I confess. I had an embarrassing conversation.
“You know the vault, right?” “Vault...? You mean the board used for cooking?”
In my life, I have spent very little time watching other people play sports. Apart from memories of going to basketball, soccer, volleyball, and baseball games as a child with my father, who loved sports, almost all I remember is going to basketball games often in college because an older friend from a basketball club often had spare tickets, and watching soccer with people from a study group at a pub during the 2002 World Cup. Oh, right. I also caught fragments of shooting, fencing and swimming, in events with athletes as famous as Yuna Kim. On top of that, for about thirteen years there has been no TV at home, so unless I deliberately look for something, I have no chance to overhear information or news. So I am often late to things. It is common for me to discover trends only after they have passed and still find them fascinating. Sports are the same. I prefer doing sports myself rather than watching them. Until a few weeks ago, when I heard doma, I thought only of the wooden board used in the kitchen. Now I am discussing the vault and business. Life is truly as unpredictable as the landing in a vault routine.
A few weeks ago, feeling frustrated, I spoke incoherently to an elder about “the difficulties of business these days.” Unexpectedly, I ended up hearing about the vault. “Why is this story coming up?” The elder was carefully explaining the whole process of a vault routine, from the run toward the apparatus to the elegant landing.
[Tokyo Olympics] “Vault prodigy conquers the world”... Shin Jea-hwan “vault gold medal”
“Before landing, the body lowers for a moment.” “Before a business grows, that kind of section always appears.” “There may be moments when things slow down or results do not come. You need to know how to get through that moment.”
The elder added that this is a natural phenomenon that appears before a major achievement. That day, I heard many different things at once, and I had no room to think deeply. A flood of information and advice mixed together and made my head spin, but among them, only one word stood out: “vault.” Since then, as if to prove the point, I have been struggling with several matters.
“Ah, is this the section I am in right now?”
The moment in a vault routine when the body lowers before a stable landing. The stage of turning once in the air, lowering the body, and preparing to stand firmly. I heard that in the vault event, the evaluation runs until the landing is completed after takeoff, and that stopping during the run-up or tripping and losing balance is not itself subject to deduction.
“Not subject to deduction.”
Stopping or losing balance during a vault routine does not mean failure. Rather, depending on how one gets through this phase, that moment can make one stronger and give one the power to leap higher.
I looked up vault routines. They are beautiful. Rising high is beautiful, but what moves me is the way the body wavers and then finds its place again. A vault routine resembles the journey of business. To start a business means that you have already placed your hands on the vault. I have entered the world through business. What kind of routine am I in now?
I watch vault routines again and again. They comfort me in a strange way. How many landings have I managed? One of the best choices in my life was becoming a person who runs a business. Watching athletes place their hands on the vault, leap, and land, I thought of the CEOs around me who are also building businesses.
The vault originated from soldiers of the ancient Roman Empire using wooden horses for riding practice. Depending on the height and position of the apparatus, it is an event in which one clears the vault using the run-up, takeoff, hand support, and aerial posture, and it requires fine posture in the hand support and in the air. A stable landing posture is also very important. The vault is said to improve running power, jumping power, quickness, agility, and coordination. Entrepreneurs who try to prove their existence through their work are all in the process of training.
The journey of a leader who trains themselves through the language of business for a stable landing in an uncertain environment. I want to enjoy that journey fully. Even if I cannot strike a beautiful pose, I will regard it as part of the process. Once my hands are on the vault, the training has begun. Until the moment I someday land well, I will continue, even if I stop, even if I waver.
I lean on the anticipation of the vault routine of my life.
May my thoughts be a small source of strength on your sustainable path: SUSTAINER, Seo Uk