“You don’t go to four successive Olympic Games without being competitive,” says Ryk Neethling. The man who played a role in bringing swimming to the forefront of national consciousness as part of the Gold medal-winning 4x100m Freestyle Relay team at the 2004 Olympics – and who still holds 4 national records – is hoping to translate a successful career in the pool into an even more successful one, out of it.

Neethling didn’t land the role of Marketing Director at the prestigious Val de Vie Estate in the Cape Winelands on the back of his sporting success or golden boy public image – he’s worked hard to establish a name for himself in the property game. “Making the transition from sport to business has been as hard, if not harder work, than winning an Olympic medal,” he says. “The disadvantage I faced was that I was 30 years old when I retired from swimming – and by that age, most people are already well on track with their careers. I really had to make up for lost time”. Having hung up his goggles, Neethling graduated from the University of Arizona in 2001 and worked full-time in the States for a couple of years in the property field, before heading home. Studying in America was an opportunity he values highly. “It was an amazing opportunity for me – not just because I was away from my family and learning to stand on my own feet at a very young age, but also for the opportunities and self-confidence it gave me,” he says. “The exposure you have there is incredible – the guy lecturing you is the one who wrote the book on the topic. You’re so close to the action and innovation there – you get everything straight from the horse’s mouth”.

One of the key things Neethling has taken with him has been that the hours of training he was putting in in the pool, before many others had even gotten out of bed, was the confidence that he could out-work anybody. “I was never the most talented swimmer, but my work ethic was the one thing I had control over, so for me that was very important,” he says. Learning to use his profile properly has also been pivotal. “Certainly, the doors that my sporting career opened and the network I established were great assets to have. What I’ve always said, though, is that if you don’t have anything to offer that network, you aren’t worth very much,” he says. “I approach every day like I used to when I was training – I have a goal and I try to improve a little bit every day. I’m learning that its ok to not go out and break a World Record every day. Sometimes you just have to wait for the right deal”.

The business world obviously comes with its own lessons, several of which he’s had to learn the hard way. “You don’t become the best in sport by succeeding all the time – and the same is true for business. There are hard lessons learnt in failure and I think one of the things I’ve learnt is not to take on too much,” he says. “There were times where I was really spread too thin and I’ve learnt to assess and price risk and decide whether something is worth it, before taking it on for the sake of doing something”. If anything, he’s in the process of pulling back from the many opportunities offered to him and focusing on simplifying his business interests. “When I was done with swimming, I was suddenly being offered all these opportunities and I went for everything, just because it was amazing to be able to do different things,” he says. Going forward, he’ll continue to work with other swimmers on the mentoring side and run his Ryk Neethling Swimming Stars schools, but the rate at which Val de Vie is growing means that he’ll need to focus his attentions there. “Val de Vie is becoming a big development and property company and though I don’t want to say I’m a big part of it, I’m certainly entrenched and there are some great opportunities to pursue”. In 2014, Val de Vie bought all of adjacent Pearl Valley’s undeveloped land, an area larger than both current developments. “It puts us in a really awesome position to have more activities and things in our arsenal to offer people, than we believe is on offer anywhere else in the world”. They’ve signed a deal with the Legacy Group to develop a 5-star hotel on the property and also with Reddam College to build a school there.

Having left an indelible mark on the country with his sporting achievements, how would he like to be remembered on the business side? “In my opinion I’m quite young when it comes to that – I only started on the business side relatively late, so I have a long way to go. If I can get as close to as successful as I was as an athlete, in business, I’ll be happy. I want to do it with the same kind of philosophy, doing my best to be ethical and transferring good sportsmanship into business – doing great things, right”.

Ryk’s Mentors

• Bob Davis – a very successful real estate investor in Arizona, who took me under his wing and taught me the ins and outs of commercial real estate when I was working in the US.
• My father – he was a successful lawyer but always put his family first. He was always there for us.
• Francois Pienaar is also an inspiration – he is a great example of a sportsman who translated sporting success and experience into business.
• Good to Great by Jim Collins & What got you here won’t get you there by Marshall Goldsmith – Both books give excellent practical advice on how to improve yourself or your organisation. While business changes fast, some principles stay the same and I always like to learn from other successful people’s experience.

Ryk’s Top Sporting Achievements

• Leading the University of Arizona to beat Stanford University for the first time in history…(at their own pool, nogal!)
• Breaking my first individual world record in Berlin
• Walking into the Olympic Stadium in Atlanta (1996) for the opening ceremony and realizing that: I AM AN OLYMPIAN! A lifelong dream came true.

*This article was originally published in Destiny Man.