Back in February 2021, I was fortunate enough to sit down with two Formula One World Champions, Sir Jackie Stewart OBE and Damon Hill OBE, to help raise money for their respective charities, Race Against Dementia and halow project.
This week in the lead up to the British Grand Prix, a race which both men have won, I thought it was an ideal time to look back on that evening and over the next few weeks (and with the help of the wonderful imagery provided by our friends at Scribble Inc), see my key takeaways when looking at "The Mindset of Champions".
To find out more about their fantastic charities or donate, which we raised £7,500 for that evening, please visit www.raceagainstdementia.com or www.halowproject.org.uk
One of Sir Jackie Stewart’s main points in the evening was to hang out with the right people and grow your connections. “If you fly with the crows, you are likely to get shot, crows are vermin” the 3 times World Champion said “…if you sore with the eagles, you are above shot. Hang out with the right people and you are doing an awful lot better than you might have thought!”
He spoke about the partnerships he had formed whilst being a driver and since then. These partnerships with the likes of the Ford Motor Company, Rolex and Moet had lasted 40 plus years and he said the secret behind keeping those was to always under promise and over deliver.
“I know some people are listening to this as they want to learn some nuggets from Jackie more than myself” Damon Hill modestly injected “Jackie stopped racing before his 100th Grand Prix and he never drove a road car after that, he was always chauffeur driven because he’s always on the phone building up contracts, using his fame and making connections with the right people. He was able to build Stewart Grand Prix because of Jackie and his reputation, that’s a real lesson!”
“Once you get those opportunities, it has a domino effect on what you do!” says Sir Jackie.
Back in 1997 Damon was the reigning Formula One World Champion, however he now found himself down the back of the grid with the un-competitive Arrows team having been let go of by Williams.
On the whole the season was fairly uneventful, apart from a surprise race in Hungry where Damon overtook Michael Schumacher in his Ferrari early on to lead the race, until a mechanical issue meant he had to slow down and finish in second on the last lap.
However, that wasn’t the only thing that was memorable from that season, as the 1996 World Champion spoke about a chance encounter with a fan at the Canadian Grand Prix a few races earlier, whilst going down the hotel lift to go to the race that left a lasting message with him.
“She asked me ‘are you driver?’, and I said ‘yes’!” Damon says “she then asked ’are you going to win the race?’ And I said you ‘obviously you don’t know much (about F1) I’m in an Arrows!!'” Damon continues “She said ‘yeah but you are in the race right?’ and I said yeah and she replied ‘well then you’ve got a chance haven’t you?’'" Damon reflected on this and thought “I like that attitude…anyway a few races later I was in the lead of the Hungarian Grand Prix in an Arrows, so she was right and I was wrong!”
We hope you have enjoyed part 1 of our look back on our fantastic evening with Sir Jackie Stewart and Damon Hill and I would like to thank them both for their time and input with the event. Make sure you come back next week to IgnitionPerformance.com - as we'll be look at their next key lessons on: "Finding your own way to lead" and "Understand how to deal with Disappointment and changing your Approach".
In the meantime here is a clip from the evening as Sir Jackie and Damon discuss why he didn't join Stewart GP in 1997 and we also have some great videos and information about Race Against Dementia and halow project for you to enjoy.
Today, 50 million people around the world have dementia. Unless a cure is found, one in three people born today will die with dementia. A new person develops dementia every three seconds. This crisis cannot continue.
Race Against Dementia is driven to raise money to fund breakthrough and innovative dementia research.
The halow project is a growing community-based charity, situated in Guildford, Surrey. We support young people, aged 16+, with a learning disability on their journey into adult life.
The young people we work with want the opportunity to:
- Build relationships
- Become part of the community
- Find meaningful employment
- Have a home of their own
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