Are You Irreplaceable?

Last week I celebrated my 15-year “Medalversary,” the anniversary of the day my team and I won the Olympic Games, putting a capstone on my sport career that I never really thought possible. Every year I mark some time on that day to reflect on winning Olympic gold—not just what it meant to me, but what I continue to learn from it as I age and gain more life experience, and how I might use that knowledge to help others.

This year, I was looking back and thinking: what was my part in making that win happen, really?  

My answer to that is more honest than it’s ever been. It’s a part of the story I’ve never told before, and it speaks to the difference between the dream and the reality of success. 

I grew up thinking that making an Olympic team, and winning at the Olympics, was about one thing: being the best athlete. Being the fastest. The strongest. The most powerful. That’s what mattered the most, or so I thought.

But by the time I found myself on my third Olympic team, I’d already realized a hard truth: if I had ever been the fastest, strongest, and most powerful, I certainly wasn’t anymore. 

Since I wasn’t the best pusher on the team, it meant that my spot was precarious. There were ten or more guys at all times—some with better push times or bigger lifts—who were willing to do anything for the seat I occupied on the coveted USA 1 sled.

The feeling that I was one Hershel Walker away from being replaced persisted inside of me for the majority of my career—even as I had the longest streak on USA 1 and retired with the most World Cup medals of any American push athlete in history. I never felt comfortable. 

If I wanted to stay in the game, avoid the stress from eating me alive, and achieve our audacious goal of ending the 62-year Olympic Gold drought for our country in Olympic bobsled, I had to do something different.

So, I decided to make myself irreplaceable. 

If I couldn’t be the best at one thing, I would become the most valuable in every way I possibly could. I drew on my past decathlete jack-of-all-trades (and future CEO) mentality.

I became the guy who understood how to break down all the decisions that needed to be made in order to optimize sleep, diet, and performance preparedness.

I became the guy who knew everything about going fast, from riding positions to team cohesion. 

I became the relationship guy—the guy who built strong relationships with the coaches, the sled techs, the guys making the ice. I had an agreement with our introverted driver (Steve Holcomb, RIP my friend) that I would be the one to have difficult conversations with team members and coaches when necessary; I would be the one to advocate for what our team needed to succeed. I even learned to speak German so I could be the go-to person to help us all navigate months in Europe.

I became the guy who was on top of all the little details, to the point where the coaches asked me what time we needed to be in the garage packing our sleds up in the morning at our team meetings each evening during the World Cup tour.

I was no longer just another athlete to be weighed and measured—I was THE guy the team relied on.

Of course, these efforts didn’t just keep me on the team. It made the team better. 

We may not have been the four strongest guys in the world, but we were the most prepared. We controlled every detail we could. We innovated in ways that allowed us to dominate. (This included some unconventional and incredibly effective methods that changed the way teams thought about the push and the load in the future — a story for another day.)

And when race day came, we weren’t just hoping we’d win. Our mindset was: if we do our jobs, we win. 

And we did.

Here’s the thing. Talent’s great. Smarts are great. Strength is great. Speed is great. 

But the people who truly win, the people who reach their goals—whether in business, sports, or life—aren’t just the ones with the most raw ability.

They’re the ones who make themselves so valuable that success is inevitable.

They know where their value is, they know what needs to be done, and then they do it.

So, if you want to be successful or achieve a big goal, ask yourself: Where are you adding value that no one else is?

How can you make yourself irreplaceable?

- Steve

Watch our Olympic Gold Medal winning final run from the 2010 Vancouver Olympics, along with commentary from this article, on Instagram:

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