First, let me clarify that we are no football experts! Also, we are not here to commiserate with the Brazil soccer team, and neither are we here to praise the Germans. Instead, we wanted to draw some inspiration from the memorable game that you, the entrepreneur, could use in your day-to-day life. Here we go…
Lesson 1: Spot an opportunity, strike it!
Entrepreneurs are opportunity spotters. You show them an opportunity; they strike it fast before everyone else catches wind of it. The German team spotted a loophole in Brazil’s defense and capitalized on it to the max. Tip: When you spot an opportunity, don’t just strike it once, strike twice, thrice and on and on until you strike gold!
Spot and opportunity, strike it! Not once, not twice, but as many times as possible.
Lesson 2: Team work, not one man show
Build a team around your business so that even if you are sick, your business will continue to thrive. Germany works as a team and does not depend on any one of its strikers or defenders to succeed. Tip: Don’t be the Neymar of your business, build a team around your company so it doesn’t crumble in case you get an “injury”.
Lesson 3: Growth is all about strategy
May be you want to grow your business from a capital base of Ksh100,000 to Ksh1,000,000. But what strategy are you going to employ? Do you want to play like Brazil – attack for the first few months only to end up creating a defensive (read financial) imbalance at the end of the year? Tip: Don’t just think about today and tomorrow, rather focus on where you want to be 5 years down the line.
Lesson 4: Don’t fear failure
Brazil got into the game thinking like- “We need to score early and prevent the Germans from leading from the front.” They were wrong! They were too afraid to lose to an extent that they lost their normal composure only to lose miserably. Germany, on the other hand, got into the game with open options, ready to enjoy the game. And it worked! Tip: Entrepreneurship isn’t a matter of life and death, don’t operate with the “I don’t want to make a loss” mentality.
Don’t Fear Failure
Lesson 5: Don’t be selfish
Don’t aim to be the only hero in your industry. Share your knowledge and skills with other young and upcoming entrepreneurs. If you are a blogger, work hard to build a platform for other bloggers to learn. If you are a farmer, make room for young, upcoming farmers to grow. Tip: Pass the ball to Mesut Ozil, allow him the chance to score too!
Whether team Germany wins this world cup tournament or not, there is quite a lot of inspiration and life lessons we can continue to draw from them. What unique lessons has World Cup 2014 taught you?
