Who Are You When No One Is Cheering?

What happens when the thing that made you exceptional is no longer who you are?  Tanya Hughes knows something about performance. She was a 20-year-old Olympic high jumper who wasn't expected to make the U.S. team—then won the Olympic Trials and became a finalist at the 1992 Barcelona Games. But this conversation goes far beyond athletics. Tanya talks about identity, leadership, burnout, purpose, NIL, parenting, money and the dangerous consequences of allowing achievement to determine self-worth.  Today, young athletes aren't simply student-athletes. NIL has effectively turned many of them into entrepreneurs—sometimes before they're old enough to understand taxes, contracts, branding or the long-term consequences of their decisions. Tanya calls them "student athlete and CEO" and believes NIL should be treated as seed capital for a larger life, not simply money to spend today.  But perhaps Tanya's most important lesson applies to all of us: eventually the applause stops. Titles change. Careers end. Businesses get sold. Children grow up. Bodies change. If your identity is built entirely around performance, what remains?  This is a conversation about learning to be rather than constantly perform.  -- Follow and Subscribe to sharpen your edge in business and give you peace of mind in life.  #businessgrowth #entrepreneurship #stoicsm #megatrends #innovation ©2026 Profectory, LLC  - All Rights Reserved.