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My wife’s view of most sportsmen, particularly footballers, is that they are all idiots. There is an exception for tennis players (her grandmother was one) and paralympians (because they are awesome).
Business people and financial planners however (not product flogging IFAs I hasten to add) are all considered hardworking, mostly honourable, bright and intelligent people.
Fond as I am of matrimonial harmony I have a bit of an issue with this and here is why. Sportsmen and woman, almost without exception, recognise the limitations of their abilities as a result they do two things, they hire people to help them get better and the practice like crazy.
I reflected on my own life between sport and business and it looks like this:
School and University age
Football, Rugby, Swimming, Golf, Drinking coach (ok maybe not)
20’s
Manager in first product flogging job, coach /mentor/ motivator brainwashed etc etc (18 months only) Golf coach (on and off throughout 20s)
30’s
Running and Triathlon coach (on and off for last 5 years) FP advance first year in business , Action coach for a few months Various people from whom I seek and take guidance (sporadic)
As you can see, I have had a lot more sports coaching than business or financial planning coaching. Why is that?
I suspect it’s because by virtue of passing exams we think we know what we are doing, and if its not working we cannot afford / aren’t prepared to spend the money getting better.
I suspect there is a lack of clarity of what we are trying to achieve therefore what would we be being coached towards.
I suspect that there is a question of value for money, ‘if I commit to x per month I can’t see where i will get the return’
I suspect there is an element of not wishing to acknowledge / accept / admit fears or weaknesses
If your business is going full steam ahead, exactly as you wish and delivering the lifestyle and non work time that you desire, either ignore this or get in touch as you can coach me! Other than that I encourage you to think about how some coaching, training etc would benefit you and your business.
One final though. 2 years ago I committed to do an Ironman in Roth on 8th July 2012. For those that don’t know this is a 2.5 mile swim, a 112mile bike followed by a marathon. At the point of signing up I was a decent runner, poor swimmer and poor cyclist, the idea that I could do the, all together was unfathomable to me.
I had completed one triathlon previously and had never done the swim or cycling distances on their own never mind back to back. So I did two simple things, I committed to achieving my goal and hired a coach. After that, I did my very best to complete each session set for me and trusted that he knew what he was doing. On 8th July 2012 I became an Ironman.
It was easy really. I knew what I wanted, knew I needed help, got help, trusted the help, followed through and got the desired outcome.
Is there a big scary audacious goal you could set and commit to, get some help and make it happen?
It’s what sportsmen do and they are idiots.