Sports and Life - Parallels

“You win some, you lose some, and some get rained out, but you gotta suit up for them all.”

—J. Askenberg, Baseball Player

There are many parallels between the sports we play and the real life that we live.

This is obvious given the sports whenever they got formulated must have got inspiration from real life situations.

A few of these parallels which seem quiet fascinating.

Chess

Whether in office, politics, home or markets, the game of chess is being played eternally.

You meet kings, queens, bishops, knights, rooks, pawns (both blacks (evil) and whites(good)) all the time.

After closely observing a number of battles for supremacy whether in the board rooms, corner offices, living rooms and markets, you get to appreciate the game of chess so much more.

If you are aiming for the corner office and want to be the king, you better master and survive the game till the very end and manage everyone accordingly.

Some prefer to be king maker over king.

If you are a sales person, you need to know who is the king (the decision maker) and not waste too much time with the pawns.

If you are a pawn, you better know your limitations and not come in the firing line of other big folks.

"Knowing thyself" is extremely important in todays complex world.

Cricket / baseball

Life throws at us different types of balls - good, bad, bouncers, fast, slow, wide etc.

As a good batsman, it is upto you to decide which of these ball are worth playing and which are not.

Sometimes one can go on offence and other times it is better to be on the defence.

Most of them should be simply ignored.

In the investment world, as oracle of Omaha explains, Mr Market will keep throwing various opportunities at us all the time (24 by 7).

It is upto us to decide which ones are worth our time and capital.

Most of them are not.

Football / soccer

Those who have worked across multiple departments in large corporations and had to get work done through diverse teams, stakeholders, attitudes and cultures, will definitely appreciate the sports of football way better than others.

Or imagine a politician who has to manage a coalition with many strong contenders for the top job.

Cycling - Tour De France

Tour de France is world's most prestigious and most difficult cycling race.

There are 21 stages in this race, each a day long that need to be completed over 23 days.

Its is the ultimate test of endurance.

Surprisingly nobody wins all the 21 stages of the tour, in a given year.

In fact at times it has so happened that the final winner has not won any of the stages. More details are here.

It is probably not about winning all the time, every day at any cost.

As long as you endure, keep going, have the right direction and long term orientation, you may still win in the end.