Welcome to Edition #65 of Did You Know? (DYK), the weekly newsletter by Gorick Ng, Harvard career adviser and Wall Street Journal Bestselling Author of The Unspoken Rules, where we deconstruct the untold story of how someone (or something) became successful—and what you can do to follow in their footsteps.
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Did You Know? Get a hobby!
(1) A story from the past
Did you know? Kristen Faulkner went from hobby cyclist to Olympic Gold medalist in 4 years.
The U.S. just won its first gold in 40 years in women’s road racing at the Paris Olympic Games.
The winner? 31-year-old Kristen Faulkner.
The twist? She only started her cycling career 4 years ago in 2020.
Faulkner, who grew up in Alaska, moved to New York after college to work in venture capital.
The then-24-year-old found a new after-work hobby when she took a cycling class in New York City’s Central Park.
“I still needed that outdoors fix that was such a big part of my life,” Faulkner recalls.
Fast forward, and Faulkner went from hobbyist cycler—and not knowing how to strap in her pedals—to competitive cycler.
In 2020, 3 years after Faulker’s first cycling class, she won her first race.
A year after that, she left her venture capital career to road race full-time.
6 professional wins in Norway, Italy, Switzerland, Chile, and Spain later and Faulkner was tapped to represent the U.S. in women’s road racing after another cyclist withdrew.
Then, with everyone expecting 11-time World Champion Marianne Vos to win again, Faulkner sped ahead 2 miles (3 kilometers) before the finish line using a maneuver she practiced “several times this year”—and landed a first-place finish with a 58-second lead over Vos.
Her maneuver? It all came down to knowing the “best place to attack”—a skill she imported from her prior life.
“[In venture capital], I learned how to calculate risks and assess risks,” Faulkner recalls. “In a race I take that mindset with me: What is the risk-reward ratio? Knowing when to go all in.”
What does this mean for you? The next time you find yourself wondering, Should I find a hobby? remember Faulkner, who said “Sure, why not?”—and never looked back (especially with the world’s #1 cyclist trailing 58 seconds behind).
(2) A strategy for your future
Did you know? Find a hobby!
Kristen Faulkner is an example of so many lessons we’ve discussed in prior stories on…
- Changing your mind (which was what Denzel Washington did)
- Starting over (which was what the Director of Dune did)
- Setting realistic goals (which was what Oprah did)
- Doubling down on your strengths (which this unofficial Star Wars director did)
…and so much more! (See the full story archive here: https://www.gorick.com/career-strategies)
But, if there’s one career strategy this one goes against, it’s what I call the “Ten Year Rule”—or how you should expect to take about a decade to really start feeling momentum in your work.
Sure, Faulkner is close to the 10-year mark given that she started cycling after work 7 years ago, but still: Most world-class athletes start with their current sport at an average age of ~10.6 and then start focusing on that sport at an average age of ~15.6. Faulkner, on the other hand, started cycling at the age of 24. In the world of sports, Faulkner was ancient!
But here’s where we return to my career success formula of skill, drive, and luck.
- SKILL = her athleticism + quick judgment
- DRIVE = her dedication to practicing consistently for years
- LUCK = stumbling into the cycling class + getting picked as someone’s replacement + having the once-in-a-lifetime opening at the last stretch of the race
When it comes to skill, Faulker probably knew that she was athletic. After all, she was a varsity rower in college.
There was just one problem: There are no extracurriculars in the “real world” like we have in school. If Faulkner hadn’t picked up cycling as a student—and she didn’t—she risked never cycling in her life. Her only option? To pursue it as a hobby first.
Herein lies another benefit to having hobbies (which I consider a form of side hustle): You get quick feedback on your level of skill in a low-risk, low-commitment environment.
Had Faulkner seen no potential in her cycling abilities, that’s fine! She could have always tried something else. And even if she had skill, she could always keep cycling as a hobby and continue her main hustle as a venture capitalist.
This could be you!
Want a hobby—but not sure where to start?
Try filling in the following blanks:
(1) “I get a lot of energy from being / doing _______.”
- E.g., “I get a lot of energy from hosting events.”
(2) “I have _______ (amount of time) each week to try to _______.”
- E.g., “I have weekends free to try hosting some picnics in the park, games nights at my apartment, or hikes outdoors.”
(3) “Who knows… I could always go all-in and _______, dabble and _______, or ditch it entirely—but at least I will have learned more about _______.”
- E.g., “Who knows… I could always go all-in and become a wedding planner, dabble and host weekly potluck socials with friends, or ditch it entirely—but at least I will have learned more about whether needing to organize regular events sucks the soul out of me.”
I know it because I’ve experienced it: I actually lived this example. In my first year out of school, my housemates and I organized regular potlucks for new grads in Boston. We loved it! So much so that I still have the old pitch deck my roommate and I made of our event planning startup idea. What happened? I realized it wasn’t what I wanted to do for the next 10 years—and kept jumping from hobby to hobby until I found something I wanted to commit to.
(Found something you might want to go all-in on? Consider asking yourself these 3 questions.)
Get a hobby!
Gorick
Sources
- The U.S. just won its first gold in 40 years in women’s road racing
- She only started her cycling career 4 years ago
- took a cycling class in New York City’s Central Park.
- “I still needed that outdoors fix that was such a big part of my life”
- won her first race
- 6 professional wins
- “best place to attack”
- 11-time World Champion Marianne Vos
- Most world-class athletes
