By:  JOE DESENA

Super-athlete, Nicole DeBoom, had an epiphany while training for a triathalon—and she ran with it. I’m constantly searching for the qualities that make someone a success. Does athletic success translate to success in business? Can someone with little to no business experience become a successful entrepreneur? I talked to Nicole, founder of the popular women’s athletic clothing line Skirt Sports, to solve this mystery. She was a professional triathlete and won an Ironman, but her whole life changed when she started her own business. And the skirt fit.

Here’s what she had to say about starting a business from nothing but a great idea:

1. Just get it done.

Nicole was training one winter and ran past her reflection in a window. She realized how uninspired she was by the way she dressed while exercising. “I had an epiphany run,” she told me, “which, I think happens to a lot of people—they just don’t do anything about it.” But Nicole did do something about it. She immediately went home and started brainstorming in her journal.

Nicole said, “I wrote the word ‘pretty’ and thought: I want to start a women’s clothing line that’s sassy. Something totally different.” Not long after, Nicole had a prototype made for a running skirt. She wore the prototype when she competed in an Ironman in 2004, and the rest was history. “I heard the crowd shouting, ‘It’s the skirt!’ as I passed. I won the race: my one and only Ironman.”

2. Keep focused: No junk miles.

Nicole brainstorms in a unique way. She writes down a lot of ideas, and then narrows it all down to one. For example, she knew she wanted to start a women’s clothing line that made women feel good about themselves, but her idea was too broad. “My husband brought me back to reality,” she says. “He said, ‘I think you should focus on that one thing in that little scribbled notebook of yours that really epitomizes the concept.’ So I said, ‘Oh, it’s a skirt!’ No one’s ever done it before.” The idea of eliminating “junk miles” is an important one. It is the difference between success and failure. To succeed, you need to block out all the noise. Focus on chasing the deer to get the food.

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