Shaun White is the name and face of snowboarding. If anyone doubted his status as a legend-in-the-making, he put those thoughts to rest with last week’s gold medal winning run in Vancouver. He is to the sport what Gretzky is to hockey, or Jordan is to basketball. They are larger than life, and you need no knowledge of or interest in their respective sport to know who they are and what they stand for: dedication, determination, and greatness. Another individual embodying these qualities, Abe Lincoln, was and is arguably the greatest president in U.S. History.
Aside from capturing the imaginations of thousands of Americans and forever securing their place in our nation’s lore, White and Lincoln have something else in common.
When preparing for battle, they isolate themselves from the rest of the world. And, what emerges from their isolation makes history.
Lincoln sought refuge from the most troubling and tumultuous times of his presidency at Soldier’s Home. By removing himself from the immediate political pressures of Washington, he was able to lose himself in his work (he wrote the second draft of the Emancipation Proclamation here).
According to the program administrator of President Lincoln’s College, Lincoln also “used his time at Soldier’s Home to ready the political machine for the upcoming election in 1864.” Though he was in isolation, thoughts of his opposition were never far from his mind. Lincoln actually used the retreat to hold clandestine meetings with notorious leaders of the other side, and constantly gauged the political and military landscape in which he was operating.
Similarly, White sought solitude in preparing for his trip to the Olympics on a personal 550-foot halfpipe in the back country of Copper Mountain, Colorado. Built for him by his sponsor Red Bull and accessible only by snowmobile or helicopter, White was able to train without worrying his tricks would be instantly mimicked by his competition. He could count on his friends and coaches to keep an eye on the playing field while he threw himself into attempting tricks never before seen every day for nearly two months.
In his interview with CBS’s 60 Minutes, White explained his decision to train in solitude saying “Ya know, it’s just a really competitive sport and to…show up and do something new that’s kinda, gonna blow some people away would be really nice.”
While Lincoln’s self-imposed isolation seems understandable given the enormous challenges he faced, I’m intrigued by White’s decision to retreat from the spotlight (and yes, I’m aware that a Double McTwist is hardly a matter of national importance). Their temperaments couldn’t be more different; Lincoln’s brooding melancholy seems a stark contrast to White’s unbridled enthusiasm. And, while it might make sense to train alone given the individual nature of snowboarding, many individual athletes train in teams (i.e. Lance Armstrong). But, I suppose when you’re already the best the world has ever seen, only you can push yourself to elevate your game.
When setting out to do something that you’ve never done before, do you benefit more from having a group of people to surround and encourage you? Or do you do your best work in an isolated environment, where you can single-mindedly pursue the challenge at hand?
