There is clearly a very strong link in some individuals between what it takes to be good at sport and what it takes to be good at business.
We were discussing this the other week after the Master Class we hosted with Sebastian Kuhl from the University of Basel.
Basti (as he is known) played professional football in the Bundesliga for 14 years.
After that I watched a webinar from Jim Ratcliffe the founder of INEOS who now sponsor McLaren formula 1 and what was team Sky cycling and own a football club in France (he is a cyclist too) and we were chatting at work about why some sportsmen are able to turn their hand to business so well.
Perhaps one of the main reasons for this is that if you’re involved in sport at any sort of significant level then you must be prepared to accept coaching.
You must be prepared to accept defeat, you must be prepared to accept things that go wrong and you must be able to learn from your mistakes or you will not last in that arena very long.
This may seem like common sense but it’s not the same everywhere.
When you’re king of your own castle you don’t have to listen to anyone else and while things are working you can carry on.
There is no growth in that though.
To be able to accept the opinions of others and particularly constructive criticism comes from being coached is perhaps one of the greatest ways to get better at anything.
To seek out negative feedback loops (think repeatedly taking a free kick like David Beckham) where you see what works and what doesn’t is another way to get better.
Sport and in particular high level and elite sport has always been quite good at that, not every other business model is.
Blog Post Number - 2401
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