Lessons and Reflections | Ft. Ryan Villopoto 2

There are many lessons learned from racing motorcycles. Responsibility, work-ethic, determination, and sportsmanship are a few core examples many of us have learned through our years of riding and racing. With Lessons and Reflections we want to hear from past professional racers and have them reflect on their careers so they can tell us five lessons which impacted them and helped post-racing career. These lessons may impact them in business, relationships, personally, or some other way. In this edition four-time Monster Energy AMA Supercross champion and two-time AMA Pro Motocross champion Ryan Villopoto joins to talk about lessons he learned while racing. RV had an amazing career with many ups and downs and is currently a brand ambassador for Yamaha Motor USA.

For the YouTube version click the link below. If you're interested in the condensed written version, scroll down just a bit further. 

Lesson #1

Racing has a lot to do with building character and who you are. I’d say there’s nothing more valuable than age. I’m dealing with my kids, and they think they know everything and aren’t even 13 or 14 years old. As a young professional in my position, you need to listen to the good people around you. There is also tons and tons of noise from other people you may not need to be listening to. You need to be able to decipher and filter what is good information and what is not.

Lesson #2

Staying focused is number two. Being brought up and bred in this industry is tough. Only a few of us had to deal with the magnitude of retirement. (Ryan) Dungey, James (Stewart), Ricky (Carmichael), and I, and boredom can be gnarly unless you’ve engulfed yourself in something. Going from the schedule we had to suddenly stopping is difficult. I still deal with being bored. Slow times of the year, like right now, where I’m not doing much in the next month and a half other than baseball and things with the kids. I’m very involved with the boys, and that’s what I’ve chosen to do, but when you retire, you must keep yourself busy somehow. No matter what it is, it’s going to take work. We started a coffee shop up in Washington after I retired. It was a short stint because we only lived in Washington for two years, and I couldn’t deal with the rain. We ended up moving back to California, but that’s an example. Having an idea, putting it together, and executing it.

Lesson #3

Also, putting a good team around you is one of the biggest things in our industry. Having a good race team is important, but so is having a good trainer, a good spouse or chic, or whatever the case may be who is there to help and add to the program. They aren’t adding any outside noise that will take your time. It’s nonstop; you must think about it, breathe it, sleep it, and train.

Lesson #4

Being patient and selfless. The transition from professional racer to retired and from needing to be selfish to selfless can be difficult. My professional career was only about ten years, but I started on a 65 and we’ve all been at this a long time. When you’re a racer, everything revolves around you. From the team, what you’re doing during the off-season and trying not to travel is pretty selfish, but that’s any athlete. If you’re going to be great at anything, you have to have some level of selfishness. When the boys came around, I knew I would be very involved with my kids daily. That didn’t catch me off guard. I’m super hands on and knew that’s the way it would be. It’s harder now than when I was racing. With racing, it’s simple. You have A, B, and C to do today. It’s the whole alphabet with kids, but it bounces or jumbles around. One day, it’s this, and another, it’s that. It’s, “We have baseball practice today” or “We forgot a haircut today.” It’s much busier and all over the place. With racing, we knew exactly what we needed to do, where we were going, where we were flying to, what hotel we were going to, and everything was planned out. Having less structure came with some of that boredom. Without structure, it felt like, “Oh, I don’t have anything to do today." It can be tough and is currently at times. I’ve realized it’s just a stage of life. For example, I’ve wanted to buy a piece of property for many years. It’s not in the cards right now. Yes, I could do it, but with where the kids are at seven and doing baseball, moto, and other sports, and where we live, it just isn’t in the cards right now. That doesn’t mean it won’t be in the cards in three to five years.

Lesson #5

As a racer at the top level, you have to be able to compartmentalize a lot of things. Similar to what we saw with Jett (Lawrence) in Daytona with his mechanic pulling off the tire cover. He had to compartmentalize and say, “We have an issue. The mechanic is working on getting the cover off my tire, the 30-second board is up, and things are happening.” He was able to compartmentalize that it was one issue. He salvaged a massive start as soon as he knew his dude’s hands were out of there, and he was good to go. That is something I was able to do. With a team, you need to be able to say, “We have an issue, but we are going to resolve it to some degree." Some days, that happens, and some days, it doesn’t. That has helped in everyday life because I compartmentalize things and deal with them differently than other people. Racing and the industry have helped to shape and form the person I am today.