Market:  New York
Athlete: Yiwen Zhu, Goldman Sachs



I live my life one quote at a time. Brownie points if you know which movie’s quote I tweaked just now. Hint: #8 came out in April. As a former captain of the math and academic teams in high school (who also dabbled in the anime club), training for The D10 last year was a solid step away from my core strengths, if you know what I mean. But, all professional athletes started from square one. And, the ones who make it out on top were the ones who weren’t afraid to try…  

“Failure.” The F-word. The fear of the F-word can drive a person to one of two roads. On one hand, you become paralyzed and don’t bother trying. On the other, you become obsessed; your fear of failing pushes you to do everything in your power to avoid it. Like Sisyphus, we’ve all failed before and had that rock tumble down on our way to the top of the mountain. Sometimes, it rolls right over us, crushing us mentally and physically. But Sisyphus gets up and starts pushing the rock up the mountain again. So, why shouldn’t I?  

“Mamba Mentality” I love this one. My favorite basketball player of all time, Kobe Bryant, coined the term. When you’ve committed to something, you do it. For that, “Mamba Mentality” is perhaps the most simple, singular train of thought that comes to mind when pursuing a goal. Everything you do works towards that goal, be it dips, rowing or pull-ups. There’s no ifs, ands, or buts. Gym at 5am? No problem. Do 100 pull-ups with a band? No problem. Eat clean and avoid ice cream? Eh…fine.  

“One Team, One Dream” What’s important is to have the support system along the way and I’ve been very fortunate there. My family, friends, and colleagues have been more than encouraging from telling me how much progress they’ve seen since day 1 to coming out and cheering me on last June. They’ve been extremely generous too, both last year and this year, helping me surpass my donation targets. Plus, when your trainer also loves Kobe Bryant, you know he’s familiar with Mamba Mentality, and has a grand plan to get you to 10+ pull ups. I’ll admit I was skeptical when I was only doing 3 reps last March, but, when 11 reps came along in June? Best moment EVER.  

“The Journey is the Destination” That corny saying of landing amongst the stars if you shoot for the moon? It’s mostly accurate. I learned so much last year in terms of who I am and how far I can push myself. And this year, I’m starting off in a better state. The fear of failure is my driver. Mamba Mentality strong as ever. My team? Always there. So come June, it’s not if I could do 11 pull-ups again, it’ll be seeing if we can get to at least rep #12.

Bring it, 
Yiwen

UPDATE: Yiwen finished 6th overall at The D10 in New York in June.  And she crushed her goal -- 15 pull-ups!