Sports & Business
I have been involved in the world of high performance sport in some capacity for the better part of 11 years now. I have been a business owner for under three months, but since beginning this new journey, I keep running into parallels between high performance sport and the world of entrepreneurship.
Now, no matter if it is sport or business, our goal is to succeed. That means something different to everyone, but ultimately whatever your version of success might be, that is generally the goal of someone in either of these industries. I really believe that the message I work on pushing with my athletes every day is extremely similar to what entrepreneurs need to hear as well.
1. Dedicate yourself to your craft: I tell athletes every day that the difference between those who make it and those who don’t generally doesn’t come down to an incredible difference in skill. It comes down to dedication. Who is willing to do more? Who is putting in more consistent effort? Who is taking themselves, and their career more seriously.
Since becoming an entrepreneur, it has become obvious that the way to succeed in this space as well is to be dedicated to my business, work on it every day and shut out the noise outside. It doesn’t matter what my competitors are doing, what matters is what I am able to provide to my athletes and clients every day. If you keep focused on yourself, just let the good things happen.
2. Efficiency: It is obviously important to work hard, but one thing I am constantly trying to get across to athletes is that it is most important HOW we use their time. It is not necessary that you leave the gym every day crushed and exhausted. It is important that you leave every day having made progress towards the goal of your program. Depending on what the goal of the program is, you might be leaving exhausted, but it is not a NECESSARY factor. The importance of that fact is beyond the scope of what I am talking about here, but I will dig deeper in future posts.
As a business owner, one of the scariest things sometimes is my free time. I feel like I should be doing more, and don’t always feel comfortable putting work away. This has led to many evenings of half assing work that I was too tired to get done right and resulting in having to re-do a lot of work, spending way more time then necessary.
To work on making better use of my time, I have been putting systems in place. Make a list every night. Everything you want to accomplish the next day. That way, as soon as you wake up in the morning, you don’t have to spend time worrying about “what was it I had to do first?” and you can get right to work. I will generally include everything work related, and everything personal on these lists, and that way when I get up the next day I can prioritize as needed.
3. Purpose: Being an athlete is hard work. Countless hours of training, years of your life, waking up sore and tired… the list goes on. Obviously, if you are working towards a career in the pros it doesn’t get any easier once you get there. The money might make it feel easier, but you need to keep putting that time into it in order to build longevity in your career. To put the work into it that you need to, yes you need passion, but even more importantly, you need purpose.
Purpose is defined as the reason for which something is created or for which something exists. It is one thing to be passionate about your sport, but if you can put a clearly defined reason behind WHY you are doing it… your reason for which your career exists? You are putting yourself in a far better position. That reason is something that will push you when things get harder. That reason will help you keep going when you want to stop. That reason, that purpose will help you succeed.
One of my favourite phrases from Gary Vaynerchuk is that when you are the #1 in a business, everything is your fault. Even if someone else in your business makes a mistake, you allowed that to happen. This is a hard attitude to keep through everything you do, but such an important one. In order to keep yourself motivated and pushing through the harder times in your business, you also need a purpose. You need a reason that your business needs to be successful. If you can find your why, it keeps you motivated when things get tough, and helps you grow your business into exactly what you want it to be.
There are so many more parallels I could get into, but these were just some of the biggest ones I have noticed in the last three months. Find your reason why, and dedicate yourself to making it a reality.