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And thanks for listening. Welcome to the HBR Ideacast from Harvard Business Review. I'm Allison Beard.

In every issue of our magazine we publish a feature we call Life's Work.

It's an interview with someone who's been

wildly successful outside the traditional corporate world. For a July August

edition I spoke with Greg Luganus, the Olympic diver who won back-to-back

double gold medals in the 1980s.

Years later, he came out to the public as both gay and HIV positive

and has since become an advocate for human rights causes.

He also mentors top US divers.

Here's some excerpts from our conversation.

As an athlete, you were known for your extreme focus.

How did you mentally prepare for competition?

Well, I was taught visualization when I was three.

So my first performance on stage, I, you know, we went through our tech rehearsal and then we had a dress rehearsal.

And in the dress rehearsal, all of a sudden I have, you know, this little tusks with a top hat and a cane and so there's additional choreography to go along with it.

And so my teacher I think out of frustration you know because I was like

three years old and she knew if I had done the routine over and over and over again then I would be too

fatigue to perform that night. So she put me in the studio played the music and said okay

...