Personal Improvement

Lies, Damn Lies and... beliefs!

Lets look at some of the similarities between beliefs in sport and beliefs in business...

  • During his career Mohammad Ali predicted the outcome of 21 of his fights. He was correct on no less than 17 occasions
  • When asked how he could be so accurate at spot kicking, Johnny Wilkinson said "I decide where it is going (the ball) and put it there, end of story."
  • Mathew Pinsent was asked how he and his crew set their goals to win an Olympic medal. He said the process took just three seconds. They would sit down four years before the Olympics and say "We are going to win the gold medal" and then they went away and did it.

What do all three of these examples have in common?

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Nature or Nurture?

I have never heard of, on the birth of a child, any occasion when the midwife or doctor announced "Congratulations Mr and Mrs whatever, you have a beautiful rugby player" or even "you have a beautiful sales person." As a result, I am inclined to doubt there is such a thing as natural talent. I did say doubt though, not disbelieve...

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So you lost? Live with it!

I was recently asked to speak at the finals of a contest involving four schools who had each won through to the finals of a national speaking competition. My speech was to be delivered between the presentations and the announcement of the result. I was asked to title my speech "You are all winners." Of course, I didn't. Why? Because they were not all winners - three of the teams were about to be told that they had lost! How could I tell them they were winners just because they made the final?

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