Athletics in Business: What Founders Can Learn from Elite Performance
By Camino5 | LA Tech Week Edition
How structure, resilience, and identity shifts from sports apply directly to startup life
Los Angeles Tech Week is known for bringing together the boldest in business, founders, investors, and now, professional athletes. At Expert Dojo, Camino5 co-hosted Athletics in Business, a live panel exploring what happens when elite athletic performance meets entrepreneurship.
The night wasn't about trophies or game-day moments. It was about the behind-the-scenes truth behind performance: daily discipline, mental toughness, and identity evolution. In other words, the inner game of founders.
Here’s what emerged when the world of high-stakes sport collided with startup grit.
Pain Is Inevitable, Choice Isn’t
Former NFL linebacker Shaquem Griffin brought the room to attention with one insight: “It’s easy to choose when things are good. The real choice is when it’s hard, and you keep going anyway.”
Founders often celebrate momentum. But the make-or-break moment is when that momentum disappears. When the excitement fades and the metrics stall, it’s not talent that carries you, it’s your ability to keep executing without applause.
Griffin reframed adversity as decision-making, not defeat. That’s a mindset every entrepreneur needs.
Choose especially when it’s hard. Progress isn’t a breakthrough. It’s a decision made daily.
Discipline Is a System, Not a Mood
World champion bodybuilder and filmmaker Doc God offered a brutally honest breakdown of how world-class discipline works. Think: 4:30 a.m. wake-ups, measured nutrition, a repeatable progress formula.
His takeaway: “Discipline is the root of everything — your health, your focus, your success. It’s all connected to the choice to do what others skip.”
Founders chasing scale without structure often stall. Doc’s insight reframes discipline as the system that makes both creativity and growth sustainable.
Discipline multiplies effort. You can’t control outcomes. You can control inputs. Show up. Execute. Repeat.
You’re Not Just Building a Business — You’re Rebuilding Yourself
Jayon Brown, former NFL linebacker, spoke to something rarely addressed in founder culture: identity collapse after transition. “You wake up every day knowing what you’re training for. Then one day, that structure disappears — you have to build your own playbook.”
Entrepreneurs experience the same shift after a funding round, an exit, or even a pivot. When your external goal vanishes, internal alignment becomes everything.
Redefine identity on purpose. New phases require new mindsets. Don’t wait for clarity, create it.
Consistency Is the Confidence Loop
Former NBA player Chris Copeland laid down a deceptively simple truth: “What you do every day defines who you’re becoming. Consistency builds confidence.”
It’s easy to overlook this in a world obsessed with virality, pivots, and "disruptive" thinking. But whether in sport or startups, performance doesn’t spike — it stacks. Confidence is earned in the daily, invisible reps.
Recover like a pro. Rest isn’t retreat. It’s how you reload. Review, reset, and return stronger.
Founders Need a Locker Room Too
Every athlete on the panel credited someone — a coach, a sibling, a teammate — who carried belief for them when their own wavered. Founders, too, need that circle.
Startups thrive on strategy, yes — but also on identity, consistency, and conviction. Surrounding yourself with people who remind you who you are when the pressure peaks isn't a luxury. It’s infrastructure.
Build your team with intention. Support systems aren’t a luxury. They’re foundational to resilience.
Five Takeaways for Founders, From the Locker Room to the Boardroom
Discipline multiplies effort. You can’t control outcomes. You can control inputs. Show up. Execute. Repeat.
Choose especially when it’s hard. Progress isn’t a breakthrough. It’s a decision made daily.
Build your team with intention. Support systems aren’t a luxury. They’re infrastructure.
Redefine identity on purpose. New phases require new mindsets. Don’t wait for clarity, create it.
Recover like a pro. Rest isn’t retreat. It’s how you reload. Review, reset, and return stronger.
The Camino5 Lens: Brand as Performance
Camino5 founder Ryan Edwards closed with a challenge that ties it all together:
“Athletes train for clarity, every rep has purpose. Founders need the same thing. Brand is performance: a system that keeps you clear, consistent, and credible when it gets hard.”
At Camino5, we believe branding isn’t a campaign. It’s a discipline. You don’t announce it. You practice it. And like training, it compounds.
Founders: Build like an athlete. Train your clarity. Trust your process. And surround yourself with people who play at your level.
Ryan Edwards, CAMINO5 | Co-Founder
Ryan Edwards is the Co-Founder and Head of Strategy at CAMINO5, a consultancy focused on digital strategy and consumer journey design. With over 25 years of experience across brand, tech, and marketing innovation, he’s led initiatives for Fortune 500s including Oracle, NBCUniversal, Sony, Disney, and Kaiser Permanente.
Ryan’s work spans brand repositioning, AI-integrated workflows, and full-funnel strategy. He helps companies cut through complexity, regain clarity, and build for what’s next.
Connect on LinkedIn: ryanedwards2