No matter what you do or who you are: a Top Sales Executive, a Serial Entrepreneur or a Formula 1 World Champion like Fernando Alonso. If you want to be the best in your field, it's not enough to do the same things everyday because they worked in the past.
If you want to be the best and keep on surprising your clients, fans, etc. you really need to keep on learning and demand the best of yourself and the ones that surround you in your team.
Recently I watched the documentary “Fernando” on Amazon Prime Video and I learned a lot about his personality, his competitiveness, eye for detail and other vital characteristics for top professionals. Fernando Alonso´s story is known worldwide: World Champion in 2005 and 2006 and competing in the Formula 1 until 2018, where, due to unfortunate decisions in the selection of the racing teams, he wasn't able to win any Word Championship afterwards. When he left Formula 1 at 36 years old, many people may have thought he would retire from competing and dedicate his time to philanthropy. Nothing could be further from the truth.
Fernando decided to continue racing but now by doing something completely different. His main goal was to become the second driver in the history to win the Triple Crown of motorsport: Win the Formula 1 of Montecarlo, the 24 hours of Le Mans and the Indianapolis 500. So far, this Triple Crown has only been won by Graham Hill. Although the three of these are motor races, they are 3 completely different disciplines (different cars, different race circuits, different length, etc.) and each of them needs a very long and profound preparation. It is really impressive to see the team briefings, the details they discuss and also Fernando´s expertise on engines and even helmets.
Fernando is still on his way to win the Triple Crown. So far he has won both Montecarlo and Le Mans twice. At the Indianapolis 500, he's been less fortunate: in 2017 after leading for several laps, his engine broke 21 laps before the finish. In 2019 he couldn´t classify and in 2020 he had engine problems again and needed to abandon.
It would be an understatement to say Alonso´s career is full of ups and downs. The thing is, he never gives up and is always open to learn new disciplines.
After competing at various competitions, in 2020 he participated as the first Formula 1 champion at the Paris - Dakar race. Where he had been competing on asphalt so far, this discipline really didn't have anything to do with the other races. Sand hills, sand storms, flat tires, extremely dangerous accidents. Anything you could imagine happened during Fernando´s first Paris-Dakar. Fortunately he was accompanied by the best professionals of this branch of sport. His co-pilot was Marc Coma (5 times Paris-Dakar champion on motorbike) and besides he had an excellent technical team that prepared and maintained his Toyota Hilux during this grueling race. I think this part of the series shows the best of Fernando: working with his team members, talking to Carlos Sainz, repairing his Hyundai
during the bivaque after the marathon stage, and, finally finishing the race ending in the 13th position (best result for a newbie at Paris-Dakar).
As I write this article, Alonso is recovering from a new, but small set-back after a recent bicycle accident. But this will just be a little incident. End March we will see Fernando Alonso back in Formula 1, now with Alpine. And I am sure he will give us new surprises and some nice victories.