Watching the Olympics makes me cry.

I don’t just occasionally cry during some events, nor do I save the tears for the medal presentations (though that’s usually when I cry the hardest). Watching humans who have devoted their lives to achieving the highest performance in their sport makes me so emotional.

Seeing a swimmer touch the wall makes me think of all the weekends given up for meets, all the early morning practices, all the parties skipped, and all the birthday cake offers refused.

Watching a gymnast stick a landing makes me think of all the falls they took learning to do that—the hours of repetition and spring breaks spent at the gym instead of the beach.

Nearly every competitor at the Olympics has dozens if not hundreds, of people behind them: parents who drove them, coaches who worked with them, doctors and trainers who kept them healthy, and friends whose support makes all the difference.

All of that effort was expended without any guarantee of a result. Most of them were eating clean and going to bed early when the Olympics were just a dream they were hoping for. Most of their friends thought they were obsessive and needed to “tone it down.”

You make sacrifices like that, too.

That emotion is one of the reasons I’m drawn to working with entrepreneurs.

You’ve stayed late instead of going home to your family and are taking risks based on a dream and a good idea.

You’ve sacrificed your health, sleep, hobbies, and, in some cases, friends and careers to do this thing.

But it’s different for you.

You won’t be on a national TV broadcast even in the best-case scenario. No one is calling you for endorsements or asking you to be a commentator for the next entrepreneurial event.

It’s not even likely that you’ll be the next Cinzia Crociani or Eric Baldwin, and even if you were, folks wouldn’t know who you were. (I mean, you had to click to see, right?)

While each of us has different reasons for making these sacrifices, underneath it all, there’s some feeling that we’re making the world a better place. Without you and others like you, we wouldn’t have iPhones or electric cars, our not-for-profits would be struggling for funds, and the aesthetics of the whole world would be–um, uglier.

You are creating jobs, training young people, and urging and cajoling your clients toward greater performance and results.

I’m inspired by all you do and can’t wait to see the podium you will climb. (If I’m there, be prepared for tears.)