Like millions of others around the world in the last week or more, I’ve managed to get caught up in some of the competition of the Summer Olympics.

And even more so, with watching Michael Phelps and Dara Torres go stunningly for the “Gold” in their respective races.

And have similar yet different outcomes

Then just the other morning I saw during NBC Olympics’ coverage that Liu Xiang, China’s Gold medal hopeful, suffered an injury to his Achilles’ tendon. Unfortunately, he was unable to even “get out of the blocks”. About Liu, Jeré Longman, NY Times, wrote, “He/Liu had been his country’s hope to be the signature triumph of the Olympics.”

Hopes dashed in an instant

For those that didn’t see their races, of particular note was Michael’s 100-meter butterfly, his next-last-to-race, where he won by 0.01! While Dara’s last race, the 400-meter medley, ended with a “loss” of 0.01. Stunningly, Michael took the “Gold” medal; Dara won the “Silver” with the exact time clock reading.

So what’s all this got to do with you? With you “starting and running” or “stopping and rethinking” a virtual assistant business, you say?

Actually, plenty!

For starters, it has to do with having a goal, or many

A plan, if you will.

Goals that show what you want to accomplish during a specified amount of time, and where you want to be six months, a year from now; five years, or even ten. You choose the motivation and you choose the timeline.

Look at Michael’s history

Michael didn’t just get up one day and say, “Tomorrow I’m going to win 8 gold medals.” Although he began swimming when he was 7, it wasn’t until he was 15 that he first entered the Olympics (in 2000).

So it’s taken Michael eight years to amass the eight gold medals in one Olympics.

However, in several interviews, he did indicate that he had set out with a list of things he wanted to do on his way to any of the Olympics he entered (2000, 2004, 2008). And as each milestone was realized, they were crossed off.

Now, he has to start a new list.

What about you?

What will your list include? How will your timeline look?

What about perseverance?

It’s important to remember that while not the easiest thing to take, it’s okay if somewhere along the line you “fail”; where you are not able to reach the “brass ring” according to how you expect to get it.

In one of Dara’s interviews, she commented that she could not believe she had “lost” by the exact time that Milorad Cavic, swimming for Serbia, lost to Phelps. In fact, Dara indicated she thought how bad it was for Cavic to come so close to winning and then losing. She went on to suggest that perhaps she had “jinxed” her own shot at a win by even entertaining Cavic’s loss.

As difficult or as disappointing as it may seem, in reality you (Dara or Cavic) did not fail at all but rather you just found it necessary to adjust your path a bit. I know it’s probably not easy for any of us to hear that when all our hopes are quashed in what seems almost like an instant.

For Dara and Cavic, it really was “an instant” a “0.01 of a second!” instant.

But what you manage to learn in the process effectively becomes “gold” itself

For instance, consider something like this. If you had not been laid off from a job that you really did not like, or if you had not decided to have and stay home with baby number one, would you have taken steps to start your virtual assistant business?

For all practical purposes, you probably would not have had the opportunity to set out to find a new way to earn money, or to prove anything.

Now, as tough as it may seem, it’s important to keep in mind that “failure’ is really just a state of mind.

And that even the great ones “fail” – if that’s what you want to call it – at some time or other.

Just get yourself back up on that horse, on the bike, or in the race car.

Back to the computer or the drawing board, if you will!

Like Michael, start making a new list, new dreams.

You’ll be better for any experience, and next time you’ll get the gold.