Fortune in Misfortune

Dave Sime, at far right, in 1960.

William “Bud” Hart, of Haverhill, shares “Success Principles”—ideas for living a greater, better and more accomplished life, and building habits that stick. He also coaches clients to incorporate strategies for boosting their mental and physical performance during everyday living.

William “Bud” Hart, of Haverhill, shares “Success Principles”—ideas for living a greater, better and more accomplished life, and building habits that stick. He also coaches clients to incorporate strategies for boosting their mental and physical performance during everyday living.

From the onset let me say unequivocally that I do not believe in luck. What I do believe is that we create our own fortune (both good and bad) with our patterns of thinking and acting in all that happens. This is why I found the article and story about the life of Dr. Dave Sime (pronounced “Sim”) interesting and worth sharing.

I initially came across the name Dave Sime when I was researching people associated with greatness for an earlier article. Searching a bit I came upon a New York Times obituary article written by Frank Litsky in 2015 talking about Sime’s many accomplishments and his Olympic misfortunes. The headline read, “Dave Sime Dies at 79; World’s Fastest Sprinter, but Far From Its Luckiest.” I was curious, far from the luckiest? What would prompt this heading?

While attending Duke University Dave Sime played baseball, football and ran for the track team. He was named the ACC Athlete of the Year in 1956 for his accomplishments in track and baseball. He appeared on the cover of Sports Illustrated in 1956 as a top sprinter. Sime went on to become a sought-after ophthalmologist in the Miami area for 42 years, counting among his patients President Richard M. Nixon and the sports stars Ted Williams, Mickey Mantle, Bob Griese and Sugar Ray Leonard. In 2010 Duke University named Dr. Sime as their most outstanding athlete of the 20th century. Seemed like a fortunate resume to me. But then there is this.

According to the article a few weeks before the 1956 U.S. Olympic track and field trials, Sime tore his groin, reportedly while riding on horseback for the first time ever. This injury, as stated by another New York Times columnist ended his pursuit of what possibly may have been several gold medals at the 1956 Olympics in Melbourne.

Sime continued his sprinting career and participated in the 1960 Olympics in Rome, where he competed in the 100-meter dash. After what was described by Sports Illustrated as a wobbly start Sime caught up and his foot hit the finish line first, but it’s not the foot that counts. What counts is the sprinter’s torso. He had to settle for second and a silver medal.

Sime had one more shot at a gold medal in 1960, as the anchor of the U.S. 4×100-meter relay team. When he received the baton he took his team from second to first place and won, only to discover that his team had been disqualified because the first baton handoff occurred outside the allowed zone.

At this point you might be saying Frank Litsky nailed it writing far from luckiest and that I am crazy not believing in luck. But Litsky finished his article with this quote from Sime, “I was very highly motivated, and I was in the right place at the right time, I worked hard, but a lot of people work hard. There are a lot of Einsteins driving taxicabs.”

For all his Olympics misfortune Dr. Sime preferred to look at his good fortune. There are a lot of talented people in the world, but what sets someone like Dave Sime apart from the crowd is not good luck, or bad luck, it’s their pattern of thinking and acting with everything that happens.

William “Bud” Hart is a certified “Mindset” Coach, Accountability Partner and strengthen Business Consultant. Founder of Hart Group, www.hartgroupma.com.