Daily Inspiration: Meet Stan Cottrell

Today we’d like to introduce you to Stan Cottrell.

Hi Stan, so excited to have you with us today. What can you tell us about your story?
I grew up a skinny Kentucky farm boy who probably looked more suited for feeding chickens than running around the world. We had an outhouse, farm chores, hard times, strong family ties, and a mother whose faith helped shape the way I would eventually see life. I learned early that life could be difficult, but I also learned that difficult did not necessarily mean defeated.

Running entered my life almost by accident. As a young man, I took a five-dollar dare to run roughly ten miles from Horse Cave to Munfordville, Kentucky, in under an hour. Somewhere along that road, something awakened in me. What began as putting one foot in front of the other eventually carried me across states, across America, and into countries and cultures I could scarcely have imagined as that Kentucky boy.

But the miles were never really the whole story. Along the way I became a teacher, businessman, speaker, author, husband, father, friend, and lifelong student of people. I discovered that some of my greatest teachers never stood behind a lectern. They were farmers, coaches, family members, strangers, children, executives, people beside the road, and people whose lives crossed mine for only a few minutes.

Running eventually became a vehicle for something larger than running itself. It gave me opportunities to cross boundaries, build friendships, listen to people very different from me, and use a simple human act to communicate goodwill. The older I have become, the more I realize that many experiences I once thought were separate were actually connected.

Now, at 83, I find myself in what I call the springtime of my winter season. I am still running, still writing, still learning, and perhaps most importantly, still becoming. I don’t look at these years primarily as a time to sit down and admire what happened yesterday. The past should be an inheritance, not a residence.

That realization is at the heart of the book I am now developing, Life Begins at 80. It is not simply a collection of memories or running stories. It is my attempt to gather the potshards of a lifetime and discover what they may have been trying to teach me all along.

I have been blessed with records, adventures, recognition, and enough improbable experiences to fill several lifetimes. But at this stage of the journey, I measure wealth differently. When someone tells me that something I taught, said, wrote, or did decades ago helped shape a life, I call that Psychic Income.

By that measurement, I am a multibillionaire.

And I’m not finished earning yet.

Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
Smooth road? Lord, no. If anything, much of my life has been an education in learning how to travel roads I would never have chosen.

I grew up in rural Kentucky in circumstances that included poverty, hard farm work, an outhouse, and a home sometimes disrupted by my father’s alcoholism and violent behavior. There was love in our family too, which is important for me to say. At 83, I have learned that people and families are rarely explained truthfully by putting them into one box.

Adulthood brought its own storms. I experienced broken relationships, professional disappointments, financial uncertainty, physical injuries, and times when the future I thought I was building suddenly looked nothing like the future in front of me. There were periods when I had to begin again without having the slightest idea where “again” was going to take me.

Running certainly didn’t provide a smooth road. I have run through brutal heat and cold, relentless rain and headwinds, injured and bleeding feet, dehydration, dangerous roads, and circumstances that required me to decide whether perseverance meant taking another step or having enough sense to stop, adjust, recover, and find another way.

That distinction has become increasingly important to me. Courage is not carelessness. Faith is not foolishness. I don’t believe every obstacle is conquered by charging straight through it. Sometimes strength means pushing. Sometimes wisdom means changing the route.

Looking backward, I can also see that some of the struggles I desperately wanted removed became teachers I would never have voluntarily hired. They taught me resilience, certainly, but also humility, forgiveness, flexibility, and compassion for people fighting battles I cannot see.

I have a phrase for it now: For every dream, there seems to be a corresponding dragon.

I don’t romanticize the dragons. Some things hurt, and some losses remain losses. But I have discovered that hardship does not get the final vote on what a life can become.

So no, it hasn’t been a smooth road.

But then again, I was never promised a smooth road. I was given a road. And, by the grace of God, I kept learning how to travel it.

Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your business?
In April 1983, I formed Friendship Sports Association, Inc. as the corporate umbrella for an experiment I was already beginning to live: Could something as simple as running become a vehicle for something much larger than sport?

Under that umbrella, my work has included international running, public speaking, writing books, producing films, developing business opportunities, and bringing people together across boundaries that sometimes appeared almost impossible to cross.

Over the years, I have run in 43 countries. But the running itself was seldom the final destination. Running was the door opener. Friendship was what I hoped would walk through the door.

Those miles created opportunities for interaction in areas I eventually came to think of as political, economic, athletic, cultural, and evangelical. I have sat with people whose governments disagreed, entered countries and communities where language and culture were unfamiliar, spoken before audiences large and small, and discovered repeatedly that ordinary human contact can sometimes go places that titles and institutions cannot.

That may be what sets Friendship Sports Association apart. We never viewed sport merely as competition or physical accomplishment. Sport became a common language. A runner needs very little translation. Effort looks like effort almost everywhere. A smile looks like a smile. A handshake doesn’t require an interpreter.

Through the years, that little experiment grew far beyond anything I imagined in 1983. My work has included books, films, speaking, international events, business relationships, and running-related initiatives that, through live audiences and media distribution, I estimate have reached more than one billion people worldwide.

But numbers are not how I ultimately measure the success of Friendship Sports Association.

I measure it in relationships.

A door that was closed and then opened. Two people who began as strangers and finished as friends. Someone who heard a message and carried it into another life. A relationship begun on a road that continued long after the running shoes were put away.

After more than four decades, I think I finally understand what I was building.

Friendship Sports Association was never primarily about how far one man could run. It was about how far friendship could travel.

Before we let you go, we’ve got to ask if you have any advice for those who are just starting out?
I wish I had understood earlier that you do not have to see the entire road before taking the first step.

When I was young, I thought successful people somehow knew where they were going. Now, at 83, I realize that much of my life was discovered while I was already moving.

My advice is simple: Get in the pond.

One of my greatest teachers, Coach Brannen, introduced me to a room full of ninth-grade boys when I was a terrified student teacher and essentially said, “Okay, Little Coach, it’s all yours. Sometimes the only way to learn to swim is to be thrown in the middle of the pond.” Then he walked out.

I have been swimming ever since.

Don’t wait until you know everything. Don’t confuse preparation with postponement. Find good people, agree upon your respective roles, ask for enough freedom to move, remain teachable, and give people permission to help you grow.

I would also tell a young person something that took me much longer to learn: Your relationships may ultimately be worth more than your accomplishments.

Help other people advance. Open doors when you can. Listen to people who cannot do anything for you. Treat the person sweeping the floor with the same dignity you would give the person whose name is on the building. Make people feel important, not through flattery, but by actually recognizing their importance.

And don’t become so married to yesterday that you divorce tomorrow. Learn from your past, certainly, but don’t move into it. The past should be an inheritance, not a residence.

Finally, expect dragons. For almost every worthwhile dream, I have encountered some corresponding dragon. Don’t assume resistance means you’re on the wrong road. But don’t confuse courage with carelessness either. Sometimes perseverance means pushing harder. Sometimes wisdom means changing the route.

At 83, I still don’t consider myself finished. I wake up believing there is something left to learn, somebody left to meet, some good left to do, and perhaps another door waiting to be opened.

So if you’re just starting out, start.

Get in the pond. Learn to swim. Help somebody else stay afloat. And never assume that the person you are today is the final version of the person you can become.

Pricing:

• Pricing varies depending on the nature, location, duration, and scope of the engagement or project. Speaking engagements, special appearances, consulting, media projects, and partnership opportunities are considered individually. Interested organizations are invited to contact Friendship Sports Association, Inc. to discuss their specific needs and opportunities. If the magazine allows it, an even stronger answer may simply be: Not applicable at this time. Friendship Sports Association, Inc. develops opportunities and partnerships on an individual basis rather than through a standardized price list.
• Speaking engagements, special appearances, consulting, media projects, and partnership opportunities are considered individually.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: Stan Cottrell
• Facebook: RunStanrun