Inspiring Business Lessons from Sports Champions

Key idea: When it comes down to it, business is a competitive venture, and the philosophy, ideals, and strategies that make for winning sports teams also often make for winning business teams.

There’s a reason why the language of business is replete with comparisons, metaphors, and analogies related to competitive sports—the two domains have so much in common. As one blogger writes:

Sport shows us experiences and reinforces traits such as resilience, determination, tenacity, and resolve—the same qualities are needed to succeed in business. Sport and business also share other attributes which enable success: planning, execution, implementation, and monitoring.

When it comes down to it, business is a competitive venture, and the philosophy, ideals, and strategies that make for winning sports teams also often make for winning business teams. So it’s not surprising that we would borrow the language of one when discussing the other.

It also stands to reason that successful athletes have lessons to teach us about being successful businesspeople. Many previous stars of football, baseball, basketball, tennis, and other competitive sports are now highly successful business entrepreneurs: Shaquille O’Neal, Serena and Venus Williams, George Foreman, Danica Patrick, John Elway, Gale Sayers . . . the list is long and their businesses varied.

This week on Stay Paid, in honor of the clash between the Kansas City Chiefs and the Philadelphia Eagles in the 57th annual NFL championship game, we reflect on the value hidden in the examples and words of some of football’s greatest stars. We look to Tom Brady, Jerry Rice, Bill Belichick, Vince Lombardi, and Tony Dungy for wisdom that business owners can apply to their own pursuit of success and excellence.

We hope you enjoy this episode and act on the advice Luke offers at the end. We’d also appreciate it if you took a moment to leave us a 5-star review and comment on Apple Podcasts (we read them on air!). Thanks for listening!

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