Simone Biles knows a thing or two about perseverance. And the decorated Olympic gymnast took to the stage at the National Retail Federation convention on Monday morning to share some tips about how to overcome adversity — both in athletics and in business.

“Growing up in the gymnastics world and having to go through a lot of trials and tribulations taught me to never give up — always push forward,” she said. “Sometimes if you make decisions, you might be the only one standing that believes in yourself. At those times, you really have to dig deep and think of the reason why you’re doing it, who you are, what you stand for, what you want to accomplish.”

She said that, growing up, her mother would call her and her siblings into the room in January and ask them to write down their goals for the year. When she was young, it was easy, but as she got older, she realized “failure was an option.”

“So I kind of changed my perspective on how I looked at that,” she said. “OK, there’s Plan A, then there’s Plan B if that doesn’t work — and then there’s the rest of the alphabet.”

As it turns

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