What Can Your Start Up Learn from Successful Athletes?

Have you ever wondered why we hold athletes in such high esteem? They are hardly saving the world, but they get paid like they do.

Arguments can be made, but in order to be a professional athlete, you must thrive in perhaps the most competitive environment in the world. Everybody wants the big contracts, the fame, the adulation and the marketing opportunities that come with superstardom. With this in mind, wouldn't it do your business well to learn from the people who have succeeded in such an environment?

Self Motivation

In order to be a top athlete, a person must motivate him or herself to perform when no one is watching. The tryouts and the games are not the time to practice techniques; that is the time to show what you have been doing behind closed doors late at night when everyone else was sleeping or watching a movie.

The barrier between most people and success is being unable to sit in a room, bored, coming up with plans to make a business succeed. When you are looking for inspiration or distraction, remember that the successful people in this world turn inward for the strength to get the job done when there is no one looking. Here’s what Richard Branson, the serial British entrepreneur says about it: “I am constantly challenging my team with new ideas, innovations or ventures I would like set up -- in double-quick time.”

Dedication

Pro athletes face rejection after rejection on a daily basis. The best baseball stars are successful at the plate three out of 10 times. If a running back gains five yards (the length of less than two adult males) per carry in a game, he is considered successful.

The dedication that is required to overcome these inevitable setbacks [key word: inevitable] is immense. An athlete must have a huge belief in him or herself to look past all of these obstacles to take advantage of the opportunities that come.

Dedication in business is easier to achieve when you realize that opportunities will come as inevitably as the setbacks. The secret is to stay the course until the opportunity comes.

Organisation

Pro athletes must organise their daily lives incredibly precisely. From diet to exercise routines to the people they train with, everything is calculated using scientific methods and statistics. Because the difference between number one and number two can literally be hundredths of a second, precision becomes a friend, not an inconvenience or an expense. According to this article about time management on Randstad, "your primary task should always be at the forefront of your mind". I couldn’t put it better.

This is the same attitude that you must have in business. You will be competing against the best in your industry. In most cases, the winners will not outpace the rest of the field by a great deal. The difference is in the small things - how you treat your customers on a day to day basis and the little savings that you get by clipping coupons and taking advantage of deals.

In conclusion

Running a business is just like running a very, very long and arduous race. It’s not a sprint. You may read of silicon valley startups selling for billions within months of launching, but in reality this is far from normal. Prepare for the long haul just as you would if you were running a marathon.