Lessons from the Winner's Circle | Shelina Moreda | TEDxSonomaCounty
Professional motorcycle racer Shelina Moreda shares her journey from fifth-generation dairy farmer to international racer, emphasizing how she overcame societal expectations and used failure as a learning tool. She advocates for pursuing passions despite naysayers and being flexible when plans don't work out.
Summary
Shelina Moreda describes her unconventional path from dairy farming to becoming a professional motorcycle racer and covergirl model, defying societal expectations about what women can accomplish. Raised by parents who taught her she could achieve anything through hard work, she ignored traditional progression paths and obtained her racing license on her first track visit. Despite earning the nickname 'Stack Lena' from frequent crashes during her first year, she quickly progressed from novice awards to professional racing within months. She became the first female to race at Indianapolis Motor Speedway and went on to represent the United States internationally in countries like China, Japan, Qatar, France, Italy, and Spain, often in places where women face significant restrictions. Moreda reframes failure and crashing as valuable learning tools rather than obstacles to fear, explaining how each crash teaches more than an entire day of successful practice. She emphasizes the importance of having a plan while remaining flexible enough to adapt when circumstances change, drawing parallels between split-second racing decisions and life choices. Through a personal story about an embarrassing crash at Laguna Seca, she illustrates the importance of staying humble and not becoming overconfident. Beyond racing, she rescues animals from Northern California wildfires and runs dirt bike camps for women and girls to build confidence, concluding that pursuing one's passions can make the world a better place.
Key Insights
- Moreda obtained her racing license and signed up for her first race on the same day she first visited a track, not knowing this violated the conventional path of practicing for years first
- She became the first female to race a motorcycle at Indianapolis Motor Speedway and went on to represent the United States internationally in countries where women face significant restrictions
- Moreda argues that every crash teaches more than an entire day of successful practice at the track, making failure a valuable learning tool rather than something to fear
- She races primarily against men, typically being the only female in her class of 40-50 competitors, and must make split-second decisions about which male competitors to pass
- During a crash at Laguna Seca at over 130 mph, Moreda experienced time slowing down like a movie with sparks flying, and her first concern after getting up was whether anyone had witnessed her embarrassing mistake
Topics
Transcript
[0:09] I'm a fifth generation dairy farmer turned professional motorcycle racer turned covergirl model for one of the largest makeup brands in the world. It's an unlikely path for sure, especially because society tells us that we can't do these things. We can't be a professional athlete, especially if you're a female. But I was raised by parents that taught me that I could do anything in life that I wanted to do if I put my mind to it and I worked hard for it. I think sometimes they uh regret [0:39] telling me those things because I believed them. When I when I was young, I would watch on TV the motorcycle racers battling it out. And I…
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