“You have to be comfortable being uncomfortable. It’s the only way you will make progress,” legendary race car driver, Lyn St. James, said at this morning’s Accelerent/BCG Breakfast Event at the Phoenix Raceway.
In addition to being a race car driver, Lyn is an author, mentor, and motivational speaker. She inspires audiences to find their passion and break their personal speed limits. Throughout her career, she set goals and utilized all her defeats and successes to break into the world of race car driving.
Accelerent—Phoenix
The Phoenix division of Accelerent is the area’s leading business development organization, and Benefit Commerce Group is proud to be the Title Sponsor of this division. At breakfast events throughout the year, guests invited by members of Accelerent hear from nationally-recognized speakers and experts like Lyn St. James.
Lessons Learned from Lyn
Named one of the “Top 100 Female Athletes of the Century” by Sports Illustrated, Lyn St. James has set 31 national and international speed records and succeeded in the sport of auto racing at levels unparalleled by any other woman.
At the Indianapolis 500, Lyn masterfully drove her way to earn Rookie of the Year honors in 1992.
But her career wasn’t all successes; there were plenty of failures and car crashes throughout the years.
“Failures will happen. We learn more from failures than we do from success,” Lyn said. “A failure is an opportunity to begin again. It’s what you do next after failure that really counts.”
She obtained a Ford sponsorship. It’s important to know: Ford didn’t ask her; she pursued them over and over, sent them letters, etc. Her sponsorship was for a one-year contract. She continued with one-year contracts for 15 years as her own agent.
She succeeded not because she was a woman in a male dominated sport; she succeeded because she delivered results. Ford may have hired her because they were trying to be diverse, but she got the renewals based on results.
Here are some of the principals she lives by and encourages others to embrace:
- Human nature is to push forward. When it doesn’t happen fast enough, we build things to go faster.
- You have to be intentional with every thought and action you take.
- You are in charge of your brain. You are in control of what you think about.
- Communicate with your team, and realize that everyone has a job that is very important to the team.
- Never stop learning.
- Never lose your passion. Always forward. Go for it!
For more information about Lyn, you can go to her website: https://lynstjames.com/.
Her book, An Incredible Journey, chronicles her career and her last Indy 500.
Watch for Our Next Accelerent Phoenix/BCG Breakfast Event!
We have an amazing year of quality speakers and motivating topics at the Accelerent/BCG Breakfast Events in 2024!! Our next Breakfast Event is scheduled for Friday, June 14, with our speaker, Gian Paul Gonzalez, Founder and Director of Hope + Future Foundation whose “All In” message helped inspire the New York Giants to win the Super Bowl in 2012.
