Olympic Lessons

At the Northumbria University Sports Dinner last night, the address was given by Chris Cook, a Northumbria University graduate and a member of the record breaking British swimming team at last year's Olympics.

The address was short. Chris wanted to share with us some of the key lessons he had learnt during his competitive career, in the hope that they may be of use to us in sport or in business. Now, I'm not a great fan of the Olympics. The national obsession once every four years with five a side knitting or underwater judo just because there's a South African competing for us whose mother lived in Peckham as a teenager a bit much to take, particularly when these sports are roundly ignored by the general public for much of the next 3 years until the next Olympiad approaches.

Now, as everyone knows, I am not a cynical person, but I couldn't help let out a gentle sigh as Chris set out his stall. I was wrong. Not only were the lessons highlighted by Chris of direct application to the numerous young sportsmen and women in the hall, they were of equal relevance to their peers who are in the process of trying to start a career or go into business for themselves. I didn't have a pen on me; I'm doing this from memory. So some of the lessons have passed through my sieve-like already. But these are the ones I remember now.

You've got to have a dream and you've got to hold on to it. You'll understand why, when Chris said this, I was thinking I was in for a yawn-fest. But when he explained the lesson, I realised he was absolutely right. A vision of what you want to accomplish is vital in starting a career or a new business. It doesn't matter whether you want to set the world alight or whether you simply want an occupation that stimulates you and makes you look forward to going into work. Without this, you have no incentive to progress.

You have to be prepared to fail. Pushing yourself to the limit means that you are bound to have setbacks. It's how you respond to them that is the indicator of your long term success. If you never experience setbacks, you are, as Sir Alan described Howard Ebison, a steady eddie. Not that there's anything wrong in that. You'll just never quite realise your true potential. If you fail initially but you persist, you exhibit one of the key traits of a serial entrepreneur, particularly if that persistence is coupled with an 'I'll show you' attitude.

You have to focus on the next step. Chris was convinced that anything is achievable if you can break it down into small enough chunks. There's the classic cricket story of Derek Randall, trying to bat all day with Mike Brearley I think, to save a test match in the 70s. They were breaking each session down into 15 minute chunks. After an especially difficult over faced by his teammate, Randall walked down the wicket and offered these words of encouragement: "Come on Skip, in 5 minutes it'll be 15 minutes until tea". That is something successful sportsmen and women have in common with successful entrepreneurs: the ability to be entirely focussed for a short period of time on what lies immediately in front of them, and to put it out of their minds when the moment passes.

Never compromise on quality. Chris suggested that at the moment, it's easy to find excuses. Absence of facilities, no budget, no time. A champion may rationalise his choices but he never compromises on quality. In other words, if you can't afford what you want, work out what you need and prioritise that. It's something that start up businesses face on a daily basis. It's also a lesson that many in professional and business support services could do well to heed. Deliver an excellent service to your client and keep its needs as your key objective. Your own success depends upon it.

Keep it simple. Chris said that he swam best when all he thought about was swimming two lengths of the pool as fast as he could. He put everything else to the back of his mind. It reminded me of the Bill Shankly quote: "football is a simple game made complicated by idiots" and of the Nike strap line: "just do it". Or as John Daly put it: "grip it and rip it". I remember playing the course at Hunstanton Golf Club (where I was a member years ago) in gross 76, to win the Club Cup with a net 64 I think. I was a poor student at the time and had been cooking breakfast for my Mum's B&B guests that morning. I was half asleep when we teed off and all I could think about was where I was going to hit the ball. It was the best golf I have ever played. When my playing partner said to me at the 18th tee "you know, you could win this", I hit my drive into the beach huts and narrowly escaped with a double bogey 6. The only thing is, because I was so sleepy, I hardly remember any of the shots I played. But I think there's something in this and in business, I try to follow Warren Buffet's philosophy. He has a rule that he will never invest in anything he doesn't understand. It is, at its heart, exactly the same message. What you're doing might not be simple to other people, but if it's simple to you, don't try and complicate it by drawing in additional and unnecessary factors.

There were some other lessons now that I'm struggling to remember, and time is pressing sadly. I'll post them if they occur to me (typically this happens when a computer is very far from my reach, unfortunately). But in five minutes Chris Cook covered more than many a management consultant teaches in half a day. So when he hangs up his goggles for the final time, I suspect a career in motivational speaking may be open to him.

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