I’m honoured to be allowed to write an occasional article for the wonderful H2Open Magazine, especially after having met the editor Simon at a few events this summer.
The articles I write are all about the lessons that can be applied to business from open water swimming – or to put it another way, you can be Open for Business. In the latest article I write about not feeling like a ‘proper’ swimmer, or businessman.
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Although I’ve been open water swimming for three years and completed some of the sport’s most iconic swims, I’m still never quite confident enough to call myself a ‘proper’ swimmer. As a child I could always swim, but I was never a member of a swimming club. I never did the early morning training sessions before school and the gala meets. I never had a coach or even had any coaching of any sort.
Even now when I watch some of the other swimmers at the events I go to and take part in I don’t feel like a proper swimmer in comparison. And that’s not even mentioning comparing swimming times – which I hate myself for doing after every event, but I can’t help depressing myself by working out just how much faster nearly everyone else was.
And yet, even though I don’t think of myself as a proper swimmer I’m welcomed in…
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You can read the full article here.
And read more of my articles here.
1000kmstowindermere 
You are welcomed in because you are a swimmer. In the running community which I am a proud member of, you are a runner because you lace up your shoes and run. Not sure the word “proper” adds anything.
The word proper fits inside the mind of [some of] the doer. But I agree, I’m welcomed into the swimming community because I swim.
The same is true in business – the only person who thinks you might not be proper is you.