The Winning Game

Believe it or not, professional athletes have mastered a successful business model that many entrepreneurs can implement and learn from. Professional athletes are experts at three important traits that are key factors to succeed in the business world.?Athletes are masters in the disciplinary field. They doyen the art of confidence and most important they are conquerors of colossal failures.

The idea of starting a business is exciting. But, what many entrepreneurs fail to see is that executing ideas is an extremely challenging and demanding task. And, it is at this stage that many of the business future problems start. Planning requires an insane amount of discipline. An entrepreneur has certain amount of creative and decisioning freedom, but this should never be taken for granted, and since time is of the essence for startups the ability to champion discipline can only benefit the outcome of the venture.

So what is discipline and how do athletes mastered it? Discipline is a code of conduct that athletes understand better than most people. Professional athletes know that in order to succeed both as individuals and as a team members. They must embrace discipline and make sacrifices. But what sacrifices? It all looked very glamorous on the outside. But, it wasn’t until I got a closer look that I realized how hard my friends had worked to get into the MLB. I remember them playing since they were six years old. They missed a lot of parties and family moments. While the rest of the kids enjoyed the weekends home relaxing or playing video games. They traveled and trained under strenuous weather conditions. They never complained, in fact they loved every second of it. And they loved it because they knew that all of those sacrifices were leading to a path of greatness. They saw the big picture!

The disciplinary field is an art that requires sacrifices and strength of character. Like professional athletes, entrepreneurs need to master this trait in order to combat and defeat criticism, temptation, and pressure. Entrepreneurs should work in their craft and perfect it. They must think of the big picture but never forget the details of the play. Entrepreneurs are willing to sacrifice, take on risk and be team players. And they do it because they believe and love what they do. An entrepreneur should wake up every day excited about their next move. Professional athletes begin to think about their next win right after they win a game, this keeps them grounded, excited and challenges them to do better. Like professional athletes, entrepreneurs should always be hungry for more and remain in love with the game they’ve chosen.

Pro athletes doyen the art of confidence, and if in doubt just turn on the television and observe how cool and collected they behave. Athletes walk into a room and they demand and get attention. But, how did they build confidence? Confidence stems from the belief in one’s abilities. Their sense of confidence comes from experience, and experience comes from practice. No matter how successful an athlete may be he/she never stops working on his adroitness. They understand that there is always room for improvement. They always welcome new challenges and strongly believe that their luck is highly correlated with their hard work. Athletes push themselves because they understand that working hard is key to outbid the competition. Whenever athletes win, they get a sense of pride that elevates the confidence in their skills. But, instead of getting comfortable with the accomplishment, they think about how to achieve better and greater results the next time around.

Confidence is a balancing act that requires a lot of physical and mental work. And though, this is easier said than done, nothing is impossible when the desire for it is stronger than any obstacle. “Champions aren't made in the gyms. Champions are made from something they have deep inside them -- a desire, a dream, a vision” (Muhammad Ali). Athletes and entrepreneurs have that inner fire that propels them to seek greatness. Confidence starts with that inner drive, but grows through knowledge, practice and mental strength. Entrepreneurs should let passion propel them but reason and knowledge guide them. Confidence is the strength that will take you to the end zone regardless as to how many times you strike out.

Elite athletes are conquerors of colossal failures because they know how and where to focus their efforts and actions. I remember sitting behind home plate at a baseball game and watching my friends played. The team was loosing 9-2 bottom of ninth inning. One of my friends was having what many would consider a bad day, and to make things worse people from the crowd was shouting really terrible things at him. Yet, every time he came to bat, he was cool and collected. I thought, well, perhaps he can’t hear, and in that case that is great. However, as a friend I felt the compelling need to yell his name in an encouraging way, to my surprise he heard me. He turned his head toward me and nodded. This was his way to thank me. He kept his focus on the ball and with one man on second and two strikes. He managed to hit one out of the ballpark. Although, the team was losing the game, the players never gave up! And inning after inning, these players came out and gave their best.

Later on that night, a few of us when out to eat. And it was a breath a fresh air to see how well they managed losing the game; in fact I don’t remember them mentioning it at all. They chose to focus on their achievements, and on that last play that inspired pride. They laughed; they had fun, and they were looking forward their next game. They knew what needed to be done so instead of dwelling on the failure, they chose to learn from their errors and move on. I realized that we only lose when we fail to give our best, and that failure happens when we refuse to learn from our experiences. An entrepreneur will fall over and over again. Startups fail about 80% of the time within the first 18 months. But, this should never be an impediment for success because no matter how many times we fall, as long as we learn, we can only fall forward.

Entrepreneurs should be masters in the disciplinary field. They should doyen the art of confidence and most importantly entrepreneurs must become conquerors of colossal failures, because failure is a synonym of wisdom and the next time you fall think that you will get up stronger and wiser than before. Keep your eye on the target. Focus your energy on enhancing your craft and take actions that will move you forward and closer to the finish line.