Rainy Days
How bad weather exposes what months of sunshine can't
4:55am. The alarm on my watch vibrates against the nightstand.
The room is still dark. My eyes don’t open right away. As I pull the blanket back, I feel the cold morning air touch my skin.
Then I hear it.
Subtle, but clear. Drops against the window.
And the dialogue starts: It’s raining. I shouldn’t run in the rain. What if I slip? What if I catch a cold? I’ll make it up tomorrow.
The blanket is right there. Warm. Forgiving.
Most runners pull it back up. Relieved. But somewhere deep down, we all know we could’ve gone out.
Deep in my 2019 Boston Marathon prep, I trained at a track in the heart of Mexico City. On normal mornings, the place was buzzing — sixty, eighty runners grinding intervals, watches beeping, music speakers, everyone talking.
On rainy days, I’d arrive at the track at 5:15 am to total silence.
In the dark of the morning, only a couple of maniacs would be at it. You could see the splash of each step from afar. No music. No small talk. Just rain, and two people who had decided that this morning (like any other) was not optional.
Something became instantly clear that had been impossible to see on dry days: who was completely committed. Not enjoying themselves but, irreversibly, dangerously focused to reaching their goal.
These were the runners to watch out for. Not the ones with the cool Instagram Stories in Spring. The ones who showed up in the rain of August.
Rainy days revealed what dry weather made impossible to see.
The Business Version
In business, rainy days are a gift, not because it’s pouring on you, but because you finally get to see who is truly self-motivated and who was just waiting for a good excuse.
The problem is that business doesn’t hand you the filter as cleanly as running does. People have polished resumes, sharp answers, and a story for every room. On a dry day, almost everyone looks capable.
Then the storm hits. The funding round collapses. The key customer is about to walk. The product breaks at the worst moment. And that’s when the line gets drawn. The rainmakers, the ones who refuse to pull the blanket back up, come into the light. The rest, the rain avoiders, seek shelter and vanish.
Lesson Learned: Anyone can perform on a dry track. The filter only works when the weather turns.
Worth Your Time
In April 2018, Yuki Kawauchi — a Japanese office clerk who ran marathons on weekends with no sponsor and no coach — won the Boston Marathon in the worst conditions in decades. Driving rain, strong headwinds, temperatures just above freezing. The favorites, built for perfect days, collapsed one by one. When asked about the weather, he said: "For me, these are the best conditions possible." Some people only perform when everything is right. A few others only reveal themselves when nothing is. Watch here →
I still don't have a perfect system for spotting rainmakers before the storm. I've been fooled more than once. But I've started paying less attention to what people do in the good weeks and pay very close attention to what happens on faul weather.
Thanks for reading.
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