying off her debt to society), Jermey’s life surely deserves its own movie too.

As a skier, Bloom became a 10-time World Cup gold medalist, two-time Olympian, and even a World Cup gold medalist. Such feats put him into ultra elite status but while navigating the slopes, a young Bloom was also drafted into the NFL, making him the first dual-sport athlete to ski in the Winter Olympics and enter the NFL. Post competitive sports, the celebrated athlete became just as successful in the boardroom. He co-founded the software company; Integrate, and while he’s still the CEO, the entrepreneur sold the company for $350 million. So then, what is it about Jeremy Bloom that seems to bring him such varied success?

As a young skier, Bloom’s grandfather would throw Snickers bars down the mountains of Colorado to encourage the budding athlete to master his craft. He became the youngest athlete to join Team USA at 15 years of age, but he has never thrown away that beginners mindset. And while, Bloom picked up his skills in the snow pretty quickly, a passion for football didn’t translate to being a natural on the grid iron as one might assume. But being enamoured with the Denver Broncos meant that he wasn’t going to stop giving it his all.

“I wanted to be John Elway,” Bloom recalls. “The part in football that came naturally to me was speed. At every level I was always the fastest kid on the football field, but what didn’t come naturally to me was my size. I was the smallest kid on every football field.” Fortunately, Bloom was too focussed to see his limitations. “I didn’t feel small,” he says. “I had confidence and I was sort of unwilling to let go of my love, my deep love for football.” Bloom actually told his parents at ten years old that he wanted to ski in the Olympics and play in the NFL. Thanks to his attitude and commitment, he did both.

Courtesy of Jeremy Bloom

Jeremy Bloom Maintains a ‘Beginners Mindset’ to Master Any Challenge

Bloom says that even today, in the corporate world, he tries to be the first one to arrive and the last one to leave. “The only reason I was able to succeed on both of those sports is not just through natural given ability, but through that competitive spirit,” he explains. “That drive, that grit, that tenacity that I learned being the youngest, losing at everything the first ten years of my life and learning that I have to dedicate and put in more work than anybody else If I want to sort of realize those dreams.”

Still, trying to compete in two different sports like skiing and football was a complex affair. “My Olympic ski coaches were always worried about me being too strong in the upper-body,” he recalls. “If you look at Olympic freestyle skier’s, yes they have big legs, right? Because of all the mobiles, and the bumps and the jumps, but they have a slender upper-body. Well of course, in football, these guys look like they are a statue (made) out of an anatomy book, and so I would have to slim down. I would have to bench press less.”

For skiing, Bloom focused more on plyometric training such as box jumps. “My football training would be less dynamic. More heavy weights,” he explains. “Remember, a football play lasts 3 to 4 seconds, then you have 35 seconds to rest. Whereas skiing is more like a 200-meter dash, where it’s 22 to 28 seconds all-out.”

Jeremy Bloom holds the University of Colorado team record for most combined return years (143 kickoff, 107 punt return). During his time in the NFL, he was on the rosters of both the Philadelphia Eagles and Pittsburgh Steelers.

Jeremy Bloom Says that the Secret to Success is Handling Adversity

While hamstring issues would help spell the end of his professional athletic career, Bloom took that same beginner mindset into business. In other words; instead of going into things he already knew such as coaching or doing more television presenting around skiing, he embarked on a totally new challenge instead. “I was really most interested in being a beginner again,” he shares. “I consciously chose not to go with something I knew.”

For Bloom, that meant listening to people who could care less about his sporting accomplishments and wanted to set him straight on business decisions. “You are no longer respected,” he laughs. “When I started Integrate, people looked at me as the professional sporting athlete who knows nothing about business.”

Still, just like with football, Bloom soon got up to speed. “I think the thing that separates people who are great, from people who don’t quite make it, is they get really good at handling adversity,” explains Bloom. “And, they’ve built a mental framework, whether intentionally or unintentionally, to deal with these sorts of inevitable moments of stumbling.” This multi-talented man says the key is to “just keep showing up every day.”

In terms of his daily routine, Bloom explains that at 42 years of age, he still loves to make sure that his work is balanced with physical activity. Here’s a general guide to how that works:

AM, before work: 45 minutes F45 style session
Followed by 30 minutes Infrared sauna for recovery and increased caloric burn
Work
PM, after work: Ice bath pre workout
2-3 times per week Bloom also adds heavy weight training sessions into the mix
He also fasts intermittently, generally with a 6-hour feeding window

Jeremy Bloom explains that he likes to dim the lights as soon as the sun goes down, to assist with melatonin production and tries to sleep in a cool, dark, and quiet environment for efficient shut-eye. He’s also passionate about giving back to those who need support, and to that end formed the non-profit organization; Wish of a Lifetime, granting wishes to those who are in old age, but still have memories that they want to create.

Inspired by his grandparents and his desire for the older generations to be revered, Bloom’s organization has granted thousands of wishes. One of them, a woman was reconnected with her two sisters ,who she hadn’t seen in 15 years. “Her name was Ruby,” says the change maker. “Her sisters were Ruth and Rose. The youngest was 103. The oldest was 109! So, three centenarian sisters all living in different states.” It’s good to know that we are never too old to experience exciting new experiences. I guess we all just need a little of Bloom’s beginners mindset.

To read Jeremy Bloom’s book; Fueled By Failure: Using Detours and Defeats to Power Progress, click here.

To lean more about Wish of a Lifetime click here.