Success isn't just about knowing when to push — it's also about knowing when to pivot. And sometimes pivoting means exiting your day job and taking your side hustle or passion full-time.

By the time he had finished the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, Alexandre Bilodeau was a two-time gold medal winner in freestyle mogul skiing. That made him the only Canadian freestyle skier ever to defend his title.

Why did he retire from skiing to study accounting rather than returning for the hat trick?

Here are some career tips from Alexandre and how you can apply them to running your own business.

Exits are hard, but you get to choose them

"Exiting a lifelong passion and profession is never easy," says Alexandre, explaining his decision to move on from the Olympics. That's especially true when you're driven by a passion for what you do.

Knowing when to do something else is equally important for an entrepreneur, or someone who's thinking about entrepreneurship. "At some point, you have to decide to pass on to another path," adds Alex.

Deciding when to change your path takes emotional intelligence, which involves the ability to look inside yourself and understand if you still have more to explore. When he won his first gold medal in the Vancouver 2010 Olympics, Alexandre knew that in spite of the accolade, he still hadn't reached the pinnacle of his sport.

"I felt that I still wasn't the best skier I could have been, and that would have burned me for the rest of my life," he recalls.

Even then, Alexandre knew the 2014 Olympics would be his last. "It was clear to me that it was my last four years," he continues. "Whatever the result, I would move on and try to achieve something else in life."

Entrepreneurs follow all kinds of career paths to business success, but once they start a business, they rarely look back. In fact, three in four small business owners would never go back to working for someone else, according to a 2022 Intuit QuickBooks report.

Nevertheless, growth is a key driver for entrepreneurs. So when you feel you've grown as far as you can with your business, you might want to pursue a new venture. The same can be said if you're a burgeoning entrepreneur looking to start your own business and leave your day job – it can feel like a big pivot or like you're starting from scratch, but starting a business can lead you to both personal and professional growth.

Whatever path you're on, it's important to take responsibility for your exit strategy in any high-performance, high-stakes pursuit, according to Alex. It's best to do it with intent, choosing the moment of your departure on your own terms rather than being forced out by external circumstances. Handing the baton to a new generation of potential Olympic champions enabled him to exit gracefully.

The exit is one step in a longer journey

Emotional intelligence is also important as you make your transition. Like Alex, you may find yourself starting your new career at the bottom. As he studied to be a Chartered Professional Accountant, he found himself switching lanes. Instead of an Olympic gold medallist, he was simply another student. That might have rankled someone with a bigger ego, but he was prepared for the change.

"Switching from a career in skiing to something new and leaving everything on the table took a big dose of humility," says Alex.

It helps to remember that moving from the top of your game to start at the bottom of another is simply one step along a bigger path. With passion and fulfilment driving more than half of all Canadian entrepreneurs, it's also important to pursue something you care about intensely in the next stage of your journey.

"You have to focus on the end goal, and for me that was a new career in something I was passionate about — entrepreneurship and finance," Alex says. "So I needed to keep my head down and do my classes to get where I wanted to be."

Create a successful transition with planning and purpose

Moving from one stage in your journey to the next takes more than just passion, Alex warns — it takes planning, including contingency planning, forecasting and creating a business plan.

"If you don't have a direction — something you're really striving for — then you're going to question yourself all the time," he says, adding that this sense of purpose will keep you going during difficult times, just as it did when he trained for the Olympics.

"Your transition must be planned because you have to develop a passion for what you do, and that doesn't happen in a snap — it takes time," says Alex.

It's often said that when one door closes, another opens. However, we don't always acknowledge the entrepreneur's role in that process.

Strategic thinkers like Alex put themselves in the driving seat, taking control of when to open one door and close the other. This is one of the greatest skills of entrepreneurship. Knowing when to move on is the key to self-development and the antidote to stagnation.

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<< Episode 1: Tips for entrepreneurial success from an Olympic champion<<

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