Hidden Multiplier in Achievement

Last summer, I crossed the finish line of the Hotter’n Hell Hundred—a grueling 100-mile bike race in the Texas heat. My time: nine hours and forty-one minutes. I finished, but just barely. I pushed to get through Hell's Gate (a safety cut off point for riders too far off pace) ran out of water between rest stops, staved off heat exhaustion, and staggered through the final miles. It was a victory, but it was also an effort in surviving.

DJ Wilkerson, Bake Lee, Stephen Donaldson, & Zach Lee (Left to Right) at the Hotter N Hell 100 Starting Line, August 2025

This year I returned to the same course. Same distance. Same sun beating down. But this time I crossed in seven hours and fifty-three minutes. Almost two hours faster. The numbers tell a story of raw time improvement, but I've realized a deeper meaning. A truth hidden behind the seconds, minutes, and hours of this year's result: context matters more than raw outcome.

Last year, I was 15 pounds heavier, burned out at work, short-tempered at home, and carrying grief that hollowed out my discipline. I trained little, fueled poorly, and showed up with a bike I'd barely ridden, hoping to endure. Hoping this tough feat would spark change in my life.

This year, the context of my life was different. I moved on from a draining career. I reclaimed mornings with my children and evenings with my wife. I was consistent in training, lighter in weight, stronger, and more focused. My nutrition was better. My home was healthier. My spirit was aligned.

The result wasn’t just a faster race, it was a different race altogether.

Leaders often measure success only by the stopwatch—output, numbers, quarterly gains. But the truth is, achievement flows from the soil it grows in. Change the context and you change the performance.

The lesson is simple: Stop throwing yourself at hard tasks, or facing challenges with "I'll do more by enduring more", or justifying plateaued results with, "But, I am working so hard" and start asking, “What is the state of my life, my team, my culture?” Context is the hidden multiplier in achievement.

Dwight Eisenhower once said, “The older I get, the more wisdom I find in the ancient rule of taking first things first.” He was reminding us that the conditions we create matter more than the frantic pace of our actions.

If you want breakthroughs, don’t just double down on effort. Change the environment in which effort lives. Performance is not an isolated act. It is the natural harvest of the life you’ve built around it.