"It's a team"

My wife and I spent Sunday afternoon this past weekend watching the 2023 movie Nyad starring Annette Bening and Jodie Foster.  The film tells the story of open water swimmer Diana Nyad's multiple attempts in the early 2010's to swim from Cuba to Florida across the treacherous Straits of Florida and is apparently based upon Nyad's 2015 memoir, Find a Way.  The film received generally positive reviews, and both Bening and Foster received numerous accolades and award nominations, including for Best Actress and Best Supporting Actress, respectively at the 96th Academy Awards.  I remember Nyad's earlier career from my childhood (including her unsuccessful attempt at swimming across the Straits of Florida in 1978), and I also remember hearing of her unsuccessful 2nd, 3rd, and 4th attempts and ultimately successful 5th attempt when she was over 60 years of age.  

Nyad's story is one of both persistence and resilience.  There's no question that completing a 103-mile swim in shark-infested and jellyfish-infested waters requires incredible passion, commitment, dedication, and perseverance.  To do that after failing the first four times requires incredible resilience too.  Lastly, in my opinion you also have to be a little crazy to accomplish something like this feat, particularly at the age of 64 years!  When she finally made it all the way to Key West, she proudly told the crowd that had gathered at the beach to welcome her and cheer her on:

"I got three messages.  One is we should never, ever give up.  Two is you are never too old to chase your dreams.  Three, it looks like a solitary sport, but it's a team."

While her accomplishment has never been formally recognized due to some controversies around the lack of an independent observer on board her support boat and incomplete documentation, it still is an amazing feat in my mind.  What impressed me the most (and what is particularly relevant to leadership) is the fact that, at least as depicted in the movie, Nyad only achieved success after recognizing that she needed her support team.  The movie depicts an individual who is not particularly easy to like.  She is confident bordering on arrogant, self-motivated bordering on self-centered.  At one point, she refers to her last name, which stems from the naiads of Greek mythology, "My ancestors are the nymphs that swam in the lakes and the rivers and the ocean."  She believes in her birthright to be great, and her superiority complex at one point leads her best friend and coach to walk away.  In the end, they all came back to support her, and she embraced the concept that she needed her team of supporters to help her achieve her dream.

It's a good story and an important lesson for all of us.  "Never, ever give up...You are never too old to chase your dreams...it looks like a solitary sport, but it's a team."