Ask Jimmy: The Olympics, Success and College

We recently asked you on Facebook, “If you could ask Compassion president Santiago “Jimmy” Mellado one question, what would it be?”

Well, we got a great response and over the next three weeks we’ll be publishing his responses to your questions here in our “Ask Jimmmy” blog series.

Today Jimmy shares about his experience and lessons learned from competing in the 1988 Olympics, his recipe for success and encourages a potential future employee of Compassion.

What did you learn from your Olympic experience?

I learned so many things from the wonderful experience of competing in the Olympics … and from the 16 years of training required to get there. But a takeaway that continues to benefit me even today was learning the power of goals.

A great goal will stretch us to do the very best we can. And after giving it our best, we can rely on God for the end results. When we put our most remarkable human efforts in the hands our miraculous God, things we can’t even imagine are possible. I lived it in competition and now I’m living it in leadership – I prepare, but the results are in God’s hands.

I also learned much about the critical importance of rest and replenishment to reach my potential in life. People often say that life is like a marathon. Without offending my marathon friends ☺, I’ve found that life is more like my event, the decathlon—a series of 10 diverse events, each demanding top performance for a moment but then requiring rest to recover for the next event. Life is like that. It’s a constant series of producing and recovering.

Most of us see stress as the problem. I don’t. The real problem is our inadequate recovery strategies. The stress of workouts made me stronger, and it still does. Jesus experienced stress—quite a bit of it at the end of his life. The key is getting the stress/recovery rhythm right. Too much stress without recovery leaves you broken down. Too much recovery without stress leaves you underdeveloped.

Do you have a personal formula for success?

I’ve learned to be constantly aware of my brokenness and inadequacies and to let God’s grace continually heal me. When I live in that space, I live in the space of my dependence on Jesus. Everything that is good in my life flows out of that. I believe to my core that my best contribution to the Kingdom of heaven is not what I do, but who I am becoming.

What kind of major should I take if I want to work with Compassion when I finish college?

Compassion employs people with expertise across a wide spectrum of career fields – marketing, accounting, communications, information technology, human resources, etc. – not just those who specialize in child development or social science. I’d recommend you pursue the path that God has given you passion for and gifting in. And if it’s His plan for you to work with Compassion, I’m confident He’ll make a way for you here!

Have a question you’d like to ask? Leave it in the comments below and maybe we’ll publish it in the next series.

Check back next week for part two of the “Ask Jimmy” blog series where he addresses which countries in which we work that have experienced developmental improvements.