Ben Andrews on Resilience, Preparation, and the People Who Push You Forward
Mindset · From Student of the Game
Ben Andrews on Resilience, Preparation, and the People Who Push You Forward
Brad Noll calls Ben Andrews his real estate brother. The two met on a basketball court at a real estate conference, and Brad guessed right away that Ben's favorite player was Magic Johnson: always smiling, pass first. Ben is a realtor in Portland, Oregon, a former University of Oregon distance runner who competed at the Olympic trials, a speaker, and the author of The Long Run.
Brad opens the conversation wearing a Nike Waffle sweatshirt in Ben's honor, and promises the story behind it will come back around. In between, Ben shares a story of resilience and perseverance, with plenty of lessons for anyone building a career or a business.
From a Lost Dream to Second Place at State
Ben describes a Norman Rockwell childhood with loving parents and a close brother. Basketball was his first love, and he played on a highly ranked high school team. His junior year, he refused to ride to a tournament with a coach he believed had been drinking. That confrontation ended his basketball career.
He went out for track that spring and made the state meet ranked 11th of 12 runners. His only goal was not to finish last and to lead one lap so his parents could hear his name. He led that lap, then kept going. He finished second, losing by a hundredth of a second to one of the top runners in the nation, and improved by 14 seconds that day. Legendary Oregon coach Bill Dellinger offered him a full scholarship on the spot, telling him he might have woken up a basketball player, but he was going to bed a runner.
Ben says the adults along the way mattered: an aunt who took him running, a sixth-grade teacher who ran with the class every day at recess, even a teacher who told him he looked like a deer. Ben calls them emotional deposits that helped him believe in himself.
“Everyone has an opportunity to be a ripple for somebody else. And there are so many times where they think that they don't matter.”
Ben Andrews
The Fundamentals: Consistency and Feedback
Asked for the fundamentals of running, Ben's answer is short: "Every single day. Just do it." When he looks back at his running logs, his worst races always followed missed morning runs. Those easy 20 to 30 minutes, six days a week, built the aerobic base. "If you don't have that fundamental, you have nothing to build on."
He also tracked feedback, checking his pulse and weight every morning to catch overtraining. In business, his version of the morning run is a set of non-negotiables: talk to the people who matter in his life and business, meet with his team at 9:30, and be done by four o'clock when his son gets home. When he skips them, he notices it at the dinner table, because his mind is still at work.
Mentors Who Care About the Person
Ben is open that a hard stretch during an extra year of high school left him on probation when he arrived at Oregon. When he finally told Coach Dellinger everything, the two walked around Hayward Field for hours, and Dellinger connected him with the university archivist. Sorting historic photos there, Ben found one of Steve Prefontaine and Bill Bowerman, co-founder of Nike.
He sat on his phone for 45 minutes before dialing the Bowermans to ask for an autograph. The call turned into monthly lunches at their home, talking about everything from shoes to farming. Bowerman, like all great coaches, Ben says, cared more about the young man than the athlete. Brad sees a theme: Ben studies the greats and then acts, nervous or not.
Ben also learned what happens when you stop leaning on help. His senior season, as one of the top American runners in the NCAA, was his worst. Two teammates took him to lunch and told him they expected more. "You need people to gracefully call you out of your own cocoon," he says.
Preparation Creates Separation
At Oregon, Ben treated every hard practice like a championship race, warm-up ritual and all. Before one big race, a higher-ranked rival admitted he only did his routine on race day. Ben told him he had already done his 38 times that season, and he went on to win. Brad shares a favorite saying on the Noll Team: preparation creates separation.
Ben still works that way. He listens to the same song and sits in his car for the same five minutes down the street before every buyer presentation. Brad notes that buyers and sellers never get a test drive of their agent, so the unseen preparation is what makes the difference. Some practical takeaways from the conversation:
- Protect the small daily habit that everything else is built on.
- Track simple feedback so you notice when you are off.
- Rehearse your big moments the same way every time.
- Measure leading indicators like calls, notes, and face-to-face visits, not just sales.
- Find an accountability partner in your industry, even one across the country.
- Review your personal board of directors regularly and add people who are a step ahead.
Accountability and a Hard Season in Business
During a recession, Ben's wife, his business partner, stepped away during a tough pregnancy. Clients would ask where she was and choose to wait for her. Ben realized he needed to care more, like she did, and nurture people who were not ready to buy yet. He takes full ownership of that season and calls it the making of the man.
Years later, Ben and Brad ran a friendly 12-week competition between their teams: who could make the most calls, write the most notes, and see the most people face to face. Ben says it carried his business through the pandemic and raised his standard for good. Brad points out that everyone on both teams wanted success before the competition started. The activity is what separated them.
Who Is in Your Corner When It Matters Most?
Ben's book, The Long Run, began as voice notes for his son. He admits the first draft was all about himself, so he rewrote it around the people who showed up in his hardest moments, often without wanting any recognition. His courage, he says, comes from his parents. Every night his dad told him, "I know who you are," and every morning his mom said she was proud of him no matter what. Both of them chose to break hard patterns from their own childhoods.
He closes with two stories. At UCLA, a man reading in the front row of Pauley Pavilion asked Ben what shot he was going to take before lending him a ball. It was John Wooden, who was there helping Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, four years retired, with his sky hook. "If I'm not learning anything, I have nothing to teach," Wooden told him. Ben also explains the waffle iron behind Bowerman's first waffle-soled shoe and shares a little-known story of loyalty inside early Nike. Brad's takeaway: there is always something unseen.
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The Power of Resilience and Perseverance with Ben Andrews, on Student of the Game.
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