How playing professional basketball helped me with entrepreneurship

Basketball has been a big part of my youth, while most of my friends spent their afterschool time playing computer games and do any other fun stuff I spent hours everyday shooting, dribbling and practicing, with my teammates and a lot of the time by myself.

Growing up watching Magic Johnson, Micheal Jordan, Larry Bird, and John Stockton created a big desire for the game, I remember myself watching their highlights and trying to do the same thing on the court, the first lesson I got is that I can’t fly like MJ and my no-look passes in most cases ended up out of bounds.

I played for nearly a decade in the Israeli 2nd division, some seasons with successful teams and some of them were not, the bottom line is that once I realized that I won’t become an NBA player, I took a decision to shoot for an MBA degree, that sounded much more reasonable, and that’s how I got into business and entrepreneurship.

Here are 5 lessons I brought from basketball to entrepreneurship and business:

Determination to win

To succeed, you must have constant focus, attention to detail, and courage. Do whatever it takes to win, keep your focus on the main goal. In basketball, the goal is to win the game, not scoring in high free throw percentage, or have 4 players in double figures. As a player, you have to operate out of confidence and not out of fear, be ready to take tuff decisions.

As in basketball, winning in business means studying every aspect of your business, accept your weaknesses, and work on getting better while maintaining your strengths. Most importantly, don’t be afraid to take that next step, thinking about failing will probably lead to failure. Winners’ approach is contagious, it will push the entire team and keep them determined to win.

Avoid complacency

Great job, you just got to the semi-finals. Definitely time to enjoy the moment, It’s an unbelievable accomplishment, just don’t forget you have two more games to win in order to celebrate and win a trophy.

As in basketball, success in business means working hard, looking for ways to improve, and adjusting to new situations. Don’t just go with what’s working. Switch things up and look to innovate, having said that, stick to your core strengths. Keep in mind that you are not alone, don’t forget to take a moment to recognize your team and accomplishments.

Tomorrow is a new day

The season is long, you gonna play so many games, taking your head down after a loss would probably trigger another loss and suddenly words like crisis and bad momentum are now part of the locker room discussions. Keeping your head up and staying confident is very important, learn from your loss, improve your game, approach, and whatever needed to win the next game — losing is not an option!

As in basketball, entrepreneurship has lots of ups and downs, I’ve learned that waking up in the morning means a new day, thinking and focusing on yesterday failure won’t help. Having said that, debriefing is a key, you don’t want to make the same mistakes over and over, learn from your mistakes and understand what went wrong and what you should do better next time.

Winning is about the whole team

Even though Jordan made one heck of a shot, for me the real story is how the whole Bulls’ roster created that opportunity for him. In the business world, even the best salesperson will do better if they have the full support of marketing, customer service, and operations.

Successful businesses not only recognize the importance of the team but also understand how individual roles play into the overall success of an organization. Everyone from the CEO to administrative assistants needs to work together, understand their assignments, and work smoothly as a unit. Just as an errant pass on the court can be the difference in a close game, slow or bad response to an important client can crush your business.

Confidence

Every basketball player heard some nice/funny/insulting words from the crowd, things like “you can’t shoot”, “take him out”, “shoot!!!” and more…

Players can hear some of that, it really depends on your focus level, the important thing is to stay focused and confident and believe in yourself.

As in basketball, entrepreneurship, and business, requires a high level of confidence, you will hear a lot of rejections, thoughts, and other opinions on why you are not doing the right thing.

Stay focused and believe in your way and yourself.