🏆 What Entrepreneurs Can Learn from Athletes

Thentrepreneur

^{Read time: 4 min 46 sec | August 5th, 2024}

Welcome back 👋

Anyone passionate about both exercise and business has noticed the many similarities between athletes and entrepreneurs. However, while watching the Olympics, I began to think about the psychological tactics entrepreneurs can adopt from athletes to enhance their work. Here’s what I found:

Today’s Insights

• 🏊‍♂️ Advice from the Greatest Olympic Coach

• 💪Why Failure is an Advantage

• 🧠 Leveraging Multi-Disciplinary Insights

💡 Process > Outcome

Bob Bowman, coach to the greatest Olympic athlete Michael Phelps, summarises his coaching philosophy: focus on the process, not the outcome. Given Phelps's remarkable performance—23 Olympic gold medals—this might seem counterintuitive. Shouldn’t we focus on outcomes, such as winning competitions?

Both athletes and entrepreneurs are concerned with outcomes, whether it’s an Olympic gold medal or business growth. However, focusing solely on outcomes isn’t the most effective approach. Outcome goals, such as winning a competition, are influenced by controllable factors but are also heavily affected by external elements like competitors' performance and race conditions. Judging yourself solely by these outcomes is not a fair measure.

Instead, evaluate yourself based on your preparation and the aspects you can control, such as consistent training, maintaining a healthy diet, and stretching. These are variables within your power and serve as practical criteria for self-assessment.

Often, after a competition where athletes don’t achieve the desired result, they appear happy or even ecstatic. This is because they’ve met their process goals—targets they could control, such as a swimmer hitting a set time or a runner executing their strategy. The external result becomes secondary to maximising their personal performance.

When you've done everything within your control to achieve success, the final outcome becomes less important. Take pride in your preparation and execution. This mindset not only improves your chances of success but also offers a healthier and more satisfying approach to goals.

📈 Increase your Failure Rate

Increasing failure leads to success by creating valuable feedback loops. Each failure offers insights into what went wrong and what can be improved. For instance, a high jumper learning from failed attempts can adjust their technique, and a sprinter can fine-tune their training based on intervals where they fell short.

This iterative process of trying, failing, analysing, and adjusting drives continuous improvement. Michael Jordan’s numerous missed shots taught him how to refine his gameplay. Similarly, entrepreneurs who experiment, fail, learn, and adapt quickly enhance their products and strategies, ultimately leading to greater success.

Most people grasp the concept, but athletes understand that the real advantage comes from putting it into practice. Failure is uncomfortable—embarrassing, disheartening, and painful—but athletes reframe it as a scientific experiment to uncover new opportunities.

In a rapidly changing world, the ability to adapt and pivot is crucial for entrepreneurs. Increasing your failure rate is a key method for developing this skill.

🧠 Leveraging Multi-Disciplinary Insights

Top athletes enhance their performance by integrating insights from various fields, such as cognitive psychology for mental resilience and nutrition science for recovery. This multi-disciplinary approach addresses all aspects of training and competition, leading to a more effective strategy.

Entrepreneurs can adopt a similar approach by incorporating knowledge from diverse fields into their business practices. Drawing from different disciplines can deepen industry understanding, foster creative problem-solving, and provide a competitive edge.

Elon Musk exemplifies cross-industry innovation. SpaceX’s precision engineering and manufacturing techniques have been adapted to improve Tesla’s production efficiency, including the use of rocket assembly methods in Tesla’s Gigafactories for enhanced production and quality control.

Similarly, British Cycling in the 2010s embraced cross-industry insights by working with aerospace engineers on aerodynamic bike designs, utilising data analytics for personalised training, and integrating cognitive psychology and advanced nutrition strategies. These diverse approaches contributed to their remarkable success, including multiple Olympic gold medals.

Key takeaway

• Everyone naturally thinks about outcomes, but focusing on the process leads to better results.

• Increase your rate of failure to increase the probability of successful outcomes.

• Combine more diverse insights to approach challenges from different angles, boosting your success.

Thank you for reading. I look forward to seeing you again!

Thomas 🚀

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