Founder mindset lessons from paralympian gold medal winner Hannah Cockcroft

Hannah Cockroft is a nine-time Paralympic Champion. Born in 1992, Hannah suffered two heart attacks within the first twenty-four hours of her life, which left her with brain damage and a collapsed lung. Yet the problematic birth made her a determined child. Raised alongside her brothers, Joshua and Daniel, she was never treated any differently to her able-bodied siblings. Hannah’s parents, Graham and Rachel, took every opportunity they could to get Hannah up onto her feet, strapping her into walkers, splints, twisters and standing frames.

All this hard work resulted in Hannah taking her first steps aged three, in that moment deciding she wanted to become a ballerina. Despite the seemingly unrealistic wish for a girl who could barely stand unaided, her local dance school, Dance 4 All, embraced her and through seventeen years of dance lessons, concerts and awards, made Hannah an active and able individual.

Hannah was first introduced to para-sport as a twelve-year-old, when the Cardinals wheelchair basketball team held a demonstration at her school. From this moment, she was hooked. Hannah played for the Cardinals for six years. At the 2007 School Games, run by the Youth Sports Trust, she competed for Yorkshire as a seated discus athlete. Invited to try out wheelchair racing by Dr Ian Thompson, husband of Tanni Grey-Thompson, he put her in her first racing wheelchair and ran her through her first laps of the athletics track. The following year, Hannah stormed to victory at the 2008 School Games as a wheelchair racer.

In 2009, Hannah started under a new coach, Peter Eriksson. Training after school and weekends, she found herself at a competition in Liverpool in 2010, breaking the World Record in the T34 400m. Four weeks later, Hannah finished her A-levels, became Prom Queen and broke seven World Records in eight days, an incredible feat.

Hannah made her senior debut for GB at the World Championships in New Zealand in 2011. Despite having only been competing for three years, Hannah became double World Champion, in the T34 100m and 200m. The following summer at the London Paralympics she raced to victory in the T34 100m and 200m once again, setting two Paralympic Records. Having become double Paralympic Champion, she was dubbed Hurricane Hannah.

Hannah is now the most decorated British athlete in history, with sixteen World Champion titles. Under coach Jenni Banks she repeated her Paralympic success at Rio (2016), and Tokyo (2020), her third Paralympics, where she brought home gold medals, breaking her own World Records in the 100m and Paralympic record in the 800m.

She is currently the T34 World Record holder in the 100m, 200m, 400m, 800m and 1500m. She completed the athletics ‘Grand Slam’ representing England at the 2023 Commonwealth Games. Later that year she moved coach to Paul Moseley, under whose tutelage she won gold in T24 100m and 800m at the World Championships in Japan, and also silver as part of the GB Relay team. She reigned supreme once more in Paris last month, defending her T34 100m title for a third time to win an eighth Paralympic gold medal.

Watching the Paralympics is emotional. I know it sounds a little cliched, but you’ve got heroic athletes with limbs missing, spinal cord injuries, visual impairments, cerebral palsy and all sorts of levels of disability and they’re conquering extreme personal challenges. It’s a bonkers effort, humbling and awe inspiring. The visually impaired athletes just blow me away. Some have 5% vision or less, they run with their ears. They’ll have a guide in front of them and he or she will be giving directions over Bluetooth. It’s jaw-droppingly spectacular and over-whelming seeing the endeavour.

The Paralympics gives the competitors inspiration to change their lives. It’s that powerful. I think the Paralympics is more important than the Olympics. It is so uplifting. We need the Paralympics to ensure disabled people are not left behind, providing a platform for self-respect, achievement and sharing their voice. It is just athletes succeeding, but it shows disabled people can be optimistic, fired by self-determination, able to bring out more of themselves. 

We applaud champions, knowing that we would never have been able to do what they’ve achieved, epitomising the Olympic motto of Citius, Altius, Fortius - Faster, Higher, Stronger. There is something deeply captivating about exceptional individual performance in sport as we see champions standing proud on the podium, with their medals and their nation's anthem ringing in their ears. It is about human dignity as well as human achievement. For me it’s about recognising the person.

Paralympians possess a unique set of mindsets that contribute to their extraordinary achievements and resilience. These mindsets can serve as valuable inspiration and lessons for entrepreneurs and founders

1. Resilience and adaptability Paralympians face unique challenges and have to adapt constantly, much like entrepreneurs who must pivot and adjust to market changes and unforeseen obstacles. The ability to bounce back from setbacks and keep moving forward is crucial to both.

2. Focus on strengths Paralympians often concentrate on their strengths and build on them rather than dwelling on their limitations. Similarly, successful entrepreneurs leverage their unique skills and resources to create value and differentiate themselves in the market.

3. Goal setting as a discipline The commitment to setting and achieving goals is evident in the rigorous training routines of Paralympians. Founders benefit greatly from setting clear, actionable goals and maintaining discipline to reach them.

4. Creative in their problem solving Paralympians often need to find creative solutions to overcome physical challenges. This innovation and resourcefulness is also needed by entrepreneurs to think outside the box and find novel solutions to business challenges.

5. Mental strength The mindset required to compete at a high level in any discipline is significant. For entrepreneurs, mental fortitude is important to handle stress, make tough decisions, and stay motivated through the ups and downs of building a business. Like any athlete, some days are better than others and the need to stoke the fire and go again.

6. Passion and purpose Paralympians have a deep passion for their sport and a strong sense of purpose. Founders who are driven by a clear vision and purpose are more likely to stay committed and inspired.

7. Celebrate small wins Paralympians often celebrate incremental progress on their way to achieving their larger goals. Founders can benefit from acknowledging their small victories to keep their positive mindset.

8. Perseverance Most Paralympians have faced significant obstacles and adversities yet have persevered to achieve success. This tenacity is a valuable trait for entrepreneurs facing their own challenges and hurdles.

9. Fail - but go again First and foremost successful Paralympians have a can do will do mindset, believing they can make great things happen. As Eleanor Roosevelt said: Nobody can make you feel inferior without your consent. I’ve never met a successful startup founder with low self-esteem.  It’s all about putting failure behind you and going again to beating the odds.

10. Don’t let self-doubt creep in If you doubt yourself, and let your self-belief crumble, the negativity of other can ignite a negative inner voice. Whose voice is it really? It’s often a collection of lots of different voices from different times and people. One thing's for sure, that inner self-critical voice shouldn't be yours.

Summary

Along their journey, Paralympians and startup founders will face trials and tribulations. As J M Barrie said in Peter Pan, the moment you doubt whether you can fly, you cease forever to be able to do it.

Success comes to those with passion to strive. Striving is more than simply being competitive, it is an attitude that shows an individual is as much competing with themself as with others in the same race. What sets Hannah Cockcroft apart from the rest is her relentless passion and uncompromising pursuit of extraordinary endeavour. She has mastered her mental game, which became her competitive edge. She persisted in spite of fatigue, tenacious in facing up to and beating challenges.

Paralympians embody a combination of mindsets that enable them to achieve extraordinary feats despite facing significant challenges. Their relentless determination, adaptability, focus on possibilities, goal orientation, resilience, teamwork, and self-belief can also serve as powerful inspiration and guidance for entrepreneurs and individuals striving for success in any endeavour.

You can see it in Hannah’s eyes. She won’t settle for ‘Good enough’, using pressure of past success to improve her performance and go again. Most business folk lack the same level of mental discipline that successful athletes have in abundance. One of the risks for businesses is being tolerant of sub-optimal performance. When an athlete does badly, their performance is reviewed and analysed, and they work out how to improve. In business, average performance is often tolerated. The choice is yours - average work, yields average results. Choose your attitude and get the right mindset.

Hannah Cockcroft did what she needed to do, to get what she wanted. It’s not about medals of victory, like George Mallory, probably the first man to reach the summit of Everest in 1924 (he died on the mountain so there is no proof ) - when asked ‘Why climb Everest?’ responded with Because it’s there – it’s all about having the right mindset to respond to the challenge. Sporting champions, like successful founders, believe in themselves when no one else does. It means going beyond your comfort zone and learning to win the game your own way. Remember, every champion was once a contender that refused to give up.