What Entrepreneurs Can Learn From Action Sports

You may not think that action sports and entrepreneurial activities are closely related but they actually share many similarities. Much like in the business world, action sports push participants to their limits and require them to deal with both great levels of success and heartbreaking defeats. They can be dramatic and are entirely unscripted.

Great athletes may have many traits and experiences that are ideal for transitioning into entrepreneurial activities. In fact, some of them like Michael Jordan, Magic Johnson, and Serena and Venus Williams have become successful entrepreneurs.

Understanding the lessons that different types of action sports can teach you can help to position youself for even greater levels of success in your entrepreneurial activities. These are some of the lessons to focus your attention on.

1. Work Hard

Many skilled athletes peak early in their sports career, and this may be because they never learn how to work hard to maintain their skills. On the other hand, athletes who develop a strong work ethic may have true lasting power. Successful athletes do not attribute their success to luck and even their skills but to a significant amount of hard work and discipline.

Anil Ambani, an Indian billionaire and chairman of Reliance Group, regularly gets up very early to go on long runs before starting his busy workdays. He states, “At a deeper level, running is about pushing the limits, of realizing one’s possibilities.”

Running is an action sport that requires you to stay focused and to push through, and this is essential to entrepreneurial success.

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2. Be Resilient

No sports superstar has had a winning record without at least a few losses or setbacks. The same holds true for entrepreneurs. Losses should be viewed as learning opportunities that help you to refine your skills rather than as failures.

Richard Branson, Founder of Virgin Group, is an excellent example of how hard work and a positive mindset about losses can yield success. He enjoys adventurous and even dangerous action sports, such as kitesurfing. Branson states about kitesurfing, “When you fell, you’d be dragged underwater 100 feet, and you prayed you didn’t hit a reef.”

Through these types of adventurous action sports, entrepreneurs can refine their resiliency, and this can follow through into their work activities.

3. Listen to Feedback

Athletes are regularly evaluated by coaches and may even be critiqued by the media, fans and others. It may be easy for some people to take this feedback as negative, but top action sports stars learn from constructive criticism so that they can improve and reach new levels of success with their efforts.

Entrepreneurs may also benefit in a similar manner. Rather than take criticism as negative, you could use this information in a positive and constructive manner. No action sports athlete or entrepreneur is perfect in all areas, and this means that there is plenty of room to improve from the feedback that they receive.

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4. Keep Perfecting Your Skills

Successful action sports athletes continuously train to refine their skills. They have exceptional motivation to improve, and they are never satisfied with the status quo. Likewise, the most successful entrepreneurs never believe that they currently have what it takes to reach the pinnacle of success.

By focusing on self-improvement, entrepreneurs and action sports participants can both achieve even greater things. This includes improvements in your personal and professional lives. The desire to continuously improve is a trait that may set successful entrepreneurs apart from others.

5. Enjoy the Journey

Both entrepreneurs and action sports athletes must devote a considerable amount of time and energy to tackle their tasks and to improve in different ways. This comes with great sacrifice, but the most successful individuals do not focus on this sacrifice as a negative.

You should find a way to make the journey to new levels of success fun and enjoyable, and you should create a positive, exciting environment for your employees as well. While you can make work fun in different ways, you can also plan free time to enjoy your own hobbies and sporting events. You can always work remotely in order to manage a healthy work life balance.

Sergey Brin, co-founder of Google and president of Alphabet Inc., is a successful professional who has been known to arrive at meetings in athletic apparel and even on rollerblades. He regularly pushes himself in fun ways in his free time to find enjoyment in life. This includes participating in active sports such as springboard diving, hockey and trapeze work.

Through these activities, he is regularly exposing himself to new experiences and being adventurous. This open-mindedness is essential for entrepreneurial success, and it is a lesson that other entrepreneurs can take to heart.

Many types of action sports provide lessons that are essential for successful entrepreneurship. If you are looking for a way to improve your professional life, studying how top entrepreneurs regularly participate in action sports may be a smart idea. Through this effort, you can find different ways to improve your business skills while participating in different action sports.

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