Postcards

How the power players do it - by Fortune senior editor at large Patricia Sellers

Power Point: Rising above the win

June 23, 2008: 6:26 PM ET

"The key to having success like Shaun is that he has the highest expectations of himself. There are certain guys who reach that level and lose their motivation. They're like, 'Ah, I'm number one. I'm over it.' But when you have the mentality like Shaun, you get to that stage and you're like, 'What's next?' What else can I do? How else can I push this?' It doesn't matter that he's won everything."

- Skateboarding icon Tony Hawk says this about Olympic snowboarder Shaun White in Don't Look Down, a new documentary from Charlie and Willie Ebersol. I went to a screening hosted by the Ebersol boys' dad, NBC Universal Sports boss Dick Ebersol, and their mom, actress Susan Saint James. This film follows White, the world's greatest snowboarder, on his quest to become the world's greatest skateboarder, and then follows the so-called Flying Tomato to Rwanda, of all places. Due to air on ESPN in July, the film is strange and funny and full of lessons about victory and defeat.

The Ebersols sure know about victory and defeat. In 2006, I wrote about Dick Ebersol's recovery from the plane crash that killed their son Teddy. I remember, Teddy was a Tony Hawk fanatic.

After the screening, Jessica Shambora, a new Fortune reporter who is my partner on Postcards (see her post below), and I talked Olympics with Bob Costas. So who will the breakout star of Beijing? Watch swimmer Michael Phelps. The real drama, though, will be the Chinese vying to outscore the U.S. The pride of a nation hangs in the balance.

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About This Author
Pattie Sellers
Patricia Sellers
Senior Editor at Large, Fortune
Executive Director of MPW/Live Content, Time Inc.

Fortune senior editor at large Pattie Sellers has written some of Fortune's most talked-about cover stories, including "Marissa Mayer: Ready to Rumble at Yahoo," "Oprah's Next Act," "Can Meg Whitman Save California?" "The $100 Billion Woman" (Melinda Gates), and "Remodeling Martha" (Martha Stewart). She has helped oversee Fortune's "Most Powerful Women in Business" package every year since its launch in 1998. Pattie is Executive Director of the Fortune Most Powerful Women Summit, the preeminent gathering of women leaders in business and beyond. She oversees MPW programs that enable women leaders to extend their influence and empower the next generation—such as Fortune MPW Entrepreneurs and the Fortune-U.S. State Department Global Women Leaders Mentoring Partnership. Beyond her Fortune duties, she is also developing Live Content across Time Inc. Pattie grew up in Allentown, PA, graduated from the University of Virginia, and started at Fortune in 1984. Her blog, Postcards, is about how power players lead, manage others, and navigate their careers.

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